This past week, I’ve spent way too much of what should be writing time watching videos of other people sailing—and thinking about how small the world seems. Every four years, the Vendée Globe Race (a solo, non-stop, unassisted lap of the planet) starts in early November from the west coast of France. This year, they’re providing daily briefings in English—so I’ve been even more hooked than four years ago, when I wrote The Sailing is the Easy Part.
I’ll leave it to those who better understand offshore routing and sleep patterns and how to fix whatever breaks on these incredible boats to parse out all the lessons and requirements for success—other than sheer perseverence, which all 40 starters have. What I want to focus on here is how small our planet feels when watching this race. Here are three key moments, with gratitude for the excellent graphics and weather overlays available on the website.
1. On Christmas Day, when the leaders were rounding Cape Horn, the fleet stretched all the way back to Australia: like a carbon rubber band, stretching around 180 degrees of longitude.
2. A few days ago, as the leaders charged up the North Atlantic, the weather map showed a significant low spinning toward them from the west—the same winter storm that had just whipped Rhode Island with days of gale force winds.
3. Earlier this week, winner Charlie Dalin crossed the finish line at sunrise—watched over by the same full moon I admired just a few hours later.
And here’s the most small-world thought of all: all around the globe, others have undoubtedly experienced similar key moments.
No matter how cold the weather or how early the arrival, a huge crowd comes out to welcome each Vendée finisher—and they will continue to do so until the last boat finishes (currently estimated for early March). Meanwhile, there will be many more moments of awe for me: about our interconnectedness, and about the raw human achievement of completing a nonstop solo sailing lap of our planet, no matter how small it seems from the couch.
Have you also found yourself distracted this week? Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send me an email. Thanks for being here!
Amazing sailors/navigators, amazing boats, sailing the hardest course on the planet. What is there not to love. Watch it checking in all day, and night.
Thanks Paul, agreed!
I still have a hard time getting my head around this with the performance of these boats. I conceptually know how it all works, but… These folks are just wired differently.
Alex, I definitely agree both boats and sailors are wired differently from dinghy sailors. Imagine a 65 day Snipe regatta… never mind sailing 24/7—and without our crews to do everything! Add in the discomfort and having to fix everything yourself and it’s just hard to fathom. Also, they willingly give up the best part: steering. Thanks for the comment.