Off Topic - But Interesting ....

Really this is a site which ellistine must be following. :shock: We will watch him one day in this race 8) :thumbup:

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/

There are two young ladies amoung the seven entries from the UK in the race - and doing quite well.

Mike :wink:

Sorry mike , it doesn't float my boat. :mrgreen:

[url]To be honest something like that would scare the living *&£%! out of me! One of the entries is local to us. I've nearly sailed into his boat many a time.

He can sail from Weymouth to Cherbourg in four hours - for free! How good would that be for getting in your Christmas duty free supplies.

The other thing that I find amazing is that two boats in the current Volvo Ocean race and one in the Vendee Globe have hit whales. What's the chances of a 2 foot wide keel hitting a whale in the width of an ocean?

The keels way 13 tonnes and generally fair better than the whales unfortunately. :(

Imagine this for weeks on end;
http://www.volvooceanrace.tv/page/TeamsDetail/0,,12573~1464179,00.html

or


http://www.volvooceanrace.tv/page/OffShore/0,,12573~1465229,00.html

ellistine wrote:[url]To be honest something like that would scare the living *&£%! out of me!

Yeah, me too :!: :lol: :lol:

But what a ride :mrgreen:
At least on the Volvo race, if you went overboard someone might miss you right away! On the solo race it may take a bit longer to be missed :shock:

I think I have to take my monitor apart now and dry off the inside. :shock:

Mike :wink:

Our local sailor has completed the Vendee Globe this morning.

Interesting article on how dedicated somebody can be to a cause;

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=145353

An extract from the article;

Eighth place will be a just reward for White who has moved mountains to be in this race. Typical of his determination, he arrived in Paris in the summer for a Meteo France weather briefing for all the Vendée Globe skippers, and had so little money that when he spent his few Euros getting the train in to the wrong part of the City, he had to walk two and a half hours to the other side of Paris to get to the venue. He had already prepared himself to sleep rough in the adjacent park afterwards, before Brian Thompson offered him a floor in his hotel room and gave him a lift back to the airport.

:shock:

'The other thing that I find amazing is that two boats in the current Volvo Ocean race and one in the Vendee Globe have hit whales. What's the chances of a 2 foot wide keel hitting a whale in the width of an ocean? '

Then again - whats the chances of two Nuclear Submarines colliding in the Atlantic!!!!

ellistine,
Thanks for bringing this back into the fold.

I found it most interesting in following the race. When I started the thread in early December with the fleet in the Indian Ocean area, Sam Davies on Roxy was my pick to win. Third to cross the finish line, she came 4th overall out of the 30 starting boats. She won the hearts of the internet followers through her extremely positive and happy attitude.

Dee Caffari, finished 6th, has returned to London on Sunday and "parked" her boat near the HMS President on the Thames.

ellistine mentions how Steve White was his local town's sailor. Steve had a tough race at times and if I were he I would have hauled out a paddle to finish the race today. He had a very short distance to finish and no wind after about 109 days at sea. How frustrating it must have been. Maybe he could have swam the last mile while towing the boat on a rope held in his teeth.

It is well worth going to the VendeeGlobe site and listening to or watching the video clips held in the Media menu on the page. Ian, you too would find it interesting. Read about the flying fish and how Steve felt they must have been wearing crash helmets judging by dents in his boat. Sam found an eyeball in her cockpit one morning. Also listen to Steve's account the other day with close encounters with a cargo ship.

Steve too had keel troubles. The sailors from the UK did really well. The entry from Nova Scotia is getting repaired after a complete roll which awakened the skipper, Derek Hatfield, when he landed on the ceiling. These aren't toy boats ... they're 60 feet long.

I bet they all ski when not sailing :shock:
Mike :wink:

All this boaty talk has got me itching to get back on the water. Spent yesterday anti fouling the in laws yacht. Took an afternoon off today to do some varnishing of bits from my boat. Where do I end up whilst popping in for a cuppa?