The Spirit of Helsinki -The Ocean Globe Race 2023

Yesterday, I stayed in an Airbnb house in Winchester, for a wedding. This morning, at breakfast, I met the sister of the Finnish Skipper/owner of the boat — The Spirit of Helsinki - which is taking part in the Ocean Globe Race. She had flown over from Helsinki to come to watch her brother, and crew, leave from Southampton tomorrow. Isn’t it amazing who you meet.

“The Ocean Globe Race (OGR) is a fully crewed retro race in the spirit of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race. It marks the the 50th anniversary of the original event.
It’s an eight-month adventure around the world for ordinary sailors on normal yachts. Racing ocean-going GRP production yachts designed before 1988, there will be no computers, no satellites, no GPS, and no high-tech materials. Sextants, team spirit and raw determination alone in the great traditions of ocean racing are allowed on this truly human endeavor. These will be real heroes pushing each other to the limit and beyond – in a real race!