Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
were a hundred, two hundred, five hundred years ago and the best
equipped boat is still a matchstick on the shifting dynamic of ocean.
Yet, for the modern circumnavigator, the adventure
is
different.
Everything that can be done is done to provide for the safety of skip-
pers and crews. Race organisers were not slow to learn the lessons
of the Golden Globe race. By the time of the 1985-6 Whitbread race
regulations demanded that every boat be equipped with an Argos
satellite tracking system and an elaborate radio checking routine
was in place for purposes of both safety and news-gathering. As long
as the equipment did not fail, every person aboard the seemingly-
isolated boats was in touch with family, friends, sponsors and media
personnel at home. In the event of disaster, rescue attempts could
be rapidly launched to stricken vessels even hundreds of miles from
land. And the race is not over when the crews return to port. They
have to submit to demands for books, articles, interviews, talks and
'promo' tours. They belong to their sponsors, and very few modern
heroes and heroines can afford the luxury of a purist approach to
their adventures.
Every modern circumnavigator would acknowledge that he or
she stands on the shoulders of giants. Those ancient mariners were
a different race of men. They truly were
alone
on the high seas, seas
whose boundaries were uncharted, and whose terrors were not fully
understood. They sailed from horizon to horizon aware only that
death or glory might embrace them in the tumult of the waves. They
were the true heroes of what we justifiably look back on as the great
age of circumnavigation.