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Around Alone

Dennis Nears Torbay Unscathed and Optimistic

Estimated Arrival This Evening

jeudi 3 octobre 2002Redaction SSS [Source RP]

It takes a certain type to sail around the world solo, and John Dennis, a Toronto business executive with diabetes, has shown he has both the character, the will and the smarts to fulfill his lifelong dream.

Only a short distance from Torbay, England, where the Around Alone global solo sailing race makes its first stop since a Sept. 15 start in New York, Dennis looks to be fourth for this leg among six 50-foot boats competing in his Class 2. (Seven 60-foot boats also are competing in Class 1 and have all reached Torbay.) Plagued by frustratingly light winds in this final stretch, Dennis is expected to finish at about midnight tonight Torbay time.

Dennis‚ trip has been anything but idyllic, with high winds and large seas at times dominating the conditions, but the 57-year-old has fared well. "It has been very wet, much more so than I expected," said Dennis, "but I feel good about Ascensia’s performance and my own."

"When I arrive in Torbay, coupled with my qualifying run to and from the Azores, I will have crossed the Atlantic three times in two months," said Dennis, who monitors his diabetes while at sea. "Most people don’t do that in a lifetime. And certainly it proves that a diabetic doesn’t have to leave his dreams behind."

Scheduled to leave Torbay on October 13, the Around Alone fleet will race to Cape Town, South Africa, Tauranga, New Zealand and Salvador, Brazil before returning to Newport, R.I., U.S.A. in the Spring, approximately eight months after the fleet’s initial departure from New York. Among the course challenge zones are the Southern Ocean, where there is a high frequency of gales and waves have been recorded at their largest (up to 120 feet high), and the tip of Cape Horn, considered one of the world’s most dangerous areas.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, race organizer of Around Alone and the first person to sail single-handedly and non-stop around the world, sums up the magnitude of the race this way : "While approximately 1500 people have successfully scaled Mt. Everest, fewer than 120 people have ever sailed around the world alone."

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