Last weekend saw the start of the 2008/2009 Vendee Globe.  30 Skippers left dry land and slipped their moorings for last time this year.   For the British among us you may be interested to know that their are 7 British skippers among the hopefuls.  Although for one of them, Alex Thompson on Hugo Boss, the adventure has ended after only 3 days following a collsion with a fishing vessel just before the race which caused substantial damage, followed by what appears to be another collision during the race of an unknown object below the water line which caused the boat to be holed and take on water.  That said, there are still plenty of British contenders to follow, including Mike Golding whom I met at the Southampton Boat show this year.  I wish them all the very best of luck.

If that wasn’t enough, today a very young Mike Perham ,aged just 16 years old, cast off from Portsmouth on a voyage which could see him being the youngest yachtsman to sail single handed around the world.  The current record is held by an Australian who completed the journey at the age of 18.

So what will the lone skippers face on this journey of approximately 21,600 miles.  They leave for an adventure which won’t see then touch dry land again for the next 3 to 4 months, possible more in the case of Mike Perham.  First they head off south, down the Atlantic Ocean and through the squalls and calms of the Doldrums at the equator.  Once in the South Atlantic they will make for the southern tip of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope.  Here they will head east.  This marks the entrance to the Southern Oceans and is where the fun really begins.  The sea here is uninterrupted by landmass for the entire circumference of the globe.  Because of this and the the continuous flow of low pressure systems from the west, waves of up to 60 foot high are common place.  With ice cold seas, icebergs and being thousands of miles from land, this is not the place to get things wrong.  Next is the formidable and mythical Cape Horn.  Here there is a bottle neck as the seas force there way through the narrow gap between the southern most tip of South America and Antarctica.  This point is notorious for having probably the most violent seas on the planet.  It is estimated that gales occur on around 200 to 250 days a year.  Once past Cape Horn, the boats head north into the South Atlantic again and onto the homeward stretch.  However, the game is not yet over.  The boats and skippers alike are battered and bruised and nothing must be taken for granted.  There are no prizes for not finishing so the boats must be nursed home at last.

If you want to follow these events you can vist their websites at Vendee Globe and Sail Mike

There were two main highlights for me.  The first was to see Suhaili, the 32 foot Ketch built and sailed by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on the first ever non-stop circumnavigation of the globe.  Among the hundreds of moulded glass fibre boats, Suhaili’s hand built teak hull, weathered and imperfect to me looked more stunning than them all.  I couldn’t resist running my hand along her hull, A real piece of history.  If I were given the chance to sail on her or a modern Open 60 I would have to go go for Suhaili.  That said anyone wishing to allow me to crew an Open 60 should not be put off by that remark

The second highlight was been given a chance to speak briefly to Mike Golding, the single handed Yachtsman who has sailed around the world several times.  He gave me some good advice on sponsorship which was very useful and crucial to my future plans.  Thanks again for that Mike.

My Wife Fiona and daughter Megan enjoyed it too.  Megan’s favourite bit, she tells me, was the lifeboat simulator and a tour around a real Taymar class Lifeboat.  It’s a very solid peice of kit, but then you want it to be.  It’s good to know that the RNLI have the best equipment to hand when pulling you out of the drink.

Katie Miller and her boat ‘hot socks’ were there as official ambassador to the Southampton Boat Show.  She’s come a long way since her solo circumnavigation of Great Britain in 2006, a year culminating in being awarded the Raymarine YJA Young Sailor of the Year award.  With a good result in the bluQube 1000 mile Solo race earlier this year she has qualified for the 2009 OSTAR, the Original Single Handed Trans-Atlantic Race.  It’s encouraging for me to see people attaining their dreams.

It’s a big show and you would struggle to see it all in one day.  But if a day is all you’ve got spare as I did,  then it’s still definately worth a visit.

Among my ‘to do’ list is a small crack in the rudder needs investigating, an overhaul of the electrics, a new electric bilge pump plus a whole lot of little jobs. The other thing I’m keen to do is to run all lines back to the cockpit to minimise the amount of time I have to spend on deck. It’s a lot easier and safer to be able to trim the sails from the cockpit without the thrill a banzai dash above decks.

Here’s hoping more sun.

Julian