Previous questions

Hi Bernard,

How much and what kind of food do have with you on board?

Regards,

Michael Rasmussen

Denmark

Dear Michael

I am having a food-bag per day, and I have prepared a bag for each day on the leg; - for example 55 bags for the second leg.
In a bag, you have food for 24 hours.
They are all the same, only the taste change.
Every day, you find:

• a breakfast, with cereal and powder of milk
• dried meat and vacuum-packed cheese
• dried food (pasta bolognaise, pasta Milanese, couscous with chicken, rice chicken, omelette with ham, ham puree French style…)
• a soup
• dried fruits
• cereal bars
• energy gel
• tea, herb tea, coffee…

/Bernard

Hi Kojiro,

I would like to ask you what kind of feelings a person has when passing Cape Horn? Were you scared at any point? What went throuhg your mind?

All the best and good luck!

Tamara Milovanovic

Serbia

Hi Tamara,

Here are Kojiros comments on passing Cape Horn:

I have passed Cape Horn! It was stormy weather during the day. In the night I could just make out the Cape by the light of the stars in the sky and see the light of the light house. It looked a real picture. I really want to say thank you to everyone for helping me pass Cape Horn safely.

Hello skippers,

Obviously this race is a challenge to your "hardware", but to a certain point the mental state of the skippers must also come into play. It goes without saying that if you don't have a boat, you cannot race, no matter which mental state you are in. But even if you do have a boat, you still need to have your mind set on a race like this, or else I can imagine you would never set sails at all.

To which degree would you rate the value of the mental state of the skippers ?

And how do you prepare yourselves mentally, prior to the race?

Thank you, and keep up the impressive sailing!

Kind regards,

John Lundgreen

Denmark

Hi John,

An even mental state is a primary goal for me as a solo sailor. The whole race and individual legs are very long so it is important to not to be too emotional about any particular day. Not to get too emotional on the highs nor too depressed about the lows. An even calm state of mind important for the race but also for personal well being. Zen and meditation are very important for me in achieving this. I recommend to everyone to try it in their own lives so that we can all be relaxed and achieve our best.

Kojiro

Dear Kojiro, 

I have a couple of questions for you.

Do you have contact with your wife and daughter while on boat? 

How do you cope with a change of climate? 

Do you listen to music while sailing, and if so - what kind?

Good luck and all the best.

Jadrana Curkovic
Croatia

Dear Jadrana,
 
Thank you for your question.
 
I try to speak with my wife and daughter about once a week. It is expensive but it makes me feel good. However the communications here in the Southern Ocean are not always good and many times we lose the connection so calls are usually short. My daughter is still very young and does not understand where Dad is except that he is away on a boat but I do enjoy hearing her voice.
 
Music is very important on the boat and I have an iPod full of music as well as a CD player. Mostly I listen to classical or Japanese songs. I also enjoy listening to short stories usually comedic ones which keep the boat a smiling place.
 
In this leg the climate has not changed too much - it has been always cold! But we will see a big difference when we come back up the side of South of American and approach the equator. Then we have to change the food, the amount of liquid intake and of course all of the type of clothing I wear. It will be good to spend more time on deck too. I am from a warm country so usually I prefer the heat.
 
Kojiro

I just have two simpel question:

1. How do you maintain your question course by night when you are sleeping, and how du you secure not to sail into something. Is there some kind of alarm in your GPS? 

2. How much sleep do you normaly get pr. night?

(From Michael Jensen, Denmark)

"Dear Michael,

The reply is simple. Other than it is dark we do not distinguish between day and night. I try to sleep 4~5 hours in a day and usually in 20 minute naps. So they are spread through both day and night. Sometimes I will try to get one good sleep of one hour to recharge myself better, but only if the weather and boat conditions allow.

We maintain course by autopilot, it is an important device that runs from the wind instruments and allows me to change sails, eat, sleep, navigate etc while not on the helm. Autopilots are critical to every solo sailor.

On the boat we have radar but we only use this when weather is bad as it uses a lot of the precious battery power. Our best option is to let other shipping see us rather than we try to see them. So we have a system called 'active-echo' these are electronic reflectors which amplify other ships radars and make us appear bigger than we actually are. So hopefully ships can see us better and take avoiding action.

Unfortunately Whales and ice do no obey active echo!

Here in the Southern ocean there are very few ships, it will not be until we near the South American coast that we will see ships again. I will probably not see any other human for another 4 weeks. But Ice and Icebergs are a much greater concern.

Thank you for your question

Kojiro"

What is the most important part in the preparation for sailing solo round the world? (From Michael Andersen, Denmark)

Every stage of preparation for the boat, the skipper and the sailing is important. Onboard an Open 60, everything has a purpose, nothing is redundant. We have to maximize the potential of the boat and the skipper all the way to the finish. Everything has to be pretty functional for this. If I had to define what the most important is I would say motivation, technical preparation and then the weather preparation. If I have planned my course well and if, with my team, we have managed to prepare the boat, then I should be able to use it like a car. I can just put the key in the ignition and not even wonder if it is going to work or not, and it would take us on the next step towards victory.

How come that Sir Robin Knox-Johnson has number 44 as there were no more than 8 boats for race start? Is there any special criteria/ reason for this or is number 44 simply his "number of luck"?

Each skipper choices a number when they register their boat (with IMOCA etc) for security reasons. These numbers stay with the boat/skipper throughout all the races so the numbers are not only for the VELUX 5 OCEANS.