Henk de Velde
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Henk de Velde (born 12 January 1949) is a Dutch seafarer. He is especially known for his long solo-voyages around the world.
Initially he worked for thirteen years in the merchant navy, from able-bodied sailor to captain. When he was 28 he chose definitively for ocean-sailing. In 1978, he started with its first voyage around the world, which would last eventual seven years. He made this voyage with his former wife until they separated in 1984. On Easter Island his son Stefan Vairoa was born in 1981.
In 1985, he returned to the Netherlands. In 1989, he left again for a nonstop circumnavigation with an 60 foot (18 meter) catamaran, called Alisun J&B, and it took him 158 days. He had to stop in New Zealand for repairs. His third voyage, in 1992, with a 60 ft (18 meter) catamaran called Zeeman, was viewed on Dutch TV in the so-called 5 O'clock Show. He was for forty days a missing person because of electric problems and three days before arrival he had a collision with a floating container which left him unconscious. He was eventually rescued by a Russian freighter. With a double scull fraction he was hospitalized on the island of Madeira before returning to the Netherlands. In 1996, he departed with a 71-foot catamaran, called C1000 and sailed in 119 days non stop around the world. Officially he did not break the record because he did not sail under the rules of the WSSRC. He is still the only person in the world who sailed a catamaran nonstop single handed around the world.
In the year 2001 he started again, with a steel monohull yacht called Campina,this time a totally new route, instead of west to east or east to west he wanted to sail the world north to south by passing the NE passage north of Siberia. It took him three and a half years. He had to winter near the village Tiksi in Northern Siberia. Temperatures were between -35 and -60 °C. He stayed on board in the white desert of the Arctic ocean. In 2004, he got aid of a Russian nuclear icebreaker Vaigach. The rudders were demolished by heavy ice. In December 2004 he returned with his damaged vessel to the Netherlands. Henk de Velde has written seven books, all in Dutch. In all his writings he contemplates on Freedom. He is as well a sailor as a philosopher. Some call him a mystic. He directed two documentaries: Sea of Heartbreak (1997) and 1000 days of Loneliness (2005). He works closely together with Dutch media. His new voyage is planned in 2007.
