Posted by Allan_Lang on June 11, 2010 at 20:54:27 user Allan_Lang.
In Reply to: Abbe Sunderland posted by Ed Kiser on June 11, 2010 at 12:02:54:
>>>but she has been a seasoned sailor for most of her life.<<<
This gets mentioned a lot, but there seems to be little verification. From her reports of the voyage, I got the image of a gusty girl trying her best, in a boat beyond her ability, but experiencing conditions she was not prepared for, and should never have been facing.
When you sail around the world, even the easy way, you do it by the seasons. That's even more important when going around the hard way. When the great maxi French mulithulls attempt around the world records, their window is always November to about March. Why? Because as Adrienne Cahalan, navigator on Playstation's record circumnavigation said, "You don't sail in the Southern Ocean in the winter." You just don't do it. Not the Volvo, not the Vendée, not The Race, not nobody. If the world's greatest sailors will wait a full year just to stay out of the Southern— when there are gales 30% of the time as opposed to 5% of the time in summer — you'd think the parents of a 16-year-old minor would make their daughter do the same. Ocean in winter