Round the world in seven months

Published: Mon, 08/24/20

I recently finished reading another fairly obscure book I picked up at the Epsom book fair in February. This one is entitled ‘Come Wind and Weather’ by Claire Francis MBE. Published in 1978 the author recounts her participation in the 1977/78 Whitbread round the world yacht race in a 65 foot boat named ADC Accutrac by its sponsors BSR (manufacturers of high end record turntables) which Francis skippered with a crew of 12. Twenty seven thousand miles of sailing in seven months. Starting at Portsmouth in the UK with layovers at Cape Town in South Africa, Aukland in New Zealand, rounding Cape Horn, the most southerly point of the Americas, and then a final stop at Rio de Janniro in Brazil, before completing the final leg back to Portsmouth. Francis managed to get her boat back in one piece and all the crew in good shape. The came fifth out of fifteen participating boats, and the author admits that, while there were moments of
danger and excitement, there were also long periods of monotony, and even tedium. I enjoyed the read, but got the feeling that, for most of the crew, it was an adventure they would not have missed but were not desperate to do a second time in one lifetime.

The race took place a bit over 40 years ago now but I was struck how much has changed technologically since then. The had a Marconi long wave radio which worked reliably enough, but was far out of range of any useful contacts for most of the voyage apart from the other competitors. For sections of the race some of the other competing craft did not even have working radios. The lack of communication meant little or no meteorological information which is particularly inconvenient when the wind is your source of propulsion. Navigation relied on charts, compass bearings, and observations of the sun at noon and stars at dawn and dusk using a sextant. When the sky was clouded over for several days at a time it simply wasn’t possible to get a positional fix until the sun and stars showed themselves again. Apparently the ADC was equipped with a radio direction finding system using terrestrial navigation beacons, but it does not seem to
have been much use. The combination of erratic navigation and a general absence of weather reports made it very difficult to choose a course which would be both the most direct route to the next port, and catch the most advantageous winds and seas. Francis does not blame her fifth position on these deficiencies since all the skippers were under the same disadvantages and the luck resulting from each decision made would have balanced out in the course of the race. The four vessels which did better than the were purpose built ocean racers and their crews were willing to push them harder than Francis and her team.

Thanks to modern satellite technology a crew today would know where they were to within a few metres for the whole of the voyage. Meteorological information would be available minute by minute. Communications with home by email, social media, or even by video conversations, would be easy during most of the trip. The crew could probably download entertainment from Netflix while off duty if they really wanted to. Even in the middle of the South Atlantic, a thousand miles from land, a boat’s crew need be no more isolated from access to information and communication than in the middle of a modern city. Yet, when I was a teenager Claire Francis and her crew were sailing under similar conditions to Captain Cook and other 18th century mariners. The Norse sailors who voyaged between Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and even Vinland (What we now call Newfoundland in North America) would probably be impressed with the technology used to
build and sail the ADC. However, there would be little about her rigging or design that an adventurer of the Viking period would not have understood.

If our modern world has become a place of connection, communication, and instant access to pretty much infinite amounts of information, then why isn’t the world a happier place? It is not as though the poor are denied access to communications which only the rich can afford. In fact computing power and connectivity has become nearly free and very few parts of the world are not connected in some way. Satellite networks potentially connect everyone as modern round the world sailors know well. If every one’s need can be known as soon as they make a cry for help and no part of the world is beyond reach? Then why is there any poverty or suffering anywhere?

I think that the answer is that any kind of power can be weaponised by those who feel the need to control and manipulate the majority of the population. Over the past 150 years there has been a huge development in literacy, education generally, various forms of media, beginning with cheap printing of news papers and paperback books, but followed by cinema, radio broadcasting, television, and most recently Information Technology. All limitations in communication and availability of information have effectively been transcended. In one sense it takes a lot of the challenge out of an adventure such as the voyage Claire Francis and her crew participated in not so long ago. However, the sea, the wind, the waves, and the icebergs are still there to be confronted even if their positions and behavior can be known in advance. Nature is still real and still demands respect. The real problem is that the more we believe ourselves to be
masters of our own fates the more dependent we become on information created by those with unknown agendas. Genuine knowledge of the truth is liberating. It even says so in the New Testament. “Know the truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8 v 32 Believing lies, especially when those lies inculcate a significant amount of fear, may be a far worse confinement than being trapped in a prison cell or becalmed on a small boat far out to sea. The iron bars or the indifference of nature at least tell the truth of why you are stuck where you are. However, sincerely believing a malicious fiction creates a chained mind trapped in a dream which you may never awaken from.

Communication is a great gift to those who are conscious. The power of modern communication is also a powerful weapon for those who would control the minds of the majority. If you have not yet noticed this contradiction then perhaps it is time you did.

regards

Graham

PS My access to the online world has been very limited for the past week or so. On one level this has been a little bit inconvenient. On the other hand I know my mind has detoxified to a degree which is most welcome. I am certainly less angry and frustrated than I was a week ago.

One of the themes of the Rune Retreat in a couple of weeks time will be regaining control of your mind and seeing how narratives are planted and manipulated within your consciousness. Waking up isn’t easy, but can you afford not to? http://rr.stavcamp.org/