Great story in the Christian Science Monitor about the Vendee Globe solo circumnavigation competition.
There have been great stories over the years from the vendee race. My favorite was one guy who broke his carbon fiber mast and fixed it while at sea without any help. He even built a little curing oven to help cure the epoxy using his boat’s stove as it was too cold for the glue to set.
That makes my bike collection and triathlon expenses look pretty cheap.
is that a man or a woman??
either way i’m oddly attracted…sea men…heh.
That makes my bike collection and triathlon expenses look pretty cheap.
This is a large part of the reason why I sold my boat (a 26’ wooden gaff-rigged sloop) and took up multisport instead. Everything about bikes - maintenence time, cost of replacement parts, difficulty of performing repairs by yourself - is reduced by a factor of ten compared to boats. (Imagine overhauling an expensive bottom bracket while hanging upside down in a cupboard, with just enough room to get one hand in at a time.)
Anyway, if you own a wooden boat, it’s tough to have any other hobbies. It was fun while it lasted, though. Spent a few seasons singlehanding around the Maine coast.
"The cure for anything is saltwater, Tears, Sweat, The Sea." - Isak Denison
From my tugboat days, I can at least confirm that 40 degree seawater, combined with mortal terror, makes for an extremely effective seasickness cure.
My big passion is bicycle touring and I am constantly reading books/journals of people biking the world. Other adventures are second on my list and this past week I ordered 5 more books and 2 of them are about the Vendee Globe race.
I have read a few and it is fascinating. They sail 60’ sailboats on their own, usually tethered to the boat in case of a rogue wave knocking them overboard. In the Southern Ocean, they are so far from land in places that there is no plane capable of rescuing them.
Imagine being alone on a sailboat, in the southern ocean with huge waves and being 1,500 miles from land.
People who say an Ironman is a tough endurance challenge have no idea when compared with what these people put up with.
People who say an Ironman is a tough endurance challenge have no idea when compared with what these people put up with.
And just in case anybody disputes that there is an athletic, physical element to this, bear in mind that simply moving around and doing everyday tasks in heavy seas is exhausting. Two or three days of heavy weather during coastwise trips on the tugs used to wear me out pretty badly, even when I could keep seasickness under control - and that’s with much longer rest periods off watch. I don’t even like to imagine how it must be when you’re a month or so into the trip, exhausted, and at the emotional breaking point, but there’s always just one more thing that demands your attention.
That sounds like a good story.
I agree that boats are work. I miss it. But then again, I had a plastic one. My last one was a Pacific Seacraft 25. It was beautiful. I miss her, but not enough room when I got married. I still dream of going back to that lifestyle.
I am glad there are wooden boat people out there. Willing to keep them alive. I am just not one of them.
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is that a man or a woman??
either way i’m oddly attracted…sea men…heh.
That’s Dee Caffari (woman)
Here she is in the London Marathon
"And just in case anybody disputes that there is an athletic, physical element to this, bear in mind that simply moving around and doing everyday tasks in heavy seas is exhausting. "
No doubt. One of the things that never ceases to take me by surprise is how tired I am after the first day underway, and I’m on a Navy ship with a full crew. Add in standing watches, less stability, managing sails, etc, and you get exhausted pretty quickly. Just the act of staying upright is tiring when the floor is constantly moving underneath you.