Corinthian Resolve: The Story of the Marion-Bermuda Race [Hardcover]

Writer-sailor Mark Gabrielsons new book is a fine, often surprising sea story of men and women who share a distinctively contrarian understanding of what sailing really should bean adventure by amateur sailors in normal cruising boats making their damp, exciting way across rough seas to a beautiful, beckoning, remote destination.The story of how the Marion-Bermuda Yacht Race came into being and the inspiring story of how it confronted the growing professionalism in ocean racing. Read about the founders and their Corinthian principles. Hear narratives from many colorful characters and read about some of the dramatic events that happened offshore during these fast passages to Bermuda. Complete with charts, graphs and beautiful color and black-and-white photographs.From the IntrroductionSince 0230 that morning, Karina had been enveloped in thick fog. The sky was completely obscured. Jacks Naviguesser Mike couldnt take any sights. He did have a thermometer aboard, an essential piece of equipment for sailors traversing the Gulf Stream. Karina didnt carry the convenient hard-wired digital type used today. Instead he had a thermometer that he dipped in a bucket of seawater hoisted aboard for the purpose. The latest measurement showed that the ocean water temperature was beginning to rise. This was bad. Simultaneously rising wind speed and temperature are a combination Bermuda-bound sailors dont like to see. It means heavy wind would combine with current, unpredictable squalls, and often tumultuous heavy seas in the Gulf Stream. If the wind blew strongly counter to the current, waves could build to a frightening size.By 0600 Karina was straining under sustained winds of 35 knots, with gusts up to 40. Jack and his friends had furled the mizzen and genoa, reefed the main, and hanked on a working jib. At 1100, the water temperature spiked to 77 degrees; they were in the Stream. Moments later, Karina was knocked down on her beam ends by an enormous sea driven by a polă