水手之旅

2014年10月19日，一位勇敢的水手坚定地出海。他的目标是在没有任何化石燃料或其他物资的帮助下，独自在世界各地航行，除了他在整个50,000海里的旅程中随身携带的东西。水手会带来什么以在这种磨难中生存什么？这位水手是意大利马特·米奇利（Matteo Miceli），决定钓鱼棒，两只鸡，一块泥土种植蔬菜，一台用于淡化饮用水的机器和三个莉卡·地理系统的GNSS GNSS GR25接收器和三个Leica AS10触角。

To sail around the world self-sufficiently was Matteo’s motivation for undertaking this journey, however he was just one member of a group working together on the project, “Rome Ocean World”, and they had other goals as well, such as being the first sailboat to accurately record the water and boat’s movement throughout the trip using GNSS technology.

最后的旅程,教授保罗。迪吉尔olamo and Mattia Crespi from the University of Rome and Allessandro Pezzoli from Polytechnic Turin, would analyse the data that would hopefully validate the UK-based MET (meteorology) numerical models by calculating wave heights on the Eco40 route; improve the structural design of the Class 40 boat by calculating the dynamic stress and durability of the vessel during the trip and finally, to produce a polar diagram of the boat’s speed after recording wave characteristics, which will be especially useful for future Class 40 racing boats.

After setting sail from Rome’s nearby Port di Traiano, Matteo had three beautiful days of weather, allowing him to check in with his team back in Rome, with which he was in daily contact. However, he was soon confronted with the first of many tests of seaworthiness when the remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo hit the Mediterranean with heavy rain and gale force winds. After several intense and expectant hours of lost contact, the Eco40 team received an automatic data transmission on the boat’s position, confirming it survived 80 km/h (50 mph) winds and six metre (20 feet) high waves, and that it was on its way towards Gilbratar.

This storm left the Eco40, the sailor and his chickens in bad shape. The garden was ruined, with its dirt full of salty water and vegetables dead. The chickens had been traumatised and wouldn’t lay eggs for some time and the sea was still so stormy that fishing was out of the question. For just such emergencies, the sailor kept 100 bags of freeze-dried food on the boat and for several days Matteo survived on 100 g (0.22 lbs) of carbohydrates, a handful of fried fruit and some salted fish he had managed to catch before the storm hit.

风暴过后,马特奥有时间去思考。A professional sailor by trade, it was a challenge for him to stop and fix damaged boat parts. Matteo wanted to push the high-performance Eco40 to set record speeds but instead, he had to wait, either for the repairs to dry, or for wind. The sailor had time on his hands and was confronted with the commitment he had set for himself when agreeing to take part in this adventure. The lack of wind got to him, and even with the daily tasks of running a boat, data collecting or just plain day-to-day survival, he was sometimes lonely and often doubtful. Luckily the chickens, whom he nicknamed Blondie and Brunette, needed encouragement to lay eggs and they became fast companions. He also had daily support from his Facebook fans to cheer him.

Data was collected by the Leica GR25 GNSS receiver and the Leica AS10 antenna and sent via GEO stationary satellites without any problems. And the Eco40’s hydro, wind and solar energies supplied as planned. The real problems of this journey were more mundane concerning human nature and the purpose of existence. For instance: The sailor could only get a few hours’ sleep before being awakened by gusts of wind, which caused severe jolting of the boat; or the auto-pilot’s voice waking him to tell him of some route change. If he could sleep more than 20 minutes at a stretch, he had to nevertheless keep his eye on the barometer since his life depended on knowing if a storm was approaching. Food was of course always a big concern – just to catch a fish or grow bean sprouts on a wet paper towel were major victories. Fish, sprouts or maybe an egg, this was Matteo’s diet for months – if he was lucky – and he was happy to have it. The companionship of Blondie and Brunette helped to distract Matteo from loneliness and it was a sad day for the sailor when, for no apparant reason, Blondie passed away. Sometimes he was lucky enough to be accompanied by birds or dolphins, however he was alone on this journey and for him, it was the little things in life that mattered most.

不可预测的天气模式也是一个主要问题。一天晚上，突然变化导致船造成死亡卷。Matteo醒来，几乎是一条倾覆的船，在水下中途醒来。单独的，在黑暗中，水冲入机舱，水手必须快速思考。这种情况是我们许多人不想进入的情况。有时，这艘船连续几天坐在雾中。另一次，水手睡觉时，大浪撞到了船，导致头部受伤非常严重和严重的焦虑。但是，Matteo必须继续抚养船以生存。

He journeyed through cold polar air and icy waters of the Sub Antarctic, with the unseen dangers of icebergs looming ahead. Severe waters for a boat to be in and it was during this part of the trip that the Eco40 lost its auto-pilot. It was damaged along with much of his electrical equipment after being struck by lightning. Luckily, his team (Cecilia Angelelli, Valerio Brinati, Allesandro Farina with Leica Geosystems’ technical support Pierpaolo Pecoraro) “walked” him through this part of the journey, restoring his PC software, the boat’s instruments and helping with battery problems via satellite calls. This damage needed to be rectified as quickly as possible, even if only temporarily.

With icy rain and freezing temperatures, Matteo remained strong. But stress took its toll on the sailor. At this point, he had been sailing alone for over 100 days. Lack of sleep, too little food and constant cold had its effect. He endured near-fatal storms and heavily damaged electrical equipment – and was very worried. This was certainly a bleak part of his journey – and it was somewhat noticeable in his communications. He started eating chicken feed to survive and had to pull out his own tooth. Yet, he did what he had to – to survive.

In early March, Matteo discovered the Eco40’s rudder under 300 litres (80 gallons) of water. These bushings holding the rudder and almost caused the journey's end however Matteo had managed to repair them. This time bolts holding the boat's keel in place caused Matteo to lose the keel in March, on Friday the 13th, and wind capsized the Eco40. Alarm systems warned Matteo and alerted the Italian Coast Guard, who then sent word to the nearby merchant ship, Aramon, to pick up the sailor, who patiently waited in an inflatable raft he managed to fish out of the Eco40 before it sank. The sailor also tried to rescue Brunette but sadly, he was too late.

Yet Matteo was lucky. The area where the boat capsized was known for its calm waters and he had, eight hours earlier, closed the double-crossing of the equator. He accomplished what he had set out to do. He rounded the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn; crossed the equator twice and crossed all the meridians he planned to. The Eco40 travelled, from start to its tragic finish, roughly 25,000 nautical miles (approx. 46,000 km /28,600 mi) and at the time of its capsizing, was approximately 965 kilometres (600 miles) from the Brazilian Coast.

Matteo also succeeded in accomplishing his goal to sail non-stop, all alone, around the world, from point of departure to point of arrival and maneuvered the Eco40 several times across oceans for 112.4 days at an average speed of 7.4 knots. After being rescued by the Aramon, Matteo was pampered by its crew. He had lost more than 30 kilograms (66 pounds) and spent his time relaxing, eating and making use of the ship’s gym.

Matteo Miceli于3月19日在罗马的Fiumicino机场回到意大利。自从他离开罗马以来，首次见到教授后，水手向他们展示了所有SD卡，其中包含接收者在旅途中收集的数据，除了仍在GR25接收器中的最后一张卡片外船倒下了。这些卡最后一次是2月28日，当时Eco40不在阿根廷海岸。

教授和水手几乎立即开始计划如何恢复船。卫星跟踪器仍在从船上发出信号，该船只在水下流中漂流。追踪器的电池很快就会空了，因此只有很少的时间可以腾出时间，团队飞回了巴西，组织了一艘船进行营救，同时还计划稳定，一旦重新铺设了Eco40的运输。不幸的是，在到达恢复区域前约30小时，跟踪器停止发送信号。该地区太大而无法搜索，4月4日，搜查被暂停，车队回家。

However, the journey is not over yet. Just seven days ago, word reached the professors that a Spanish fishing vessel spotted what was thought to be the Eco40 floating off the coast of Brazil, 350 nautical miles from where the team expected to find the boat. A photo was taken and posted on Twitter.

Unfortunately since then, no one kept track of its position, but according to the professors' calculations, it was headed out to sea …
What next? The journey continues. Stay tuned …
Good winds to all!

Written by Katherine Lehmuller and Marco Mozzon