Adventures are built around answering the unknown’s. There were so many questions leading up to the Bermuda Race this year for me. Genuine Risk was my third and final ride, and while I tend to believe things happen for a reason, that was stressful and somewhat hurtful. I’m trying to put my best foot forward and it often seems my profession and enthusiasm are a tough sell–no matter the ability.
I knew I needed to go, there was no question, and I needed to be on a big boat. Smaller boats have significant weight restrictions and less room for an extra body and camera equipment. But to do the Volvo you need experience, and experience that I desperately need. Not just sailing experience, I have plenty of that, but experience with gear offshore. Experience with handling equipment, editing, lighting and sound in those working environments. These are all things that bear no similarity to my previous life as a house-dwelling, bed-loving, steak-grilling sailing photographer and if I want to impress a team I will likely get one shot and the more practice I get before then the better. So I called a friend on Genuine Risk, made a proposal, and got the last-minute ticket to Bermuda.
I was unsure of a number of things. Genuine Risk is a boat that was more or less written off. It was slow, out of date, tired and abused after having sat on the hard for almost two years. What would the sails look like (some of them had been to the bottom of Lake Michigan)? What would the boat look like? What would the crew look like? It was a charter from Kings Point so I knew there would be a bunch of kids and a lot of people. Would anyone be in matching crew gear? Would we be competitive? I realized I was lucky to be going at all and I decided I was going to make the best of the situation and take the same level of passion into the Genuine Risk effort.
As we pulled into Bermuda on Monday morning it dawned on me how very wrong I was. 62 hours and 18 minutes after leaving Newport I looked back on an incredible race full of new friends, beautiful conditions, close competition, and a renewed sense of motivation. It was everything I wanted and more. Skipper and Bermuda resident Mark Watson should be thrilled after having led PUMA for most of the trip, eventually losing by 8 minutes on the water. For a boat full of people who have never sailed together things went extremely well. It was not without its hiccups but any boat of that size and complexity will. I was ecstatic at seeing the Kings Point “midshipmen” involved at such a young age. It reminds me how important it is to share sailing at this level with the younger generations. It needs to be accessible, promotable, exciting, and attainable, and the Kings Point sailing foundation has a really good feel for the importance of bringing kids into it the right way. That was awesome to witness first hand. They are all no doubt having a blast delivering the boat back right now, alone.
More than anything it was great to get out to sea and leave everything else behind. It’s a part of sailing so few people get to experience and I feel very fortunate to have done so. It only strengthened my conviction towards doing the next Volvo and it has become more than just a goal; in a lot of ways it is now a dream too.
