I mentioned this earlier, check out this video. Find the rest here.

I have been trying to keep politics out of this blog for a while, but I had to say something about this important visit.

I applaud Stephen Harper for making the decision to meet with the Dalai Lama publicly instead of the more common and cowardly option of meeting in private to avoid policital problems with China.

That said, I hope that some of His Holiness’s message gets through to our fearless leader. I think the government is simply responding to opinion polls in making this meeting happen, but there is almost no one on this earth who can not have a big smile on their face when listening His Holiness speak.

Stephen, I hope you end up with big smiles of compassion on your face this afternoon. Canada and the world needs your compassion.

The race reports on the Transat 650 site have been frustratingly slow and at times confusing because of that endearing “franglais” dialect. However, this morning’s report really conveys why this race is so special.

“Every day life on the Transat 6,50 Charente-Maritime/Bahia’s pontoons: tears, laughs, and long hugs… All the sailors have been through hell and paradise during the race. And all of them are proud and satisfied of what they have done.”

Just getting to the start line takes two years of commitment, every financial resource at your disposal, thousands of hours working on the boat just to keep up with the fleet and thousands more trying to make the boat faster.

Then there is the race. Leg two of this race would have been described as carnage on this side of the pond: five dismastings and numerous breakages forced competitors into port to make repairs. There were many heroics on the water, like Adrian Hardy’s amazing feat of repairing and raising his fallen mast at sea. Many of favorites to win, like Isabelle Joscke and Sam Manuard, had serious breakages that forced them to make repairs at sea, but in the end they fought to the finish.

This is what makes this race so special. Things that would make Joe Blow sailor radio for a rescue don’t faze mini sailors. They fight until the end, even if the victory is lost, they finish.

I can’t imagine the feelings that you must have coming into the dock in Brazil. At the end of two or three years, the project is done. The friends and family that have supported you are on the dock to welcome you in and you have crossed an ocean in a tiny, over canvassed boat. No matter where you place in the race, this is enough to make it all worth it.

All of this is ahead of me. Watching the sailors finish in Salvador is nothing short of totally inspiring. It makes me realize how hard it is going to be, how emotional it will be, and how totally worth it it will be in the end.

The French often talk about “making beautiful stories” and this is the happy ending for these sailors.