ALICANTE, SPAIN // Whether fans were fluent in foreign tongues or not, being immersed in Spanish culture for several weeks underscored the point that the Volvo Ocean Race is a challenge in any language.
When Iker Martinez, the skipper of the Spanish boat, addressed the nuances of the nine-month odyssey’s opening leg, which began on Saturday with a gala bon voyage ceremony, he used words that any Westerner could fathom.
When he tossed around terms such as complicada (complicated), dificil (difficult) and impredecible (unpredictable), translators mostly were not necessary.
Suffering is a universal language.
For the first time in the four-decade history of the event, every vessel in the race has been built to the same specifications and, as the seven-boat fleet hit the open seas of the Mediterranean yesterday after a month of preparation in Spain, more questions than answers lingered about the nine-month journey.
Throw in worrisome variables such as weak winds, inclement weather, broken parts, icebergs, illness and injury, and the projected 24-day opening leg to South Africa could be a study in randomness.
As they queued up to travel from Escape Town to Cape Town, the skippers tried in vain to handicap the keys in the opening leg.
“I wish I knew the answer to that,” said Ian Walker, the skipper of Azzam, the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing yacht.
Azzam and her skipper are floating testament to the VOR volatility. Three years ago, a mere six hours into a nine-month event, the boat’s mast shattered like the lead in a No 2 pencil.
Three years earlier, Walker’s boat clipped a whale off the coast of Brazil in the first leg.
As the opening chapter of the 72,000-kilometre marathon began, the moral to the story was already written: something other than the tacking is sure to go sideways.
“You will see everything you could ever imagine, weather-wise, sea-wise,” said Azzam crewman Justin Slattery. “You’re just coping with it, dealing with it.
“Some of it is a whole lot of fun, some of it is the hardest thing you will ever do. But, afterward, looking back, you realise it is the most exhilarating thing you will do in your life.”
The excitement started early in the morning, when an estimated 30,000 onlookers swarmed over the dock area for the send-off ceremony, which included a parade of team members and an invocation from a priest.
The noise levels, with helicopters, the crowd and a blaring public-address system, seemed to have more to do with a stadium event.
“The environment around here is crazy,” said Sally Barkow, a crew member and former Olympian on the boat SCA. “Everybody is all fired up. I’m counting down the minutes to get onto the boat, so we can get into our routine.”
Professionally, most sailors could not wait for the 6,500-nautical-mile leg to start. On the personal front, it was a different story.
Azzam navigator Simon Fisher’s infant son, Alexander, whose first birthday comes this month while his dad is at sea, had his face buried in his father’s shoulder for many of their final minutes together. This is Fisher’s first Volvo race as a father.
“I think he knows his dad is leaving,” Fisher said.
In light winds of barely 10 knots, the first leg began with a looping, 5nm jaunt around a series of buoys placed within sight of the Alicante shoreline.
After completing the close-quarter loops, the Dutch boat, Brunel, held the lead as they broke for the mouth of the Mediterranean, with Azzam about 50 metres back in second and Spanish entry Mapfree third. At minimum, it should take 24 days to reach South Africa.
A few feet from where Azzam was docked for the past month stood a large poster, covered with handwritten messages from each member of the boat’s crew.
As the fleet sailed towards the salty unknown, a comment written by Slattery never seemed more appropriate. He wrote: “VOR – The best, worst experience of your life.”
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'Brazen'
Director: Monika Mitchell
Starring: Alyssa Milano, Sam Page, Colleen Wheeler
Rating: 3/5
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
One in four Americans don't plan to retire
Nearly a quarter of Americans say they never plan to retire, according to a poll that suggests a disconnection between individuals' retirement plans and the realities of ageing in the workforce.
Experts say illness, injury, layoffs and caregiving responsibilities often force older workers to leave their jobs sooner than they'd like.
According to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research, 23 per cent of workers, including nearly two in 10 of those over 50, don't expect to stop working. Roughly another quarter of Americans say they will continue working beyond their 65th birthday.
According to government data, about one in five people 65 and older was working or actively looking for a job in June. The study surveyed 1,423 adults in February this year.
For many, money has a lot to do with the decision to keep working.
"The average retirement age that we see in the data has gone up a little bit, but it hasn't gone up that much," says Anqi Chen, assistant director of savings research at the Centre for Retirement Research at Boston College. "So people have to live in retirement much longer, and they may not have enough assets to support themselves in retirement."
When asked how financially comfortable they feel about retirement, 14 per cent of Americans under the age of 50 and 29 per cent over 50 say they feel extremely or very prepared, according to the poll. About another four in 10 older adults say they do feel somewhat prepared, while just about one-third feel unprepared.
"One of the things about thinking about never retiring is that you didn't save a whole lot of money," says Ronni Bennett, 78, who was pushed out of her job as a New York City-based website editor at 63.
She searched for work in the immediate aftermath of her layoff, a process she describes as akin to "banging my head against a wall." Finding Manhattan too expensive without a steady stream of income, she eventually moved to Portland, Maine. A few years later, she moved again, to Lake Oswego, Oregon. "Sometimes I fantasise that if I win the lottery, I'd go back to New York," says Ms Bennett.
First-round leaderbaord
-5 C Conners (Can)
-3 B Koepka (US), K Bradley (US), V Hovland (Nor), A Wise (US), S Horsfield (Eng), C Davis (Aus);
-2 C Morikawa (US), M Laird (Sco), C Tringale (US)
Selected others: -1 P Casey (Eng), R Fowler (US), T Hatton (Eng)
Level B DeChambeau (US), J Rose (Eng)
1 L Westwood (Eng), J Spieth (US)
3 R McIlroy (NI)
4 D Johnson (US)
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