I saw a good documentary called, “Deep Water.”
There is this sailboat race around the world to see who would be the first person to sail around the world unsupported.
This guy decides it’s just the thing he wants to do but he doesn’t have a boat. So he designs one and gets financial backing to build it.
Only catch is, if he quits he has to pay for the boat. He puts up his house, which is housing his wife and 4 children, as collateral. On the day before the deadline to sail, he sits trembling saying “The boats not ready.” But people tell him that he must go. 
So he goes…..
Oh one more thing, he is not a real sailor, just a weekend sailor.
I saw Deep Water for the second time yesterday. Amazing movie – though also profoundly sad.
It was interesting to see how powerful the effects of the long, solitary voyage were for everyone who participated. The solitude of the ocean was devastating for Donald Crowhurst – you have to wonder whether, if he had been able to speak to his wife, thing would have turned out differently. The same solitude though, seemed to be liberating for Bernard Moitessier. Now I want to read the book based on Moitessier’s journel, The Long Route.
The documentary makers tried to make it seem like solitude was the enemy. That’s what people who haven’t experienced solitude always think. They think solitude will make people crazy.
Crowhurst set out seeking glory and as Moitessier said, “Anyone who is in this race for the glory is doomed.”
I liked when Moitessier first tastes solitude and joyfully exclaims, “For the first time in my life I get to truly be me.”
Crowhurst did seem to be getting benefits from solitude, it looked like he got going on some good mind trips with his thoughts on Enstien.
That’s what solitude is like. That’s the good stuff. Where you can think your own new thoughts, and be your own individual self.
The solitude wasn’t to blame, Crowhurst couldn’t face financial and social defeat.
Solitude didn’t doom Crowhurst, society did.