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well she's done it, I have to say I think that's a pretty impressive feat, I don't think I could even survive the lack of sleep she put up with

Not to mention the sheer exhausting work in keeping on a tight schedule in some of the roughest seas. Well done to her!

She beat the record of the recent French Dude by an hour and a half

That alone should be worth a National Holiday

To be honest I must say I feel a little bit sorry for these individuals who through their genes have this compulsion to risk life & limb for glory

Base Jumpers come into the same category...needing that extreme extra risk to get the high that you or I would get from winning something

Their almost like the Gladiators in many respects

So what truly drives them,Fame,Achievement,Money or is it just the high of the experince?

cheers
B....OZ

State-of-the-art boat, and nav-sat system, takes care of the speed factor and the difficulty of finding your way. Complete 24/7 support from a team of people on land and sea, takes care of the risk to life and limb. What's her achievement? Anyone with a decent amount of sailing behind them could have done it. Fact.

To me she's just a self-serving, glory-hunter, who whined incessantly about the challenges which were an inherent part of completing the task she'd chosen to undertake. Isn't embracing difficulty and overcoming it, the spirit of adventure? Give me Francis Chichester, or that Knox feller, every time. Real sailors. Real boats. Real danger. Real adventure. Real achievements. Not this manufactured, grey endeavour.

The worse thing is that this neurotic, self-pitying, ball of misery will inflict herself on us again and again as she takes on more challenges in the future, without ever realising that a challenge needs to be a challenge. It ain't just about the speed.

Rant over. I'm off to put some bromide in my tea.

it must be really sad to have such a negative view on life and other peoples achievements

Chatterji, your wrong my friend, sat-nav, and a back up team 1000,s of miles away, wont get you through 20ft waves, and storms, when you are completely alone, it takes a BIG dollop of courage, mental strenghth, and sheer tenacity to accomplish something like the voyage she has undertaken, I guess the captain of the Titanic thought he was pretty safe as well, with radio and radar etc, get fucking real mate, or try it yerself!

Sorry chaps, but I'm very positive about other people's achievements generally. Personally, I just don't rate this as a particularly significant achievement, and I find Ellen MacArthur, as a personality and a media phenomenon, incredibly irritating. The fact remains that hundreds of other sailors could have completed this journey. She got the sponsorship, so power to her, but don't tell me she's extraordinary. Paula Radcliffe is extraordinary.

Life is about commentary. We all criticise people whose actions we couldn't possibly emulate, and events about which we actually know very little. That's what keeps pubs in business.

My point is that I feel her achievement is nothing like as significant as our previous round-the-worlders. You want to talk courage Lizard? Courage is being in a 25 ft, wooden boat, utterly alone, navigating by sextant and compass, and facing down your fears without an audience. That's unbelievable Boy's Own stuff.

If you set yourself up as hero, then act like a fucking hero, and do something heroic.

Okay, so her achievement doesn't compare with Bligh's feat of seamanship after being set adrift to die by the mutineers, or Shackleton and crew trying to reach the safety of South Georgia after their Antarctic expedition went disastrously wrong, but it still needed physical and mental strength and a determination beyond what most of us are capable of.

Correct Carac, you do what you do at the time!, lots of sailors etc did extrordinary voyage,s using the technology they had at the time, chay blythe was a clasic example of someone who did that journey using what technology he could muster, but it,s not about technology, It,s about mental strenghth, a 5ft 2, 28 year old women sailing round the world on her own takes mental strength and BIG courage...

"Courage is being in a 25 ft, wooden boat, utterly alone, navigating by sextant and compass, and facing down your fears without an audience.

No thats just madness, and bad sponsorship .

See, you can do it, if you B&Q it, mind you they cant deliver a bathroom suite to me in 25 days, the piss poor fuckers.

When Capt. Joshua Slocombe did it sponsorship was never dreamed of.

Mart