Deep Water

"Some times a man has to chose between his life and a woman.
Its an easy choice really..."
-Paraphrased quote from a French adventurer/sailor

I watched a film on PBS about a solo sail boat race around the world in the 60's last night.
The first of its kind... Non stop self supported.
He was an adventurer and was in second place.
On the way back to England in 2nd place he suddenly abandoned the race and turned back south to sail around the world again.
He had been on that boat all alone for over 6 months and decided to do it again...
He sailed 1/2 around the world again before he stopped.
But the movie wasn't about him.
It was about the dark horse in the race that didn't stand a chance and had very little sailing experience.
He got sponsors, designed and built a prototype boat and he as the last sailor to leave before the dead line.
The boat wasn't ready but he was under alot of media pressure and sponsor pressure.
He never even made it around the tip of Africa before his boat started to come apart.there was no way for him to win and if he didn't finish he was finically ruined.
He started to do mad
He made up his progress in radio transmissions, told them he had sailed 237 miles in one day... a new sailing record... and then he hid.
After sitting alone on his boat for months knowing that he had lied to everyone, his boat falling apart, scribbling insanely in his journals and ranting on tape, he jumped in behind the last boat on their approch back to England.
He had himself convinced that with his faked logs he could make everyone believe that he had sailed around the world.
Then he really cracked...
His boat was found adrift and he was never seem again... assumed suicide, where could he have gone in the middle of the ocean?
He had a wife and 5 children
It was called Deep Water
It was an Independent Lens film
Check it out
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/