To have internet strong enough to be able to rent movies to our laptop is a rare thing for us on this leg of the journey. On top of that, to have a huge HD TV that we can plug into the laptop and watch said movies, is a real treat. The last time we saw a film in the theater was in February and I don’t expect to have the opportunity again for more than a year. The first thing we did, as the narcissists that we are, was to watch some of our own movies which were filmed in HD on an actual big HD screen. Way nicer looking than on our laptop.

We rented a bunch of movies and while I won’t bore you with our thoughts on the run-of-the-mill comic and other movies we rented, I will mention two sailing and/or ocean related films that we saw.

The first ocean related movie was the most recent version of Kon-Tiki. I’ll start by admitting that I haven’t read the book by Heyerdahl or seen any other versions of the movie. I thought the movie was beautifully filmed, was interested to find out that Thor’s wife’s name was Liv, and, having made my own less dramatic landfalls, I was impressed by the emotional enormity of that particular landfall to the men aboard.

The second ocean related movie was Chasing Ice. If you want to be deeply disturbed by glacier retreat while at the same time overwhelmed by beautiful pictures of ice formations, this is your film. I’m very glad we had a chance to see it.

THANK YOU MOM! We put your donation to good work.

In other news, I’ve started making a collection of sailing films, mostly freely available online here. It isn’t finished yet and I’ll write more when it is.

You must see this homespun documentary.

If you are a non-boater who likes documentaries you should see this. If you are a sailor, you should see it. And, plus, it's a free movie night, right?


Hold Fast from Moxie Marlinspike on Vimeo.

The film is 1 hour and 15 min long so grab a glass of wine some evening soon and start streaming. It's starts off with some odd black screen moments but give it time. The ultimate in budget cruising.

And don't' forget to see Deep Water another time.

Wow. Totally intense DVD watching last night.

Many sailors know the story of the first non-stop around the world boat race, The Golden Globe, which later became the Vendée Globe. The first year's race is a terrific true story that I can't give details about without ruining the crazy plot twists. It is where the mystic legendary status of Moitessier began, or at least was solidified, in the single-handing world and also where the name Crowhurst became infamous.

I originally was exposed to the story in a history of the Vendée Globe titled Godforsaken Sea: The True Story of a Race Through the World's Most Dangerous Waters. I'm not particularly interested in racing but this is a great book about racing for a cruiser to read because it is about racing non-stop across oceans while rounding all of the biggest capes.

For those unfamiliar with the Vendée Globe, it is essentially an out-and-back around-the-buoy race except the buoy is Antarctica. Boats leave France (originally from England) and head South and then East, below Africa and circle Antarctica keeping all of the land masses to port (i.e., to the left). The boats have a single sailor aboard who cannot touch land or receive any assistance (even routing assistance) without disqualifying themselves. They sail through the Southern Ocean, home of the most intense waters on the planet. They aren't called the Roaring Forties (i.e., referring to the latitude south) for nothing. Sick.

Last night, we picked up a copy of Deep Water from the public library, a documentary about the first year of the Vendée Globe. The movie has actual footage from the boats and interviews from friends, family members and survivors of the race. I wish I could tell you more without ruining the surprises but I can't. See it. Yachtie or not, I think you'll enjoy it.