Presenting his book, My Voyage at a promotion party early this month in Shanghai, Nelson Liu (Liu Ningsheng) could not hide his excitement, recalling his high seas adventures.
His tanned skin and the passion which shines forth when he talks about sailing, reveal something of the streak of adventurer that courses through his blood.
Liu, from Taiwan, is believed to be one of the first Chinese to circumnavigate the globe in a wind-propelled vessel, an odyssey which lasted 877 days and covered a distance of 28,000 nautical miles. The book recounts his round-the-world trip between 1998 and 2001.
Breaking their journey into 40 sections, Liu and his friends set off from the South China Sea, crossed the Indian Ocean, into the Mediterranean Sea, on into the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea and eventually across the vast Pacific Ocean.
Liu's love affair with the water began in his youth when he demonstrated a talent for surfing and diving. However, he had never expected to be a sailor until he lost his family and business.
In 1990, after his marriage ended in divorce and he lost the export business he had run for about 20 years, he decided to start his life anew. He was then 43.
In October that year Liu left Taipei for Sydney to learn how to sail and navigate.
"I am not a diligent and intelligent student at all, and I have concentrated myself on studies only twice in life, once for learning English, and the other learning how to sail," Liu said with a mischievous grin.
After four months of applied study, Liu obtained his sailing license, then began searching for his own boat. Scouring parts of the globe, from Australia to Hawaii and then to San Francisco, he finally found the one he wanted, the unfortunately named Water Torture, a plain but sturdy craft. Liu renamed it the Lucky Dragon and began preparations to sail it back to Taiwan.
The first of many challenges was waiting for him as he set off for home.
On November 25, 1991, Liu and his friend Bernd Doerper, an experienced German sailor whom Liu met in Long Beach, California, sailed the Lucky Dragon across the Pacific.
During his maiden voyage, Liu endured tribulations far beyond his imaginings.
In fact the first three days were the worst of his life. "If one categorized the degree of seasickness into 10, mine will be classified as 9. The 10th level are those who would rather die than to embark in a boat," he recalled.
In the beginning, Liu reckoned the voyage would not be particularly difficult for him, but the boat encountered a ferocious typhoon.
Liu manned the nightshift for the next few days.
"I learnt to shoulder responsibility, though feeling extremely sick, I kept alert in case of any potential dangers like submerged reefs as I knew the other crew's lives lay in my hands while they were sleeping."
It was nearly nine months later, in August 1992, that they arrived in Taipei.
Having withstood that severe test, Liu felt he was no mere novice, indeed he believed himself to be a mature sailor. But the Pacific voyage only turned the first page of Liu's log.
After returning to Taipei, Liu and Doerper looked for an able crew who shared his dream of sailing the globe. They also searched for a boat that could make the long trip around the world. Eventually the right vessel was found and Liu used his life savings to buy the Christine moored in Hawaii.
It was on February 24, 1998, that their historic voyage aboard the renamed New Era began.
Not only did the round-the-world trip give Liu a wealth of new experiences, it changed his perspective on life and concern for the earth's natural resources.
"Loneliness on a voyage is intolerable without the casual chat between the crew members, as we regard the ocean as a desert of water which shared the same traits of a desert like desolation and no drinkable water," Liu said.
The trip taught him the value of friends and the exhaustibility of natural resources.
Liu is currently working on a new plan to better explore the world and promote environmental protection.
"2005 will be the 600th anniversary of the famed Chinese seafarer Zheng He's seventh voyage to the West, we plan to build a replica boat similar to Zheng's," Liu said. Adding: "We will team up with archaeologists, historians, biologists, ecologists to sail along Zheng's route again."
Liu believes the plan will help people better understand how nature is changing by comparing the records from his planned trip with the archives of Zheng He.
(China Daily March 25, 2003)
