Deepwater : a documentary

[Bill Perkins]

This is a fine documentary of one participants tragic and bizarre experience in the first solo round the world race . It was on PBS last night here and will air again next Sunday. Because the sponsors of the main character wanted info to sell the sailor laid down audio and video record on his trip. Still , the log book is most revealing . It's an incredible story ,well told . Robert Knox Johnson was the winner of the race and definitely a hero .

On PBS' Independentlens

[paladin]

Is this the story of the guy in the Victress Trimaran...?

[Thermo]

It's the newer Crowhurst docu-movie, isn't it? I've been wanting to see it.

[Bill Perkins]

Yes ;and Yes . The French contestant was also affected in an unusual way (the race was non stop,so the men were in isolation for over 300 days ). He was on the homestretch ,about 6 weeks out from home and family , but it looked like he would not win the cash prize for fastest passage .So ; He chose to turn away from England and use his remaining supplies up going around the Horn of Africa again and on to Polynesia . This will all be available on DVD eventually I guess .

Chuck ; you've traversed some of this physical and phchological territory I know . What would you say is out there for the single hander ? No undiscovered places left now . The accuracy of the GPS ,weather satellites ,and satellite assisted location and rescue have changed the psychological landscape offshore I would think . Call home any time now? Is the complete sufficiency of the current task ,whether urgent or mundane , part of the draw ?Or having no other human egos to contend with ?

[Benchdog]

Saw it - excellent documentary.
It is out on DVD (I got it through Netflix). I even recommended it to a non-sailing friend of mine and he enjoyed it due to the psychological factor.

[Tom Hunter]

Got it from Netflix, lots of footage from the actual race, interviews with the particpants, I thought it was really well done.

[mmd]

There is a pretty good book about the race, too, called "Voyage For Madman" by Peter Nichols.

http://cdn.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/medium/2/9780060957032.jpg

[G.Sherman]

Try reading "The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" by Nicholas Tomalin
and Ron Hall, published by International Marine/McGraw-Hill.

[Michael s/v Sannyasin]

My complaint, though, is that both that book, and this movie focus on the rather morbid story of Donald Crowhurst. There are many other inspiring stories in this race which are largely ignored.

Moitessier's 'The Long Way' was his story of the race and it is one of most beautiful books on long distance voyaging I've ever read (except for the last chapter, which always reads like an afterthought).

In another book he had this to say:

I have always had the feeling that these long journeys act upon my system as a thorough cleansing of all the nastiness that accumulates during a period on shore. Once out of sight of the coast, a man is all alone in the presence of his Creator, and he cannot remain a stranger to the forces of nature that surround him. Soon he will be part of these himself, regaining his simplicity and refining himself in contact with the brute forces that embrace him and swallow him up.

And it is this, I believe, this need not simply for novelty, but for physical and spiritual cleanliness which drives the lone sailor towards other shores; there, his body and mind are freed from their terrestrial ties and bondage, and can regain their essence and integrity in the natural elements which the ancients deified. Wind, Sun and Sea: the seaman's triune god!

I get a sense of the same thing when reading Joshua Slocum.

[Bill Perkins]

That's a beautiful quote . I may have gotten a glimpse of that when back packing .

[Michael s/v Sannyasin]

Yep!

The quote is from Moitessier's 'Sailing to the Reefs'