Remote Control - Lessons from the First Fleet

When Captain Arthur Phillips was instructed by Lord Sydney in 1786 to take 800 convicts and set up a colony on the other side of the world, he had to address two major challenges.

Firstly, how could he safely get 1,480 people and all the necessary supplies to the other side of the world, in an era when not only did they not have GPS, but they had no charts for large parts of the journey? Although this was a massive undertaking, he had plenty of experience himself in long voyages, and no shortage of other experienced sailors to help him determine what he needed. The “First Fleet” was put together – 11 ships, with convicts and soldiers spread across six, supplies distributed evenly across three, and two Royal Navy vessels for protection and support against piracy or any foreign navies. They nailed it, arriving in Sydney 8 months later within 2 days of each other and with all ships intact.

His bigger challenge was the second one – how to ensure the First Fleet was totally self-sufficient for the entire community of 1,400 people for a minimum of three years. That’s how long it would take for them to sail from London to Australia, and then if they needed any help or new supplies, send a ship back to London, and then wait for that help to actually arrive.

To build a community in such a remote location, Phillips had to try and exert some control on a completely unknown environment. He decided to try and take everything with them required to set up a society exactly as they had in London, and so he embarked on a logistics and planning exercise the likes of which had never been undertaken before.

Amongst the many other things that Phillips had to work out, for example, was how many iron nails, women’s handkerchiefs and pianos they should take with them (respectively 747,000, 250 and 1, in case you were wondering).

Here’s a snapshot of the First Fleet’s entire provision list - you can access the full list at https://firstfleetfellowship.org.au/library/first-fleetlist-livestock-provisions-plants-seeds/

Since no-one had ever undertaken a colonisation like this before, Phillips had to work it all out on his own - I’d love to know the algorithm he used to work out the various quantities he was going to need.

By comparison, our undertaking is somewhat less daunting, especially with GPS, electronic charts, and on-tap satellite weather forecasting meaning the challenges of knowing where you are, where you’re going, and how to avoid the worst of the weather are all but solved.

So when we set off from Sydney, I really wasn’t too worried about the scale of what we were undertaking – I even wrote a blog about it.

As we prepare to take on the Indian Ocean next year, however, I’ve started to realise we might have more in common with The First Fleet than we thought.

In early 2020, we’ll set off from Thailand for South Africa, via the Andaman Islands (India), Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Chagos, Rodrigues, Mauritius, Reunion, and Madagascar. It’s a distance of 6,600 nautical miles, through some of the toughest seas in the world, and will take us the best part of a year.

Our planned route through the Indian Ocean

Much like the First Fleet, we’re going to need to be almost entirely self-reliant throughout that period. For much of the trip, the only access to fresh water we’ll have will be what we can make with our desalinator, or what we can catch if it rains.

There’s a distinct lack of supermarkets and bottle shops in most of the places we’ll be going, so we’ll need to provision for at least 6 months. We’ll be spending a month in Chagos -in the very middle of the Indian Ocean - where there is absolutely no human settlement, and so there won’t even be access to the most basic of supplies. Mauritius and Reunion will be like an oasis in the Indian Ocean desert, although costs will be astronomical.

And If anything on the boat breaks, we need to figure out a way to fix it, with only the spare parts we have on hand. There won’t be anywhere for us to lift the boat out of the water, and certainly no chandleries or boat supply stores in most of the places we’ll be visiting.

A typical anchorage in The Maldives. Not much in the way of boat supplies here!

If we do have to make MacGyver-like repairs (and we almost certainly will), whatever we manage to conjure up will have to last for thousands of miles until we get to South Africa, sailing through some of the toughest seas we’re going to encounter anywhere in the world.

During the build-up to our departure from Sydney, we built an extensive inventory of spare parts and supplies, something which we have augmented as we’ve been going and started to develop a sense for the rate at which we’re using our supplies, and what parts are breaking and needing replacing.

And unlike Captain Phillips, we’re also able to learn from those who have gone before, and the reports of fellow cruisers are helping enormously as we start planning the specifics of our route, especially when it comes to refuelling – opportunities will be few and far between.

The other consideration for this part of the world is piracy. Over the years, the northern Indian Ocean, off the horn of Africa, has developed the worst reputation of anywhere in the world, and this has seen most cruisers opt to take the southern route via South Africa. Reports of piracy near Somalia have abated over the last few years, prompting many cruisers to opt for a passage to the Mediterranean via the Red Sea this year. That way, they avoid the worst of the rough ocean, and much of the self-sufficiency that the southern route entails.

But like the First Fleet, we are all sailing into the unknown when it comes to piracy, whichever route we take. There are no guarantees, and any non-commercial vessel that appears on the horizon has to be considered a risk until proven otherwise.

Of all the distinct phases of a circumnavigation, the Indian Ocean is probably the most feared by blue-water cruising sailors, and there’s a good reason why many get only as far as SE Asia before turning back towards the Pacific, or even settling here long term.

So as our time to cross the Indian Ocean nears, we’ve found ourselves reflecting on the challenges ahead, and the fact that though the risks are real, plenty others who came before us have faced so much tougher journeys and succeeded.

And although we may have no piano or women’s handkerchiefs on board, I feel very comfortable that we’ll have exactly the right amount of pasta, pesto and spare diesel required to get us to South Africa.

This post is one of a series of 10 insights and learnings from the first 12 months of our circumnavigation. Click here to see the full list and access the other posts.