Last Friday, a middle-aged man was rescued by RNLI volunteers while attempting to sail around the UK on a small dinghy. His wife’s verdict on his mission before he set off: “I think it’s absolutely bonkers.” Earlier in the same week, a middle-aged man had to be rescued after trying to break the record for surviving on Rockall: a tiny, beguilingly pointy and storm-lashed “islet” in the North Atlantic that’s mostly used as a place for seagulls to defecate on.
In a statement after his rescue, his family asked: “Why couldn’t he just have bought a sports car in the first place?” They were being funny, but I’m starting to wonder if – in the wake of a recent high-profile submersible accident – it might be time to reassess how actually funny it is when middle-aged men try and fail in such extreme ways.
