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Any of his writing available in English ?
Thank you,
Courtney
On Mon, 2005-09-12 at 23:40, Peter Fogg wrote:
> Ambrogio Fogar, who died on August 24 aged 64, survived for 73 days in an
> open boat amid the frozen waters of the South Atlantic after his yacht was
> sunk by a killer whale off the Falklands in 1978.
>
> Fogar was one of Italy's best-known sailors and explorers, and first came to
> notice in Britain when he entered the 4th Transatlantic Race in 1972. This
> contest had begun in 1960 as a half-crown wager between Francis Chichester
> and Lt-Col "Blondie" Hasler to see who could sail fastest single-handed from
> Plymouth to Rhode Island. The notable navigator David Lewis of New Zealand
> was another entrant. During the 1972 race Fogar lost the use of his rudder
> and then his radio soon after leaving Devon, but he continued and finished
> 26th out of the field of 54.
>
> The following year he became the first Italian yachtsman to sail solo around
> the world in a westerly direction, against the prevailing wind, and only the
> 50th man to circumnavigate the globe alone since Joshua Slocum made the
> first passage in 1898.
>
> When Fogar arrived in Britain to compete in the 5th Transatlantic Race, in
> 1976, officials looked askance at his catamaran, Surprise, as it lacked a
> cabin and Fogar slept in a crate inside one of the hulls. But they conceded
> that the Italian "seems to know what he is doing", even though he candidly
> admitted that he was expecting to capsize several times during the voyage.
> Fogar said that he had plans in place to deal with this eventuality.
>
> Two years later, shortly after returning from an expedition to the Bermuda
> Triangle with Uri Geller, he was faced with just such an emergency. While he
> and a friend, Mauro Mancini, were making an attempt to circumnavigate
> Antarctica, Surprise was overturned by a killer whale, and the pair were
> forced to take to a rubber dinghy.
>
> They had virtually no food supplies, and nothing but rainwater to drink. For
> almost two-and-a-half months they drifted across the waves, sustained by
> their friendship, their reserves of fat and by Fogar's faith in God, which
> Mancini eventually came to share.
>
> Eventually, they were spotted by a Cape Town-bound Greek cargo vessel and
> were rescued after having travelled some 1,300 miles towards Africa from the
> location of the wreck. Two days later, however, Mauro Mancini suddenly died,
> apparently after contracting an otherwise innocuous cold aboard ship that
> his weakened system was unable to throw off and which speedily developed
> into pneumonia.
>
> On his return to Italy Fogar was blamed for the death of Mancini, a
> journalist, by the media. Only the posthumous publication of the diary
> Mancini had kept when aboard the dinghy cleared the yachtsman's name. In the
> diary Mancini had written: "Fogar is an exemplary sailor and a very
> courageous man. I hope that the newspapers will treat him with the respect
> and morality that he has shown me aboard this vessel."
>
> Ambrogio Fogar was born in Milan on August 13 1941. He first made a living
> selling sports cars, then qualified as a stunt pilot. His initial love was
> for parachuting, but after a serious accident in which he lost most of his
> teeth he gave it up in favour of sailing.
>
> He renounced this after the death of Mancini, and in 1983 attempted to
> become the first man to walk unsupported to the North Pole. The British
> explorer David Hempleman-Adams set off at the same time, but in the event
> neither man reached his goal, the Briton being hampered by injury and the
> Italian by disintegrating pack ice. For a time Fogar claimed to have reached
> his destination, but it was later revealed that he had been taken there by
> the aircraft which had picked him up.
>
> Nonetheless, his exploits - which also included the ascent of several peaks
> in Africa, where he contracted malaria - earned him much renown in Italy,
> and he was able to parlay this into a successful career as a television
> presenter and author. His books include My Atlantic (1974) and The Raft
> (1978), the story of his time in the lifeboat.
>
> Then, in 1992, Fogar was rendered permanently paralysed as the result of a
> crash while competing in the Paris-Peking rally. He spent the last 13 years
> of his life in bed, unable to breathe or to speak except with the aid of
> machines. Many regarded it as a cruel destiny for a man of action, but he
> inspired admiration by his defiance of his condition.
>
> In 1997 he took part in a round-Italy yacht race strapped into a
> specially-adapted wheelchair. He also became an ardent supporter of
> Greenpeace and of anti-whaling campaigns.
>
> Ambrogio Fogar was a Commander of the Order of the Italian Republic.
> He was divorced, and is survived by two daughters.
>
> This obituary comes from the Telegraph, London.
