Blind Sailor Aborts Bid for Trip Across Atlantic

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. —  Blind sailor Jim Dickson was forced Friday to abort his solo attempt to cross the Atlantic when his special voice-activated navigation system failed, his spokesman said.

Dickson set out from Portsmouth on Tuesday in his 36-foot sloop Eye Opener for what he had hoped would be a monthlong voyage to Plymouth, England, in a bid to become the first blind person to sail across the Atlantic alone.

Dickson, 41, who was about 220 miles southeast of Portsmouth late Friday, was expected to return within three days to Nantucket, Mass., with the assistance of a wind vane and steering by hand, spokesman Stephen Graham said.