The Volvo Ocean Race, which sets off from Spain on October 11, contradicts the image of sailboat racing as a cushy, refined sport. The round-the-world competition covers 37,000 nautical miles; sailors can expect to encounter winds that gust up to 60 knots, waves that crest at 60 feet, and icebergs the size of Rhode Island. Several people have been killed over the years. It's a hard-core nautical adventure, which is how the original organizers, the Royal Naval Sailing Association and the Whitbread brewery, envisioned it. The first Whitbread Round the World Race, as it was called in 1973, loosely followed the old clipper ship trading route: Portsmouth, England, to Cape Town to Sydney to Rio de Janeiro, with a return to Portsmouth. It was the fastest, most straightforward route around the world, and also a perilous one....
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