100nm to St. Martin, Chocolate, & UFO's

Around the World

“I’d rather be hung upside down by my feet off a tree for two days than sitting out there in the water just drifting”, said Carrack Jones. Jones broke the world record for the longest solo unassisted sail in an Optimist dinghy, sailing 100 nm from Antigua to St. Martin. He’s also only 14 years old. This past weekend he gave his frank thoughts on the trip, calling it “torture”, and saying he would never do it again, or recommend it to anyone.

He set out from Antigua at night on November 22nd under an almost-full moon, with three support vessels keeping watch, but staying out of contact. Around 4am, he capsized due to swell from a passing vessel, and lost his GPS…and granola bars. Impressively, he navigated the rest of the way by memory. Unfortunately, he was not able to recover the granola bars.

There is some slight controversy about the status of the world record, and whether it was performed under the right conditions. To those I say: Bah-Humbug. Good for Jones, that’s some impressive sailing.

Race Updates

Retour a la Base: Chinese skipper Jingkun Xu ‘Jackie’ (Singchain Team Haikou) crossed the finish line of the Retour à La Base this Wednesday at 12 p.m. He came in 31st, with a total time for the 3,500 miles solo course from Martinique to Lorient of 13 days, 19 hours, 24 minutes and 51 seconds. He may not have finished first, he easily has the best story of the race.

• This is Jackie’s second solo IMOCA race after last year’s Route du Rhum.

• Jackie lost part of his left arm when he was 12 years old, but went on to pursue sailing as a sport, competing at the Paralympic world championship level.

• During the race he dealt with keel bolts that had to be re-screwed every hour, worn sails, and a ripped reef attachment.

• UFO sighting: After the race, Jackie reported “In the dark of the night, I noticed a very strange flying object not far from me. In the beginning, I thought it was a boat, but then I saw that it was above the surface of the sea. It can’t have been a star, as it was so bright, was not moving and appeared to be floating there. As the skies clouded over, the object disappeared and will remain a mystery.”

Fun fact about the race: Each boat carried 20 kilos of cocoa beans from Martinique to Lorient. Before the race, the skippers toured local cocoa farms tasting the raw beans, and each boat was loaded with its own sack of cocoa. The precious cargo was a symbolic operation for Martinique producers, who hope to one day market sustainably grown, 100% French carbon-free cocoa, shipped via sailboat. The cocoa will be used to produce up to 400 bars of chocolate for each boat. You can read more about the farmers and the mission here.

SailGP: Team New Zealand took first place after a neck-n-neck race down to the finish line. Canada got a penalty, so some think they should have won. No UFO’s were sighted, as far as I know.

Ocean Globe Race: The Italians (Translated 9) took first line honors this week in Auckland. Leg 2 of the race was 7500nm, and 36 days at sea, with a reported two weeks without seeing the sun in the foggy Southern Ocean.

Sailing Snippets

🏄‍♂️ Calypte: With barely a few days of official sailing experience between them, Torren Martyn and Aiyana Powell sail the 35’ Calypte from the east coast of Thailand into the South China Sea, through the Strait of Malacca, around the tip of Sumatra and out into the Indian Ocean on a year-long expedition in search of waves. Easily one of the best sailing and surf films of the year, you can watch it here.

🏅 Sailors Receive Rescue Medal: A group of young sailors received the Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal for rescuing a stranded windsurfer on Lake Hubbard in Dallas, TX. The sailors, age 13-16, spotted the man floating while out sailing, and scooped him up in a perfect man-overboard drill. Their story here.

🥪 PC & Jam: The Panama Canal is jammed, so prepare to take the scenic route around South America. The drought from El Niño this year depleted water in Gatun Lake, which supplies fresh water for the locks, and the low water level is causing ships to have to wait. To skip the line, slots to transit the canal are being auctioned off, with some going for up to $4 million. And that’s on top of the transit fee, which can be up to $1 million. The full story is here.

💔  Dufour Paramour: The Sunsail and Moorings group are swiping left on Jeanneau and Beneteau. Starting in 2024, they will have an exclusive partnership with Defour, with the new lineup coming first to the Mediterranean, and then the Caribbean. Sunsail is also rolling out electric outboards to their Monohull fleet in the Mediterranean.