Customer Reviews

Sailing The World Alone [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I received this video a year ago and have watched it countless times. Although the sailors were different ages, from different countries, and from vastly different backgrounds, they all focused on the common cause of circumnavigating while alone;but the clincher was that it was a race, not a leisurely sail. Self-filmed Video is broadly used, and communications by radio helped them communicate, as did newer innovations like email. Mishaps and dangerous circumstances along with some personal disasters lace the film along with interesting personal mini-biographies. I'm going to follow their footsteps, and go around alone.

As a sailing instructor and cruiser of thousands of ocean miles, I cannot disagree more with the first reviewer. Despite the technical advantages the modern sailor has, the Southern Ocean is still an ultimate test of a sailor, both as a sailor and a human being, and this video brings it home.

In a world of overpaid whining sports "heroes", these men and women pit themselves against the most unpredictable and unforgiving wilderness the world has to offer, and will risk their own lives to come to a competitors aid. In another instance, a sailor dismasted in a remote area retrieves his rig and jury rigs a new one to finish the leg.

Agreed, sailors of only a few years earlier had to endure even more isolation...but the sea is still the sea. When you are cold, battered, exhausted, and possibly even terrified with no end in sight to the endless mountains of water...a satellite uplink or EPIRB cannot be counted on to save you in the Southern Ocean, you must do it yourself or simply have fortune on your side. Any true sailor will be enthralled and moved by this vid.

I'm pretty new to sailing, and I admit that I don't have all of the details of all of the races, etc, memorized. I got this DVD because I'd just watched Deep Water, which is a documentary about the first person that actually "sailed the world alone" back in 1968. This was before satellite phones, email and fax, and even before GPS navigation. I was interested to see what a similar modern attempt would look like. Well, like I said, I didn't know the details of the BOC Challenge (now the VELUX 5 Oceans Race), but calling this race "sailing alone" is quite a stretch in my opinion.

First of all, in the version of the race covered in this documentary, the race is broken up into four legs, so there are three stops, and these stops are quite lengthy - months long - in which the sailors can recover *as well as get their boats repaired.* In fact, even when the boats got into trouble during the sailing portions, a sailor's team could come and assist with boat repairs on the water. These differences are a far cry from the sailors in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe race, which could not dock at any port nor accept any items or help from anyone. One sailor was eliminated because he accepted letters from home!

If I had known the details of the BOC Challenge, which this documentary covers, I'm not sure I would have decided to buy it. But it was interesting for what it was.