Why are we doing it?

I’m not sure I have the answer to why I’m personally doing it. It’s a question I get asked on a daily basis. As a friend answered for me one day “Because horse riding isn’t dangerous enough”. If you know anything about me at all then you will probably know that over the years I’ve managed to fall off and break just about every bone in my body, some of them twice. I have metal rods in my spine and thigh, pins in my ankle and shoulder, and a piece of dead American in my left knee. The latter was put there by a surgeon in Newcastle who assured me a bone graft using a “dead American” would be a lot less painful than using a lump of my own hip bone…I often wonder who donated and if he/she is happy with his/her new ‘life’.

So to the best of my knowledge my motivation is the thrill of mastering a new sport, the people, yes, most definitely the people…the travel, the challenge, the danger, the adrenalin rush and the sheer challenge of it all. For others, well a lot of the above for sure. Some have never set foot on a yacht before, some are good sailors with qualifications, though it is still a huge learning curve even for the experienced.

Others, dare I say it? Ok I will. Others are possibly going through a ‘mid life crisis’. M feels his marriage isn’t on the best of footings and feels the need to escape for a year (well that will kill or cure!). And so far I have met more than a few who are in a similar situation. A has a high powered job in the city, he wants to get away from constant interruption and daily pressure, or at least to a different kind of pressure! Yangzi, a 28yr old Chinese girl who was on last training is from Shang Hai is an ambassador for China, the Chinese government are sponsoring a fair few of their people to do a Leg on one of the Chinese sponsored boats. Sailing is definitely the new black in China – they can’t get enough of it. If they’re all like Yangtze then we have serious competition. Though she has never sailed before and is quite petite she whirls around mentally and physically ahead of just about all of us. Christian, from Sweden, well he will be very happy as long as the victualler stocks the boat with as much Branson Pickle as possible. They don’t sell it in Sweden. Then there’s D, a multi millionaire businessman who is also a shark expert, he has swum with just about every make of shark, all without a cage. In fact he has this fantastic photo (one of many) of him and Jaws (a great white) holding hands and smiling at the camera.

And there are the stories of previous races. One highly respected consultant signed up to do the whole race but had to leave at Cape Town as he just couldn’t manage without his daily alcohol and was becoming quite ill. Another ‘circumnavigator’ went ashore after the first Leg to Uruguay and promptly ‘fell in love’ with a local girl and refused to get back on. He’s still there now. Yet another was firmly put ashore in South Africa – a Polish lady this time – because she refused to participate at all, and she was supposed to be going all the way…did she think it was a cruise? We have tax inspectors, hairdressers, at least two teenagers, an ‘entrepreneur’ (I always think Del Boy), a physiotherapist, vet, nurses, doctors, sailing instructors, business people and quite a few retirees, if that’s a word. I have another farmer in my crew, he’s a dairy farmer from NZ and will be doing Leg 8 with me. I should imagine we will bore everyone witless.

So much more but it’ll wait for another day, goodnight!