The ocean is no joke. As big as a CVN is, it is still but a tiny dot in the vast ocean. If you've never seen a 50 ft swell before it makes you wet your pants and cry mommy. Who I respect are the seafarers of yesteryears before satnav and GPS etc... crossing the oceans in their dreadnaughts and wooden ships! Those guys have big brass ones for sure.
I wouldn't cross the Pacific/Atlantic etc in anything less than a 200ft for sure!!!
I know someone who sailed single handedly around the world by way of Strait of Magellan and Cape of Good Hope, two of the stormiest patches of ocean on earth, in a 29 foot sloop. Along the way he capsized once, pitchpoled once, and was dismasted three times.
He could have done it by the safer, easier, and shorter mid Atlantic route through suez and panama canals, but he said that wouldn't even feel like sailing.
I've met another gentleman who single handedly sailed around the world, taking the same difficult route, while in his late 70s.
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