There are few things more magical than watching land rise out of the sea. This I know because I speak from experience. Okay, I realise that this might sound a little unclear. What I am referring to are those two magical words that all sailors long for, well not Bernard Moitessier, but I digress. I will come back to him later. He’s one of my heroes. The two words are, “Land ho.” It’s a phrase that has been used by mariners for as long as there have been mariners. Two simple words that announce, quite succinctly, I might add, that you are about to make landfall. It’s a pure thrill that never gets old.
The sailors in the ALMA McIntyre Globe 5.80 Transat will be experiencing this thrill in the next week or so, trade winds willing. They are beginning to sniff a different breeze, the one that mingles with the salt and drifts by with a hint of frangipani and car exhaust fumes. Land is getting close. The first sign are the birds. At first, the seabirds—the gulls and terns—start to give way to the land birds that are sometimes blown out to sea. There is a difference. The seabirds are at home and graceful; the land birds, however, flap frantically, trying to get back home without losing their dignity.
In the tropics, in the early morning, there are usually low clouds scudding the horizon. Sometimes it feels as if you have a smudge on your glasses. Then there’s that one morning when the soft edges of a tradewind cloud give way to something sharper. You wipe your glasses and look again and sure enough, it’s land rising right out of the ocean ahead of you. As you get closer the clouds disappear and the sharp of edges of an island become obvious. If you are a sailor in the ALMA McIntyre Globe 5.80 Transat you might be tempted to yell, “Land ho!” but there is no point. The captain of the ship is you, and you’ve already spotted land.
A nighttime arrival is quite different. It’s often squally in the early morning and early evening, but in the middle of the night, it’s clear, and you start to notice lights. They can trick you because they are usually just fishing boats that are out plying their trade, but soon the lights cluster together, and you know that it’s land ahead. This magical moment is full of twinkling stars; a cold drink and a hot bath can’t be far away.
Now let’s talk about Moitessier. In the very first non-stop around- the-world race back in 1968 French sailor Bernard Moitessier aboard his yacht Joshua was nearing the finish in England when he famously decided to turn around. He was not interested in returning to the traffic and jams of life on land. He used a slingshot to send his intentions to his wife and the race officials by wrapping his note and hoiking it onto the deck of a passing ship. With that he turned his boat around and sailed back the way he had come until he finally dropped the hook in Tahiti.
Let’s hope that none of the wonderful and adventurous sailors in this race find inspiration from Moitessier. It’s a long way back to Lanzarote and it’s upwind all the way. Take care and safe sailing.
