After the GGR storm: Gunnar recounts ordeal, Mara questions her Golden Globe future
The storm has eased, but its impact on the sailors is still unfolding. Two revealing appearances on GGR Window Live have brought the human challenge of the McIntyre Golden Globe Race into sharp focus: Gunnar Christensen’s account of extreme weather and lost equipment, followed by Mara’s unexpected suggestion that she could withdraw unless her campaign receives greater support on social media.
For a race, the most compelling story was not the distance between boats. It was what keeps their skippers going.
Gunnar: extreme seas, lost equipment and miles in the wrong direction
American skipper Gunnar Christensen, sailing the Hans Christian 34 cutter POMPOEN, was among the sailors race control had identified as particularly exposed to the approaching tropical storm.
In his account of today’s broadcast, race founder Don McIntyre described Gunnar as still appearing shaken while giving a frank explanation of what he had experienced: extreme 50-knot winds and 5-metre seas, equipment lost from the stern, and the frustration of being forced to sail directly away from his intended course for two days.
The shifting weather had left him heading 180 degrees in the wrong direction. His explanation brought a human perspective to the unusual tracks followers had been watching ashore. McIntyre described the broadcast as “an honest and raw appraisal” of the emotions involved in coping with the conditions.
By the 08:00 UTC update on 28 September, the wind had eased and Gunnar was once again heading east, although making just 2.6 knots, increasing his frustration. The immediate battle with the weather had given way to the slower task of rebuilding progress.
Mara: a campaign with a purpose beyond the finish line
A different concern emerged aboard SHOWGIRL, the Saltram Saga 36 sailed by Norway’s Helga Marie “Mara” Løvenskiold Kveseth.
According to McIntyre’s account of her Window Live appearance, Mara openly questioned whether she would continue in the race unless her shore team increased the social-media coverage of her campaign.
She explained that sailing alone around the world, or experiencing the Southern Ocean, was not enough on its own to justify the undertaking. Her overriding ambition was to promote her foundation and women’s causes—and she was concerned that the message was not reaching people ashore.
Having asked passing ships to check her accounts, she believed too little was being published, particularly on YouTube and Instagram. Her frustration centred on whether the months of effort and isolation ahead would achieve the wider purpose behind her voyage.
“This is a complete surprise to the organisers,” said McIntyre. “Now it appears the GGR is not the main game for Mara, social media is when most thought she was telling her GGR story. The GGR is a mind game before anything else and focus is the only thing that will get you to the finish.”
Her comments raised the possibility of withdrawing; they were not an announcement that she had retired. Nevertheless, they introduced an unexpected question about the future of her campaign.
The GGR WINDOW LIVE is an amazing experiment for half the fleet that is showing the world, in real time, the honesty of a tough challenge that impacts the mind, body and soul like never before. Entrants are only 21 days from Les Sables d’Olonne with another 200 days to endure!
Separate communications concerns raised with her team
Organisers have also contacted Mara’s shore team about a separate communications matter involving a third-party website publishing recordings of her radio traffic, alongside concerns about messages relayed from shore using amateur radio.
According to McIntyre, the team has been asked to arrange for the website to be taken down and the recordings removed.
Organisers also report that Mara used part of her live appearance to pass logistical instructions to her team about social-media posting. They say such team-directed logistical messages are not permitted under the Window Live code of conduct.
The distinction matters to the race’s format. Developed with Swedish technology partner TriPeak, GGR Window Live is a one-way broadcasting system designed to let audiences watch life aboard without giving skippers internet access or a two-way connection through the equipment.
With the Lanzarote film drop behind these sailors and the South Atlantic ahead, the prospect of perhaps another seven months aboard is becoming increasingly tangible. Today’s broadcasts exposed two very different pressures: recovering from a storm, and questioning whether the journey is fulfilling its purpose.
On the water: the leaders approach the trades
At the front, France’s Damien Guillou, aboard the Rustler 36 SOLAREM, and Ireland’s Pat Lawless, sailing the Saltram Saga 36 SILVERMINES HYDRO, continue their passage south.
In McIntyre’s 08:00 UTC assessment on 28 September, Guillou was making 6 knots, with Lawless at 5 knots in a lighter breeze. The forecast suggested they had reached the southeast trade winds 550 miles ahead of the main fleet, still struggling in the doldrums or headwinds, potentially opening the way to an even greater breakaway. The rich are getting richer!
Behind them, Andrea Lodolo, sailing BIBI, and Etienne Messikommer, aboard BERNARD, were separated by only a few miles. Ertan Beskardes follows aboard MISS BEAGLE.
Lodolo and Messikommer were both making around five knots on course, while Beskardes appeared relaxed and was progressing southeast at 4.6 knots.
Isa Rosli, aboard OLLEANNA, Matt Woodside, sailing TIPI HAERE, and Louis Kerdelhué, aboard IE CHARGE, were also working southeast, each making approximately two to three knots.
Farther west, Daniel Pinsky’s EXODUS and Henry Wootton’s PRIVATEER were struggling to find enough breeze to keep moving. Pinsky was making 0.3 knots, while Wootton and Mara were coaxing 2.5 knots, with SHOWGIRL under spinnaker.
The weather assessment offered some encouragement: the doldrums appeared to be weakening, with light winds rather than an extensive belt of complete calm. Progress could remain slow, but the forecast suggested fewer areas of total shutdown.
The tracker measures their progress in miles. Today, Window Live revealed something harder to quantify: the effort, uncertainty and personal conviction behind every one of them.
