One of the great offshore adventures

The Great Lakes in the USA may look and behave like oceans from the shoreline, offering endless horizons and massive waves, but nobody says the Great Oceans. It is known that oceans are large (and salty), so is it fair for the Chicago Mackinac Race to market itself as the largest annual offshore sailboat race in the world?

What is an offshore race? The Curmudgeon suggested it requires feeding the crew dinner, but British videographer Mathew Sheahan needed to see it for himself. The largest lake in Great Britain has a surface area of about 27.5 square miles, while Lake Michigan covers 22,300 square miles, so Sheahan’s intrigue is warranted.

In a 36-minute video produced for PlanetSail, Sheahan headed to Chicago to follow the fleet, meet the people who return year after year along with some of those doing it for the first time to discover what makes the 298 nm race one of sailing’s great offshore adventures.