After the Sh*t Show | The Hard Yards of Solo Sailing

A quick update now the heavy weather has passed, we took a bit of a pounding in short seas made worse by a backing breeze. as I said recently the maximum speed up wind in heavy conditions is 10 knots unless you want to be launching out the top of the waves that's much harder to do when a safe path across the waves is that 45° to the crest but that puts on a beam reach. --- Support me without needing to run away to sea: What if a piece of torn sailcloth could remind you what commitment looks like? This mainsail is on its final run across the Atlantic, flying torn and tired but still holding Osprey steady at 15 knots. It’s not a perfect fit—it’s 15 feet too short for the rig. But like me, it keeps going anyway. It’s done over 100,000 miles. It carried Dominique Wavre to a 5th and then 4th place in the Vendée Globe. It saved my solo crossing in 2018 when my “new” mainsail exploded off Land’s End. You can watch that whole mess unfold on YouTube. In 2024, it stepped in again after Osprey’s big sail blew out just before Newport–Bermuda. Now, once it finishes this delivery and we hit the Fastnet start, I’ll retire it. I’ll cut it into signed 8-by-10 pieces, scars and all, and stick on a label with the story of every mile it gave. A daily reminder that things don’t have to be perfect to be powerful—they just have to keep going. If you want one, join the $100 tier on Patreon for a single month, & I’ll send it anywhere in the world. Let this scrap of sailcloth remind you what perseverance looks like. Visit : https//:www.patreon.com/themariner