Inspiring People

I have just read an article about Sir Robin Knox-Johnston who, at the glorious age of 67, has just set off on the Velux 5 Oceans - the longest, toughest and most dangerous single-handed round-the-world yacht race.  For those of you who don't already know, RKJ was the first person ever to sail single-handed round-the-world back in 1968/1969 (it takes a long time!), winning The Sunday Times Golden Globe.  In fact, he was the only person to complete the race, after 312 days at sea and numerous hair-raising moments.  I read his book about the race many years ago, A World of My Own, which is a great read: RKJ is the master of the understatement to say the least!  As an aspiring sailor at the time I was greatly inspired by RKJ, and although my sailing career was rather brief in comparison, I did manage one ocean crossing in the year or so I lived and worked on yachts, sailing across the Atlantic from Gran Canaria to St Lucia in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers.

My experience in a 46ft ketch with five other crew hardly compares with RKJ going right round-the-world in a 32ft ketch all on his lonesome, though it does give me a very small insight to how it must have been for him.  You really are in a world of your own when you're out in the middle of an ocean on a little bit of wood - there's nowhere to go, and no escape from the contracted world that you're living in for the duration.  My challenges were somewhat different to RKJ's: the six of us crewing the yacht had to work hard at getting along, as you really are stuck with each other, especially as we spent a lot of time sitting around, waiting and wishing for wind: the year that we did the ARC, the tradewinds decided to play a little joke on us and stop blowing for a goodly amount of the time, so we spent days just drifting along at a snails pace with the current, completely becalmed.  It made me smile to read on the ARC website just now that: "The 2700 nautical mile passage on the NE tradewind route takes on average between 12 and 24 days."  It took us 28 days, and we came in 69th out of about 120 boats, so we weren't just being crap sailors, honest guv!  I am rather proud of the fact that we navigated across by sextant, too, in the days (not that long ago!) preceding cheaply and easily available GPS.

RKJ's biggest concern in the days preceding our modern, constantly-in-contact days of complete communication, was of going mad on his own and not even knowing it, for without interaction with others, how would you know?  Dealing with extreme weather and seas, not to mention sharks wandering over to say hello when taking a break from working underneath the boat on repairs, were the least of his worries!

This latest race is a world away from RKJ's world of his own back in the 60s: he is sailing a modern, state-of-the-art racing machine, an Ocean 60; modern communications mean he will remain connected to the outside world for most of the time; and there are others who will most likely complete the race this time, if not win it ahead of him as most are predicting.  Having said that, he was generally considered a  no-hoper for the Golden Globe, and went on to prove them all wrong.  I for one am rooting for him not only finishing but winning this latest race: what an amazing man, and what an inspiration he is to us all!

Who inspires you?