johnelliott":3gdmf1ph said:
I couldn't have done what she did
Too right you couldn't, John - I can guarantee it!
johnelliott":3gdmf1ph said:
but isn't 'making history' and 'heroine' (both from BBC1 news) a bit much?
I think the BBC's comments were fair enough - the record arguably the most important offshore sailing record (the fully-crewed record is the other contender, but isn't nearly as much of a test on the individuals themselves) and warrants a place in the history books, so 'making history' is fair enough unless you feel that there shouldn't be historical records kept of this sort of thing (like, for example, Tenzing and Hillary's Everest ascent, or who won the World Cup in 1990)
How you feel about 'Heroine' is up to you - if you don't feel that sportsmen and/or adventurers should be given this label then that is your choice, but if you do, you should certainly accord Ellen the same title.
The media focuses on the 'human suffering' side of the record, as this is the only part of the achievement that the public can understand, but there is so much more to it than that. She has to be able to sail an incredibly complex and 'twitchy' out-and-out race boat on the edge (literally) at optimum speed, diagnose & fix the multitude of technical problems which come up during such a long race, understand the complexities of weather prediction, routing and navigation etc. etc. If you want to just focus on the human suffering side, why not try spending 71 days sleeping in 10-15 minute bursts (total 2-4 hours), lifting a sack of potatoes repeatedly above your head for several hours each day, sleeping on a shelf or in a chair in wet clothing with water dripping onto you, dismantling and reassembling your car engine, then at your most tired, try to decipher something complicated on the computer
(can't think of an example of sufficient complexity here), then fulfil your media obligations, then start the whole thing again? If you can manage this, all you need to do is to spend 15 years becoming one of the world's best sailors, build up a track record of sailing achievements to get to the stage where a major corporation will risk millions to support you, and then maybe you could make an attempt at doing what she has done.
Also if you think that this was a great achievement 'for a woman', I should point out that she already held the record for the fastest woman around the world, set four years ago - an achievement that she considered to be completely irrelevant.
Neil
I'd be popping down to Falmouth to cheer her in except I'm about 2hrs too late to get anywhere close enough to see anything. 
