Despite intense preparations and dogged determination, the dangers of the open Atlantic Ocean are too intimidating.
As Morski writes on the 17th of October, 2018, after long preparations and the announcement that he will sail from the safety of Šibenik, across the Atlantic Ocean and all the way to Brazil before heading back to his birthplace of Šibenik, Dr. Dražen Grgić already encountered his first major problems on just the other side of the the Adriatic, more specifically in Otranto, Italy.
Due to the damage caused to his sails, Grgić had to moor for a few days in an Italian harbour while the issue was repaired. Following the necessary repairs, he went further on with his journey and managed to cross the Tyrrhenian sea, but ended up docking in Sardinia because all accumulators suddenly lost all of their energy at once.
“After three days of pleasant dry sailing, I managed to get through the Tyrrhenian sea, I ended up, unplanned once again, docked in Sardinia,” Dražen Grgić wrote on October the 15th on his Facebook profile.
Grgić was aiming to sail from the safety of the Dalmatian coast, across the Atlantic Ocean and all the way down to the South American continent in the name of the ”Clean Sea, Clean Heart” initiative, which promotes awareness and education about the continual threat of plastic waste being spilled into the world’s seas and oceans, which greatly harms the ecosystem to an incomprehensible degree.
Grgić’s final yet likely difficult decision is to unfortunately give up on this mission to Brazil owing to the dangerous conditions on the vast and unforgiving Atlantic Ocean, after covering a total of 800 nautical miles.
Grgić stated that safety should always come first, and that his boat, Sveti Mihovil, will continue on its mission in the name of the ”Clean Sea, Clean Heart” initiative, but that it is wise to wait for better sailing conditions on the Atlantic before considering it.
