Day 47- La GGR ⛵

The GGR ⛵ - Golden Globe Race.

What is it? Its the race that Jill followed, religiously, for over 200 days 😯.  Everyday she was tracking entrants progress, checking weather reports, internet and Facebook live feeds, who was having problems, who had dropped out, what was going on etc.

The 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe race was the first ever around-the-world yacht race. It was an adventure to determine who could be the first to circumnavigate the globe solo, nonstop without assistance. Nine sailors started, only one finished; Robin Knox Johnston. It took him 312 days. There was a scale model of his boat Suhaili, on the quay.

    Today, very little has changed from that original race and it is very simple : 16 sailors from around the world, aged between 27 and 68 departed from Les Sables-d’Olonne, France on September 4th 2022 to sail solo, non-stop around the world with no outside assistance. They would cover approximately 30,000 miles each to return to Les Sables-d’Olonne after over 200 days at sea. 🫡 This is only the 3rd time this race has been run since 1968. In 2018 Don McIntyre, an Australian sailor adventurer, relaunched the race and ony 5 from the 18 starters completed that voyage.

The premise is that entrants are limited to yachts and equipment similar to those which were available in that first race in1968.

That means sailing without modern technology or the benefit of satellite-based navigation aids. The boats are between 32ft and 36ft overall length and must have been designed before 1988. These yachts are heavily built, strong and sturdy, similar in concept to Sir Robin’s boat.

     The Suhaili was a slow, sturdy 32ft yatch that was heavily built of teak and carried no computers, GPS or satellite phone and Robin completed the challenge with no outside assistance or the aid of modern-day weather reports. He had only a wind-up clock, a barograph to measure the air pressure for assessing the weather and that with his sextant to plot his course. He faced the world alone.

Todays competitors do the same, using the position of the sun and paper charts, no electronic instruments or autopilots, all they have is a barometer, a ships radio and a weather fax if they want.

Entrants have to take everything they think they will need to complete the voyage, from kit to food. Once their freshwater tank is empty they have to collect rainwater to drink. They do have a motor and a small amount of fuel but are penalised for any they use.

       They hand-write their logs and only once a week do they get to talk to the outside world during the 10 minute radio safety call - they can't use that radio for anything else.

There are 3 'film drops' - off Lanzarote, Cape Town and Hobart, when the skippers get to pass over on board videocam footage and letters home, and get to talk to the team across the water in a RIB...no touching and definitely no feet on dry land! There is a GPS tracker onboard all the boats so the organisers can keep an eye on them but the sailors have no access to that. They have a sealed 'grab bag' with modern communication kit for emergencies and their race is over.

This years winner returned after 233 days at sea on the 27th April 2023.

     Today, 24th June, the boats and some sailors, including the winner, were gathered in Les Sables-d’Olonne for the prize giving ceremony and a chance for the public to get up close. As we are in France it would be silly not to try and get to see it. Jill had been worrying about it for days: getting the campervan into town and finding somewhere to park within walking distance of the Vendee marina where it would be taking place. There is a motorhome overnight carpark (aire) that's perfectly placed in Les Sables-d’Olonne but it is a very popular place even without an event on, people parking up there for a few days at a time. But... she needn't have worried. We rolled up about 11am and there were 3 empty pitches. Not knowing if we would stay all night or not we paid for 24hr anyway and wandered out into the heat to find the marina.

     To be honest we were expecting a bit of a media circus for such a challenge and test of human endeavour but shockingly the event doesn't rank high enough for the mainstream media channels much. The nice lady at a tourist information wagon pointed us in the right direction. No tickets, no queues, only a scattering of people milling about on the pontoon where the boats were moored.... past all the rich boys toys hogging prime location.

It wasn't long before Jill started getting excited as she spotted the sailors she recognised just hanging around the boats. She congratulated and shook hands with Jeremy Bagshaw and spotted several more fiddling with their boats and chatting to fellow competitors onboard. Before we knew it she was chatting away to Pat Lawless from Dingle in Ireland and Guy Waites from Yorkshire...... and it wasn't even official 'meet and greet' time yet 🤗 All three captains Jill congratulated were genuinely pleased to talk to somebody who had followed them so closely and were more than happy to discuss things that had happened to them, breakdowns, weather problems, all the aspects of their voyages she knew about from following the race so closely. The PR woman who had wandered over was so impressed by her enthusiasm she even took some pictures of the 3 of them. Maybe Jill will appear on some internet page sometime soon.

Then Pat turned round and said...."Do you want to look around the boat?" 😯Jill was ecstatic😃 "Oh yes please"

Before we knew it we were climbing aboard Green Rebel and Jill was invited, and more than happy, to explore the ins and outs of the space below deck with Pat, chatting about his set up for the voyage, and he was offering us tea, coffee and even wine.

Pat, 66 years old, never finished the race. Mechanical problems and a replacement part he didn't have meant he had to drop out of the race 5 days after sailing past Cape Town in South Africa. He could have pulled into port, had repairs done then continued, but he would have been dropped to the lower Chichester class as he had been assisted and that was something he didn't want to do... however,  when Jill asked he did say he was going to have another attempt in 2026 (The race is run every 4 years)

Guy finished the circumnavigation, eventually, but never qualified for an award as he too hadn't met some of the races timing criteria (imposed for safety reasons) plus he had to pull into port because of a severe barnacle infestation (of his hull) as his antifouling had failed.

(I did have a short video of us climbing aboard and Pat chatting away but most of it ended up lookingat my crotch as I was pointing the phone down in one hand, holding on with the other and trying to stop my rucksack slideing off my shoulder into the sea 🥴)

We were joined by Pats wife and daughter for a short while and sat out on deck drinking our brews and chatting. Jill really enjoyed herself. But after half an hour or so and not wanting to overstay our welcome we excused ourselves and wandered off to look at some of the other boats. Pat was a bit sad to see us go saying he loved chatting to people...that's the Irish for you.

The winners boat, Minihaha, was there but no winner in sight. We wandered back up to the quayside and grabbed some lunch whilst sitting in the shade, looking down at the boats, and up at someone doing some 'frigging in the rigging' 😱

It was almost 'meet and greet' time. We wandered back down having still not seen the winner 😟 Walking along the quay we heard a mountain bike behind us. Turning round Jill exclaimed "aah, here she is 🤗"... the young woman on the bike smiled, returned the greeting calling "hi" as she peddled past to her boat,  the winning boat 🥳 As if by magic the man himself also then appeared, Sir Robin Knox Johnston, the original winner from 1968.

    🇿🇦South African, Kirsten Neuschäfer (39) returned to Les Sables-d'Olonne on 27th April 2023, after an official time of 233 days, 20 hours, 43 minutes and 47 seconds at sea, approximately one day ahead of her closest rival, aboard her boat The Minnehaha.

She set more than one record the day she landed.

1: She was the first woman to win any round-the-world race via the three great capes including solo and fully crewed races, whether non-stop or with stops. 

(In sailing, the great capes are the three major capes of the continents in the Southern Ocean—Africa's Cape of Good Hope, Australia's Cape Leeuwin, and South America's Cape Horn.)

2 : She was the first South African sailor (male or female) to win a round-the-world event.

3: She was the first woman to complete the GGR in the race's history.

4: She was the first woman to win the GGR and the only woman skipper who participated in the 2022 GGR.

     Not only all that but in November, she diverted off course in the Indian Ocean, to rescue a fellow competitor who was in his life raft after his boat had sunk. Kirsten’s rescue was a testimony to her skill as a sailor. Navigating with no modern aids and trying to find him was problematic enough but she did, got his life raft alongside and recovered him onto her yacht in a challenging sea. They each had a shot of rum and sailed to meet the 32metre bulk carrier M.V Darya Gayatri that had diverted course to collect him. She brought Minihaha alongside, this huge ship in comparison, in difficult conditions and Tapio was successfully transferred to the rope ladder and thereby onboard before Kirsten resumed her race. A truly remarkable woman and somebody not only Jill, but  also the sailing fraternity in general, has a lot of admiration for.

     What seemed like ages, eventually Sir Robin wandered off and left her to the public  and Jill hovered about nicely waiting for her chance. There's always 'pushy' people around in situations like this but thankfully not too many. 

Jill got her chance for a quick chat, hand shake and congratulations.  Kirsten was honestly sincere in thanking her for her support and enthusiasm. Jill was over the moon and I was ever so happy she had got to meet her heroine. Kirstens PR girls then arrived and focused on the Americans that had gathered, handing out 'stuff' but none came our way. Kirsten it seemed was due to give an interview with somebody onboard so they were milling about sorting that out so our chance had finished. Jill took one last look at Kirsten and then Minnehaha, pointing out this and that, repairs, problems etc and then we wandered off.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The prize giving wasn't till 6pm followed by  other activities afterwards at about 8pm. The temperature had risen to 37°C although it didn't feel like it with the breeze on the quayside and Jill was more than happy to call it a day. It would all be in French anyway 🤔 Although we had a 24hr ticket for the carpark we decided it was not a nice place to spend the night and found a campsite - Camping Paradise not far away.

With 2 swimming pools and a bar, Jill went for a cool off while I sat transferring photos between phones and having a large beer. One beer turned into two and by the time Jill had come over from the pool, had a shandy and me my third, it was time to wobble back to the van. 

Nobody had told me the beer was 8.5% 😱. Today was a good day.