Admiration

I’ve been following Ellen MacArthur’s progress on and off for the past few weeks, and one thing that has surprised me is how the press haven’t really picked up on what she doing, what she is putting herself through.

If you’ve ever seen any footage of her sailing, particularly from the Vendee Globe a couple of years ago (she was second, but who won?), you’ll have an idea of how mentally draining solo sailing can be. Currently Ellen is on course to beat the previous record by almost two days, but it might not be the winds that let her down. She is hardly sleeping, as this email from Ellen to her support team mentions.

I know how badly I can function after one night of disturbed sleep, but I’m sure I have no idea how you cope with, on average, less than three hours sleep a day. I hope she makes it.