18 November 2019 — 1642 mst
Greta Thunberg’s ride across the Atlantic
Thunberg, bound for the 2–13 Madrid conference on climate change, is crossing the Atlantic on a 48-foot catamaran, La Vagabonde, skippered by Australian Riley Whitelum. As of today, La Vagabonde was a couple of hundred miles east-northeast of Bermuda, moving east at 5.8 knots, or 6.6 miles per hour. Readers can follow her progress online.
Gibraltar is another 3,300 miles to the east, a distance requiring another 21 days of sailing at that speed. With strong winds and aggressive sailing, she might arrive in Madrid for the tailend of the conference.
La Vagabonde’s skipper, Whitelum, is a college flunk-out with a knack for making things happen, and a man who knows his priorities:
The two big events from then were buying the yacht and meeting Elayna. I won’t go into too much detail here suffice it to say that I love her more than anything, she is the best thing that has ever happened to me, she can sail to windward at like almost 30 degrees and can hold her own in 5m swell and gale force winds, one helluva boat. Elayna is also good.
The best coverage of La Vagabonde’s journey comes from Australia. ABC television in Australia has a detailed report, and photographs that show Thunberg smiling.
Thunberg is sailing instead of flying to make a political statement. In doing so, she presents an I’m Greener than Thou attitude that I find off-putting. But I suspect she also may be traveling on a slow boat for the respite from her stress filled schedule that it provides.