I admire Bernard Moitessier, a French-Vietnamese sailor, who in his memoir, The Long Way (1971), describes his epic adventure around the world. He participated in the first Golden Globe sailboat race to circumnavigate the globe, solo, non-stop, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin, and Cape Horn. Despite being a heavily-favored contender to win, Moitessier decides, after rounding Cape Horn, to abandon the race and keep sailing to Tahiti, completing the longest ever solo sail at the time. I admire Moitessier’s perseverance, ability to adapt, eco-consciousness, and pursuit of happiness, instead of fame or fortune.  

        Bernard Moitessier’s perseverance is dauntless. For ten months, he sailed by himself thirty-seven thousand nautical miles without stopping in port. The sheer length of time alone required incredible willpower and mental toughness, while dealing with the hardships of the sea. Twice his boat was capsized in the Southern Oceans, and was once hit by a freighter, but he sailed on. The cabin of the boat was constantly drenched in salt water. I think perseverance is an important quality to have because it helps you combat obstacles and to reach your goals.

        I also admire Moitessier for his ability to adapt to situations beyond his control: “Destiny deals the cards, but we play them.” Throughout his voyage he encountered many difficulties. The biggest change that he confronted was leaving a life full of people to being alone. He even imagines birds as companions. Reading the book during Covid made me connect with this struggle. There are also practical challenges: he invents better ways to collect drinking water and to fix broken equipment. Adaption is an incredible skill to have in life because again it allows you to keep chasing your dreams.

        Moitessier was a very eco-conscious sailor, who cared about preserving wildlife and the ocean. Lots of the things he observed fifty years ago in the book are extremely relevant today. He writes that humans are simply blindly following one another to climate disaster, and says for the human race to prevent this we must make radical changes to our treatment of the environment, what he calls a “suicide tack” in a sailing term. When I hike with my family or sail on the Long Island Sound, I really appreciate the beauty of our planet and it makes me sad that we are continuing to destroy it.

        Part of what Moitessier believes distracts people from the beauty of nature, is the false pursuit of happiness found in money. This pursuit of money distracts people from pursuing peace or mental health. I was struck by one sentence in the book: “There are two terrible things for a man: not to have fulfilled his dream, and to have fulfilled it.”  Moitessier gives up on winning the race, and fame, in favor of finding peace within nature and himself.

        Moitessier’s perseverance, ability to adapt, environmental concerns, and dedication to a moral compass, make him someone I look up to, and aspire me to be my best self. His odyssey changed the way I think about my everyday life and led me to appreciate everything, focus on inner peace, and enjoy the journey.