Skipper Wilson, in his most recent podcast and log, talks about his experiences with others living at sea — in this case, a white bird and a school of flying fish.

Flying fish don’t actually fly, although it’s easy to see why people thought they did. What they do is to jump out of the water and, using their fins and tail, glide through the air — some for quite long distances! They have very large pectoral fins (the fins at the side of the body), that resemble wings. These fins and the lower part of their forked tail help the fish to leave the water and to gain speed once they’re above the surface. Flying fish leave the water to escape from predators, who aren’t able to see them gliding above the surface of the water because of the way light is filtered by the water below.

Flying fish glide very quickly — up to twice their swimming speeds — and some have even been clocked gliding at 45 miles per hour! Now you see why Skipper Wilson was worried about what could happen if one of these fish hit him in the eye!

Don’t forget to listen to the most recent podcast and read Skipper Wilson’s latest log.

Eight days into the Vendée Globe, and Skipper Wilson is working hard. As noted in our last few posts, the weather at the start was rough, forcing four sailors to abandon the journey and four others to turn back for repairs. Skipper Wilson sailed with skill and luck, and the Great American III seems to be holding up well.

Poor Skipper Wilson, however, is a bit worse for wear. He was below deck last week when some rough seas threw him across the boat and into a metal handle. He suffered a cracked rib and a lot of soreness in his back, but with his well-packed medical kit and expert advice from his doctor back on shore, he seems to be weathering this setback. He says he is healing, but he will feel that injury for a while.

You can read about Skipper Wilson’s injury in his log or listen to a podcast update about his health.

We haven’t heard from Skipper Wilson yet today, but we know he’s still very much in the race because we can track his boat and all the other racers using this really cool tracking map from the Vendée Globe website. This map can layer on interesting visual data on each racer’s route, weather trends, racer positioning and other useful information.

You should also check out the following video that provides a 3-D look at the race route.  It gives you a  good sense of just how far these sailors will have to travel over the next few months. What an incredible journey they have ahead of them.

It’s early in the race but the sailors have already encountered challenging conditions. The wind and the waves made for rough seas. In fact, some sailors have already been forced from the race or are heading back to shore for repairs.

For Skipper Wilson, conditions were definitely rough, but he is finding ways to cope. In fact, the latest word is that the seas are calming down and the downwind conditions have improved. For a firsthand report of how Skipper Wilson is faring, you can read his log or listen to his latest podcast.

This afternoon, Skipper Wilson and 29 other sailors cast off and set sail out into the northern Atlantic Ocean on what is sure to be an exciting three months. The race began in the morning as local fishermen led the competitors on the 25-minute journey out of the harbor in Les Sables d’Olonne, France. Shortly after noon, all 30 boats assembled three miles offshore to await the opening festivities and the official start, which sounded at 1:02 p.m.

Watch this video to get a sense of what others have been experiencing in Les Sables d’Olonne as the start of the Vendée Globe approached.

Join us later this week as we start sharing some of the excerpts from Skipper Wilson’s logs as he sails around the world. You can always find more from Skipper Wilson at sitesAlive!

And, Skipper Wilson, as the French say, Bon Vent! Good luck with the race!

Planning an adventure can be very exciting, but it also can be stressful. You want to have a good time, so you want to make sure you’ve planned ahead and thought logically about problems that might arise. It can be really frustrating to realize you’ve left something important behind.

That is even more of a problem when you’re on a boat and can’t stop for supplies or assistance in fixing a problem. It’s not like Skipper Wilson can just run to the hardware store if something breaks. He has to have a plan to fix it and the tools aboard the boat.

You also have to consult maps, devise routes, and analyze lots of data when you’re planning an adventure. You have to make sure your boat is in tip-top shape. And you have to make sure you are in peak physical shape, too. Skipper Wilson talks a little bit about his training in this video:

Finally, when your whole adventure is going to take place on a 60-foot-long boat, you don’t have a lot of storage room. You have to make hard choices about what you take with you. You need to pack the normal things you’d take on a trip—maps, food, clothing, and any medicine you might have to take (Skipper Wilson, for instance, has to take asthma medicine with him)— as well as supplies for the boat—different types of sails for all kinds of weather, computers, back-up equipment, and tools.

You have to be thorough in your packing choices. On the other hand, every item you take with you weighs your boat down and slows how quickly you can finish the race. So you have to pack smart.

Check out more about Skipper Wilson at his website, sitesALIVE!

Skipper Rich Wilson sets sail on his boat, Great American III, in the Vendée Globe Race on Sunday. He will be at sea, sailing around the world by himself, for many months. It’s one of the hardest sailing races in the world because sailors not only have to keep going every day in very difficult conditions all by themselves, but also because they have to sail as fast as they can to beat the other boats. There’s not a lot of time to sit back and relax.

This video is from the Transat B2B race earlier this year when Skipper Wilson sailed the Great American III alone from Brazil to France to qualify for the Vendée Globe. You can hear the wind whipping past the microphone and see that the sea is relatively calm on the day of the recording:

Skipper Wilson will be happy to see days like this come along during the Vendée Globe. Too often there will be dangerous seas and icebergs and other hazardous conditions that he will have to battle through. Skipper Wilson will report on them from his site, sitesALIVE!, where he will update from the Great American III. Here on this site, we’ll offer more information about what he’ll be experiencing—from what causes the wind he uses to power his sails to the creatures he encounters swimming past his boat.

We hope that you will come back here as the race gets started next week. In the meantime, click on the tabs at the top of the page to learn more about Skipper Wilson, the Great American III, and the Vendée Globe. We look forward to sharing this sailing adventure with you.

Nineteen days to go until Skipper Rich Wilson sets sail in the Great American III for a solo spin around the world in the Vendée Globe race.

Other useful information:

• SitesALIVE!, Skipper Wilson’s personal site
• Vendée Globe’s official homepage
• Les Sables-d’Olonne, the race’s home base [Click on the British flag in the top right corner to switch to English]
• Vendée Globe Junior, the French language site for kids and teachers

Check back often to see how the preparations are going.