This photo provided by 11th Hour Racing shows former astronaut Nicole Stott and 11th Hour Racing co-founder and skipper Charlie Enright discussing their unique perspectives on ocean health in Providence, R.I., Dec. 19, 2022. Enright is about to lead 11th Hour Racing in the round-the-world Ocean Race, which begins Sunday from Alicante, Spain.
Rane Brower - handout one time use, 11th Hour Racing
This photo provided by 11th Hour Racing shows former astronaut Nicole Stott and 11th Hour Racing co-founder and skipper Charlie Enright discussing their unique perspectives on ocean health in Providence, R.I., Dec. 19, 2022. Enright is about to lead 11th Hour Racing in the round-the-world Ocean Race, which begins Sunday from Alicante, Spain.
Rane Brower - handout one time use, 11th Hour Racing
This photo provided by 11th Hour Racing shows 11th Hour Racing Team's Malama heading offshore for the Transat Jacques Vabre qualification run with Charlie Enright and Pascal Bidégorry on Sept. 29, 2021.
Amory Ross - handout one time use, 11th Hour Racing
This photo provided by 11th Hour Racing shows former astronaut Nicole Stott and 11th Hour Racing co-founder and skipper Charlie Enright discussing their unique perspectives on ocean health in Providence, R.I., Dec. 19, 2022. Enright is about to lead 11th Hour Racing in the round-the-world Ocean Race, which begins Sunday from Alicante, Spain.
Rane Brower - handout one time use, 11th Hour Racing
This photo provided by 11th Hour Racing shows former astronaut Nicole Stott and 11th Hour Racing co-founder and skipper Charlie Enright discussing their unique perspectives on ocean health in Providence, R.I., Dec. 19, 2022. Enright is about to lead 11th Hour Racing in the round-the-world Ocean Race, which begins Sunday from Alicante, Spain.
Rane Brower - handout one time use, 11th Hour Racing
11th Hour Racing Team's IMOCA co-skippered by Charlie Enright onboard Malama, Sept. 16, 2021, during the 2021 Défi Azimut 48-Hour Race.
Amory Ross - handout one time use, 11th Hour Racing
This photo provided by 11th Hour Racing shows 11th Hour Racing Team's Malama heading offshore for the Transat Jacques Vabre qualification run with Charlie Enright and Pascal Bidégorry on Sept. 29, 2021.
Amory Ross - handout one time use, 11th Hour Racing
Whether from the vastness of the open ocean or 250 miles above Earth, sailor Charlie Enright and retired astronaut Nicole Stott have witnessed the awe-inspiring majesty as well as the fragility of the planet from perspectives few people will ever see.
Enright and his 11th Hour Racing Team have grown more environmentally active each time they circle the globe. Their third lap around the planet, in the Ocean Race starting Sunday from Alicante, Spain, will focus on ocean health as much as trying to win one of sailing’s most grueling competitions.
On Friday, 11th Hour Racing released a short film clip titled “The Oceanview Effect,” in which Enright, the team’s cofounder and skipper, describes the life-changing feeling sailors get as they speed away from land onto the untamed ocean. He compares it to the Overview Effect that astronauts experience the first time they look down at the planet.
“What we do to the ocean, we do to ourselves. The source of life on Earth, we need to treat it that way,” Enright says at the end of the clip.
Stott is totally on board with that message after 11th Hour Racing enlisted her as an ambassador. She met with Enright in Rhode Island just before Christmas to discuss their experiences and shared interest in ocean health.
“It just really beautifully ties together,” said Stott, who spent 104 days in space during two missions, and made a spacewalk during a three-month stay on the International Space Station in 2009.
Stott said she looks forward to following 11th Hour Racing’s progress aboard its 60-foot foiling sloop Mlama in the five-boat IMOCA Class in the Ocean Race, which will cover 32,000 nautical miles over seven legs before finishing in Genova, Italy, in early July. There will be a stopover in May in Newport, Rhode Island, 11th Hour Racing’s home base and near Enright’s hometown of Bristol.
Stott and Enright said being exposed to the Overview Effect and Oceanview Effect tends to lead adventurers to take action once they return to terra firma.
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