Along with Earth Day, April 22nd is the 40th anniversary of Robin Knox-Johnston’s victory in the Golden Globe Singlehanded Round the World Race. In fact he was the only one to finish. This is the same race where Donald Crowhurst went insane and Bernard Moitessier decided to head for French Polynesia after passing Cape Horn, going one and a half times around the world.
Here’s Suhali at sea. A turtle among faster hares but brought RKJ home in 313 days, non-stop, all alone. Magnificent.
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Lots more at the 70.8 Blog and here. Raise a toast today to celebrate what was then a rather remarkable achievement.
Totally agree with the sentiment of your post. Except I can’t resist making a minor correction. Eric Tabarly wasn’t in the Golden Globe Race. The French sailor who just kept going instead of finishing the race was Bernard Moitessier.
Noted and corrected. I remember at the time thinking how cool it was that Moitessier kept going around. Must be some kind of record.