Sunday, October 4, 2009

Solo sailing teaches life’s bare essentials

"Long distance, non-stop solo sailing is the supreme teacher when it comes to learning about life’s bare essentials. Making it to the end in one piece means looking far ahead and wasting nothing. But it was only on coming ashore to take a two month break on the remote South Atlantic isle of South Georgia that she realised the lessons she’d learnt within the tiny fibreglass walls of her boat’s hull also applied to the planet.

Having sailed around the world many times, MacArthur knows exactly how big — or small — it really is. South Georgia’s grim whaling stations, abandoned only when the whales had been all but wiped out, presented her with a stark vision of our inability to use resources sustainably."

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