Posted by RichardG on November 12, 2007 at 13:24:18 from 217.207.172.242 user RichardG.
In Reply to: On sailing the sea (was Crowhurst's voyage) posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on November 10, 2007 at 19:40:18:
"One thing that is little recognised is that crossing an ocean under sail is - tell it not in Gath, whisper it not in the streets of Askelon - rather a boring thing to do."
Back in 1977 I helped crew an Ocean 71 from near Toulon to Antigua, via Gibraltar, Madeira and Tenerife, and I would endorse that comment. The three-week spell out of sight of land (Tenerife to Martinique) involved a lot of reading and playing backgammon, and the odd tension between crew members tended to escalate due to the inability to escape. One thing it brought home was just how big the earth is - even though we were crossing major shipping lanes we did not see many other vessels, although the sighting of a whale blowing off was a highlight of the voyage !
I suppose that nowadays with lone sailors staying in touch with e-mails and podcasts etc, plus the availability of GPS, the chances of someone repeating Donald Crowhurst's descent into madness are greatly reduced, but the ocean is still a very large, very unforgiving place to be.