@aeternamente: Pre-Leg-10 interview with Charles, including his…
Thursday, June 7th, 2018@aeternamente: Pre-Leg-10 interview with Charles, including his recap of the end of Leg 9.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/174673299086.
Like everyone’s so sad and frustrated but holy shit you guys just LOOK AROUND YOU RIGHT NOW. I guess you wouldn’t get where they are in the sailing world without having a certain amount of tunnel vision, but like what’s the point if you can’t take a step back and enjoy the pretty? Like they’re basically saying through heaven. But idk I’m not a sailor. Anyway I had feelings.
Tuesday, May 29th, 2018(Continued from here)
Yes! IKR??
I just rewatched that video of them in the Bristol Channel and it’s true; something about the combination of how absolutely glassy flat it was and so quiet and the 4-knot breeze just gently breathing over them and THAT LIGHT it was just… breathtakingly, heart-stoppingly beautiful.
And Pascal is putting his hand in Jérémie’s camera lens and flipping him off, and Charles is just muttering, muttering, because there’s nothing they can do, and they get the sched that says Brunel and AkzoNobel, only 18 miles away on the south side of the channel, are in 20 KNOTS OF WIND! And he can’t know what fans knew watching the tracker, which is that it was just a momentary puff; both boats were back in 6 knots of wind a few minutes later. But on board they only get the sched once every 6 hours, and it will be 0100 UTC before they get another update and they are STUCK on the north side, committed, with no way to get across the adverse current; they’re just going to sit there and wallow while the fleet sails past them.
So for Charles it’s just like *fuck me*; it’s the Newport arrival all over again, when they went from leading the leg with every expectation of winning down to finishing 4th in the last few miles. Or going back to the last edition when they were on track to threaten ADOR for the overall race lead heading toward Cape Horn and then the mast just snapped and he slammed his hand on the wheel and screamed.
He’s usually so low-key. He’s quiet, and seems easy-going. But he is intensely competitive, even in a group full of hyper-competitive types, and you can see it there. He’s got nowhere to go and nothing he can do and you can totally see it in how his normal Mr. calm demeanor is gone and he’s just VIBRATING with frustration.
And yeah, the contrast between that and the quiet beauty around him, the awesome majesty of it, was so moving. It was like an almighty power of the universe enfolding them, and them being in it and part of it and yet unable to step outside themselves and witness it even as it moved through them.
Or something. Anyway, yeah, agree.
ETA: Here’s the video:
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/174391793096.
