Blind sailor Jim Dickson vows to return to the sea once he repairs the failed voice-activated navigation system that forced him to abort his solo attempt to cross the Atlantic.
”He`s a little down, but the trip is not over,” project spokesman Stephen Graham said after the autopilot mechanism failed late Friday when Dixon was about 220 miles southeast of Portsmouth.
”If anything, this proves he can handle it,” Graham said. ”He`s handling it fine, better than a lot of sighted people might handle it. He`s coping real well. I`m proud of him.”
Dickson set out from Portsmouth on Tuesday in his 36-foot sloop, Eye Opener, for what he had hoped would be a month-long voyage to Plymouth, England, in a bid to become the first blind person to sail across the Atlantic alone. The journey was expected to take 28 to 32 days.
But a malfunction of his computerized navigation system, which gives the boat`s speed, location and direction on voice command, forced the sailor to turn back toward land, Graham said.
”He has experienced some equipment failure, but he`s fine and the boat`s fine,” Graham said after speaking with Dickson by radio.
Dickson, 41, was expected to return within three days to Nantucket, Mass., with the assistance of a wind vane and by steering by hand, Graham said.
He plans to begin his voyage anew after refitting his boat with two new navigation systems, one of them as a back-up, said Graham, noting the equipment failure would hamper a sighted sailor. Graham did not know precisely when Dickson might start the new voyage.
”This happens to sighted sailors all the time,” Graham said of the autopilot`s malfunction. ”It`s something anyone crossing the Atlantic could experience.”
The start of Dickson`s voyage had been delayed several times by financial and technical difficulties, including a faulty cable to the navigation system whose failure ultimately cut his trip short.
Monitored by a satellite tracking system, the Washington, D.C., resident embarked under sunny skies Tuesday morning. His vessel was also equipped with a Braille compass, braille charts and three emergency systems to summon help quickly.
Dickson suffers from retinitus pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that has left him legally blind since age 7.
”For anybody to make this trip would be rough,” Graham said when Dickson set sail. ”The further out he goes, the harder it is to reach him. I had a knot in my stomach when I saw him leave, when I suddenly realized he was alone.”
