"Building a house on the sea is doomed to a lifetime of wandering." This is a lyric that Zhai Mo loves very much, and it is also his life. The milky white sailing ship in front of him is the "house" built by Zhai Mo on the sea. During the interview, out of respect, we called him Teacher Zhai Mo, but he smiled and said to us: "Don't call me teacher, as soon as I call me teacher, I will be old, I want to pretend to be tender." ”
At the end of last year, Zhai Mo returned to Shanghai on a sailboat, marking the first time in human history that he had sailed around the Arctic Ocean without docking. This time, the old boy drifted for 504 days and 28,000 nautical miles. More than ten years ago, Zhai Mo spent two and a half years completing the feat of a one-man unpowered sailboat around the world for one week. It is also because of these feats that the title of "the first person to sail around the world of Chinese sailing" appears in the certification column on the homepage of Weibo.
The "Global Communication" sailing ship docked at Shanghai's Bailianjing Pier is Zhai Mo's "old fellow", but just as we boarded the ship for interviews, we found one scar after another on board, and they witnessed the danger again and again during the voyage.
On the high seas, Zhai Mo encountered a surprise attack by pirates, he held a gun (note: guns on the high seas are legal) angrily glared at the pirates, and the battle was about to break out; In the sea north of 75 degrees north latitude, due to the earth's magnetic field, all the electronic instruments on board failed, and the sailing ship could only sail by the visual eye of the crew...
Born inland, but spent half his life at sea
Perhaps no one would have thought that Zhai Mo, who was born in an inland town, would eventually become a world-renowned navigator.
"I don't want to think back to my childhood, because that state was too closed, too weak, too inferior." This is a passage written by Zhai Mo in his autobiography. When this burly, dark-skinned Shandong man approached us, if he hadn't mentioned it himself, perhaps no one would have thought that he was a "sick man" when he was a child.
In 1968, Zhai Mo was born in Tai'an, Shandong, a small inland city. As the sixth boy in the family, he was not as athletic as his brothers. Zhai Mo suffered from asthma when he was a child, and due to the disease, his personality was somewhat inferior and closed. Also because of asthma, his parents were worried that Zhai Mo would have an accident during exercise and tactfully refused to come to him to play. So Zhai Mo did not have many good friends in childhood, and painting was his only pastime.
Because he likes to draw, Zhai Mo became a painter as an adult. In 2000, he came to Orlando, the capital of New Zealand, to open an exhibition. In Orlando, Zhai Mo came into contact with a 70-year-old Norwegian captain. The old captain told Zhai Mo that you don't need a visa to enter the country to drive a sailboat, and in the ocean, any complicated procedures have nothing to do with you.
"Maybe you don't believe it, the day after saying goodbye to the Norwegian captain, I started to go out to find a ship." Zhai Mo wrote in his autobiography. He sold paintings for money just to buy a sailboat of his own. When he decided to buy a ship, Zhai Mo didn't even have a basic understanding of navigation. After his friend Mike learned his thoughts, he called him "crazy".
The voyage back to Orlando from the island where the boat was bought was about five hours, and since Zhai Mo could not sail a sailboat, he had to ask the previous owner for help. The old shipowner, surprised and surprised, agreed to his request and began to teach him the skills necessary for sailing, steering, and so on. It was also during these five hours that Zhai Mo learned to sail a sailboat.
Within 20 days of learning to sail, Zhai Mo began planning a voyage around New Zealand. Even though reason told him that he could set sail only after he had made sufficient preparations, his hand remained unobedient to the rudder and planned his future voyage.
In this way, the boy ran to the sea like a girl.
With the sea as a painting, the waves rushed into the young man's heart
"The sea is my life, sailing is my art."
It's hard to imagine that the 55-year-old man in front of him, whose sideburns have slightly turned white, has become so romantic when he talks about sailing. However, Zhai Mo's romance is far more than beautiful words. In order to let more people pay attention to global warming, pay attention to the ocean, and pay attention to their own "life". Using the sea as a canvas and sail as a pen, he spent 504 days and circumnavigate 28,000 nautical miles to complete this "work of art" that belonged to him. When his sailboat sailed into the Shanghai International Passenger Transport Center terminal to complete this "last stroke", everyone was shocked.
Photo caption: Zhai Mo's sailboat is sailing in the sea
After completing the voyage, many media interviewed Zhai Mo, and Zhai Mo said more than once: "The reason why I can complete this voyage is actually because of global warming." A short sentence can trigger more people's attention to the huge environmental crisis of global warming. This Shandong man expressed his love for the sea with a romance exclusive to him.
"What is 'romance'? It is to feel life "slowly" in the "wave". Zhai Mo wrote in his autobiography. During the 504-day voyage, Zhai Mo saw whales swimming slowly in the Greenland Sea, saw a group of fat walruses "diving" with "little short legs" in the Chukotka Sea, saw dolphins jumping out of the sea level in the Norwegian Sea "cordially" "greeting" Zhai Mo, seagulls and his "old boy" grabbing food, he and seagulls frolicked with each other, so it was not lively...
"The beauty of the sea is polar, there are calm winds and waves, and there are strong winds and waves. A sailor who has not experienced wind and waves has not seen the beauty of the sea. Zhai Mo said to us.
Photo caption: Aurora photographed by Zhai Mo
On a calm morning, Zhai Mo put on his sunglasses and grabbed a fishing rod to get ready for fishing. Just as he was imagining that he could feast on it for a while, he noticed a speedboat speeding up, and behind the boat stood several strong men holding AKs.
"Not good, this is a pirate!" In an instant, Zhai Mo threw away the fishing rod in his hand and quickly ran back to the cabin to take out the gun. Soon, the pirate's speedboat began to circle around Zhai Mo's sailboat, and Zhai Mo gripped the gun, and the green tendons on his hands had burst out. He pulled the bolt of the gun sharply, his eyes were full of murderous aura, and the battle was about to break out.
Perhaps because he was a little timid when he saw the muzzle of the black hole, the pirate left after a few turns. Seeing this, the old boy laughed again: "Haha, their guts are just that, they are not as good as me!" Then he picked up a fishing rod and went fishing.
When the ship sailed to the sea north of 75 degrees north latitude, the electronic instruments on the sailboat began to "strike", and the sailboat could only be driven manually by the crew. During the voyage in the Arctic Ocean, Zhai Mo and his two crew members "worked in three shifts" to manually steer the sailboat. When busy, sleep has even become a "luxury".
Before leaving, Zhai Mo even prepared firecrackers. "In case we freeze, we can only leave when spring comes and the ice melts. Firecrackers, on the other hand, can drive away beasts such as polar bears. ”
When he recalled all this, Zhai Mo said: "It would be good to come back alive. He seems to be an old boy who "forgets the pain after the scar is healed", and after returning safely, he will forget all dangers and plan the next voyage.
To learn more about Zhai Mo's story, click to read below:
The old boy who sailed around the Arctic Ocean has always had a biggest wish...