Alex Thomson And Vendee Globe

Alex Thomson has his own stories to tell as he has completed the eighth edition of the Vendee Globe tour that had a total of 29 skippers participating across the nations and four continents. Alex Thomson can be considered to be the first winner from Britain of this historic solo world race in sailing.

He recounted in the media his experiences of the day the group set sail from the Les Sables d’Olonnne on November 6th. For him the race was the fourth attempt. The atmosphere was incredible among the thousands of people who came to see the skippers off. He admits that waving goodbye to his family is the hardest thing to do, but his wife understands that it is his life’s ambition and supports him in his endeavors.

Alex had been in the news during the early part of the race, being in the lead from day seven and he was well on his way to breaking a previous record set by other skippers. However, he had a setback on day 14th when his hull scraped against a submerged object. This tore through his starboard foil. Goodness knows what you’d do if you were chartering a foil in Croatia yourself!? This upset his plans and his achievements that came quite close to breaking the records of past boats that had sailed a similar course.

Alex admits that what helped him through the trip was to remain positive and visualization techniques that allowed him to remove himself mentally from the boat and be able to calm his mind. This helped him to sleep, which was often difficult for the boat. However, the fact that he had completed his journey date even after the unfortunate incident has been a learning lesson for him as well as other solo skippers. It is indeed an epic challenge to face such struggles and endure the same on one’s own.