Today is exactly 50 years since that day in 1969 Bernard Matese on the yacht, Joshua made Tahiti their unprecedented non-stop swimming 37 455 nautical miles.
It is difficult to imagine that any of our readers anything about Matese not heard, but just in case something will tell.
Frenchman Bernard Matese was the only serious competitor Robin Knox-Johnston during the first round the world race lone Golden Globe Race. Even though he started two months later the British, but moved at a distance on his 12-metre steel yacht is much faster and had all the chances to receive the prize of 5,000 pounds, any one who will show to race the best time.
But in Plymouth Matese never came. February 10, 1969, his boat Joshua was seen near the Falkland Islands are already on their way to Europe, but something happened that nobody expected. 18 Mar Matese went on a RAID… of Cape town and with a sling thrown to the deck of the anchored tanker Bank with the message: “Cape horn was passed on February 5… I am continuing non-stop the race and go to the Pacific Islands, because I feel happy at sea and perhaps to save his soul.”
21 June of the same year Matese, making one and a half non-stop around the globe, reached Tahiti. And explained to reporters:
– To talk about records is silly – it means to offend the sea. The idea of a competition is absurd. You need to understand that when a person is alone for months, he evolyutsioniruet. Some would say – crazy. Yes, in my own way, I went crazy. Four months I saw only stars. My hearing is not tormented by the unnatural sounds. This solitude gives birth to purity. I said to myself: “What the hell are you going to do in Europe?”
PS Fans Matese (and there are many) is celebrated today and another date. Exactly 25 years ago – June 21, 1994, the body of the great French traveler and philosopher, was interred. He died five days earlier.
finishedtahiti
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