About / Bio

Moby Nick

My name is Nick, I am currently sailing singlehanded back home, to Melbourne, Australia. I first sailed a Tazer dinghy in 2003, before crewing in Melbourne, and taking a sailing course in Gibraltar in 2007. I then went on to crew, sail, and refit my own vessel (Constellation), in one of the world’s greatest training grounds: The Solent, UK. I’ve been living on my boat since May, 2007, primarily in England and Holland.

The voyage so far
I officially departed singlehanded, on the 17th of September, from Monnikendam, Holland, after a passage from Southampton, England with friends sharing portions of the trip in August, 2007. I sailed north from Vlissingen through the Dutch canal system into Amsterdam, and further on to Monnikendam.

After adding a windvane to Constellation, I turned back around, and headed south via the North Sea canal. I hit difficult conditions in the North Sea, and hopped back into the canals for a few days after passing Europort. In October of 2007, I crossed the Bay of Biscay, coast hopped to Lisbon, and sailed for ten days to the Canary Islands in January, 2008. On the 28th of April, 2008, I completed my singlehanded Atlantic crossing, from Gran Canaria in Spain, to Barbados, the Caribbean. After acquiring my US Visa in Barbados, I proceeded north, stopping at St Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe and Antigua. I plan to sail non-stop to New York City from Antigua at the end of May, 2008.

I am a 25 26 27 year old Australian, artist and software developer. I completed my fine arts degree at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2005, and wish to culminate this trip into an exhibition at my final arrival point in Melbourne 2008. I have worked professionally as a programmer since age 17, and work whenever I can from harbours on route. I am for hire. Before and while I am at sea, this site will be consistantly updated, in an an attempt to go from no boat and next to no money, into realising a mammoth expedition. This website is my method of diarising the unfolding of this project, wholly and openly to the public.

Intended Route (the rough version)
I have departed from Amsterdam, Holland and intend to sail across the Atlantic & Pacific to Australia (West). In Feb, 2008, I changed my route to go via North America, and then overland. This is a complex and expensive thing to do, but I’m determined to try, or at least have a really good reason for failing (lack of suitable Visa, severe financial problems etc). My route is open to change, and is in no way fixed!

nick.