Review: Deep Water

Review: Deep Water

You think a giant mechanical shark was scary? Just wait til you have nightmares of monster waves eating your tiny sailboat in the Southern Ocean.


So recently, Dan and I found this fantastic sailing blog called Windtraveler, written by a couple from Chicago who is living the dream of sailing their boat Rasmus on the open seas. (Actually, they are currently back in Chicago for a pit stop while they have their baby girl, but that’s irrelevant to this particular post.) So anyway, I’ve been reading their blog from the beginning and found a post about the movie Deep Water about the Golden Globe solo circumnavigation race in 1969. Windtraveler highly recommended the movie as “gripping” and says “there is definitely a lesson to be learned from Donald Crowhurst, may he rest in peace.” Well, I’d say I learned about 2 main lessons from the movie:
1. Never, for any reason, allow your husband to sail the open ocean without you.
2. Ever.
I mean, seriously, I don’t think I have ever watched or heard or read of a story that was so devastatingly heart-breaking. I mean, you could not make up a story so tragic as the story of Donald Crowhurst. Not to beat down on Brittany from Windtraveler or anything, but you could have warned me that I am going to have separation anxiety from my husband for weeks now, clinging to him like a two year old who thinks his mommy is never going to come pick him up from day care. Why? you may ask. Well let me give you a little breakdown of the solo race around the world.
Of the nine contestants, 4 didn’t make it out of the Atlantic, 1 got just past the Cape of Good Hope and gave up after having 27 straight days of terrible weather, 1 got 1100 nautical miles from the end before sinking his boat, 1 decided he would rather leave his family in France and keep on going around the world*, 1 committed suicide after losing his mind, and 1 finished. Not a great outcome if you ask me.
The movie focused mostly on the experience of Donald Crowhurst. He was left in an absolutely tragic state of trying to decide between death by drowning and absolute financial and reputational ruin after his boat started taking on water in the beginning of the race, and in the end he chose both. Truly, though, the real lesson that I took from his story was this: there is nothing so tragic as losing your life because you are afraid of losing it. You have to face your problems head on, even if there is nothing scarier that you can think of doing, especially if you have someone you love who will face them with you. It is always better to stand with your family, rebuilding out of the rubble, than being alone in the end.
So there you go, maybe I did learn something from this terribly depressing movie. (But seriously, Dan is never going to do a solo circumnavigation now.)
*So I know a lot of people are inspired by the writing of Bernard Moitessier, but couldn’t he have just gone back for his wife and then gone to Tahiti? I mean, really.
Uncertainty in Life

Uncertainty in Life

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

 – Nobel laureate Andre Gide

Uncertainty. It scares people. A lot of people spend a good portion of their lives trying to reduce or eliminate it. In general, people want to feel warm and cozy in their lives. Risk is to be minimized, chances not taken. Michele and I can’t do that. We both know people who are happy with that life, and that’s great for them. It’s just most definitely not for us.

A lot of people think we’re crazy for following our dream to sail over the horizon. One of the first questions they ask is what happens if something goes wrong? I always tell them something will go wrong. The question is better phrased “what will you do when something goes wrong?” We’ll do exactly what we have always done. Deal with it and persevere.

We have been sky diving, scuba diving, rock climbing, and many other “extreme” activities… yet we don’t think of ourselves as “extreme” or adrenaline junkies or risk seekers. We know our limits and (usually) stay within them. I don’t see the point of not pushing yourself, however. How do you know you won’t like skydiving? Try it.

Do you have the courage to lose sight of whatever shore you are clinging to? I hope so. Grow in yourself and seize the opportunities life gives you. Follow your dreams. Follow the horizon.

Follow the Horizon is participating in National Blog Post Month (NaBloPoMo). NaBloPoMo is for bloggers who commit to post each day in the month of May.