Entries Tagged as 'Sailing'
The Mars Ocean Odyssey: Sailor Reid Stowe has spent more than three years at sea aboard a 70-foot schooner (he built himself), battling loneliness, sewing torn sails, even growing his own food–all intended to break the record for the longest sea voyage.
He did have a partner early on–Soanya Ahmad–but she had to leave 10 months into the voyage to deliver their child.
Recently, Stowe sailed into New York, putting an end to his epic journey, and allowing himself to see people and his new son for the first time in years. “He viewed his trip in the tradition of religious hermits who go off by themselves: ‘You not only enlighten yourself, but you nourish the spirit of your culture,’” reports John Tierney of The New York Times.
First serialized in The Century Magazine (1900), Sailing Alone Around the World tells the story of adventurer Joshua Slocum circumnavigating the world solo. Sailing from Boston in April 1895 aboard the Spray, a thirty-six foot wooden sloop, Captain Slocum eventually sailed forty-six thousand miles over three years. Recently republished in Nowhere: Travel Stories.
“For, one day, well off the Patagonian coast, while the sloop was reaching under short sail, a tremendous wave, the culmination, it seemed, of many waves, rolled down upon her in a storm, roaring as it came. I had only a moment to get all sail down and myself up on the peak halyards, out of danger, when I saw the mighty crest towering masthead-high above me.”
Bay Area sailor, banking heir, and entrepreneur David de Rothschild has built a 60-foot catamaran largely from recycled plastic bottles. In March he decided to sail this environmentally friendly vessel (the Plastiki) across the Pacific to Australia, with the hope of getting people to start thinking more sensibly and critically about our consumptive waste and its long-term impact on the earth and oceans.
Anchored in Christmas Island after 38 continuous days at sea, Jo Royle, the Plastiki’s 30-year-old captain, is interviewed by Sindya Bhanoo of The New York Times about battling the “power of your mind” while at sea, being a woman captain on a boat full of men, and the unique challenges of piloting this vessel:
“The fact that 70 percent of the Plastiki’s buoyancy is created by over 12,000 reclaimed plastic bottles, which lie directly against the flow of water, makes the boat slow and very tricky to maneuver. There were times when you could have been led to believe that we were in fact rowing across the Pacific and not sailing.”
Sailor Emma Pontin of London, England, who has competed several round-the-world races and transatlantic crossings, has used sailing as a way fight breast cancer. Her book Beating the Blowfish details her fight with the disease.
“I want people to understand that if you go through breast cancer, you can do anything. Some people who’ve had breast cancer or going through it just sit at home all day, on their sofas and don’t know how to handle it. And I want to tell this people: ‘Do something amazing, cross an ocean, bring it on!’” Anouk Lorie of CNN reporting.
Bay Area sailor, banking heir, and entrepreneur David de Rothschild has built a 60-foot catamaran largely from recycled plastic bottles. In March he decided to sail this environmentally friendly vessel (the Plastiki) across the Pacific to Australia, with the hope of getting people to start thinking more sensibly and critically about our consumptive waste and its long-term impact on the earth and oceans.
“‘I wanted to get people to think sensibly that waste isn’t really waste, but merely inefficient design, and that we can turn it into a resource,’ de Rothschild, 31, said by satellite telephone as the boat sailed west from San Francisco. ‘Every day, we are seeing bits of trash floating past us. They look like jellyfish, but then we realize they are plastic bags.’” Dan Levy and Marc Perrier of the Seattle Times.
Spanish Sailor Pepe Ribes and his 60-foot yacht, the Estrella Damm, along with another Open 60 yacht, the W Hotels, set sail on a 3,750 mile journey from New York to Barcelona–each hoping to be the first to set the fastest time on a new transoceanic course.
“The cities of New York and Barcelona are sponsoring this race, along with the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona and the New York Yacht Club, to promote a cultural and educational initiative between the two cities. There are two Spanish sailors and one American aboard each boat,” writes Chris Museler of The New York Times.
“Ribes, who has raced around the world three times, said it was an honor to be one of the first sailors on this new course. ‘To sail this course with three people, we will always be pushing against the clock,’ he said. ‘This is like your degree. You need to know everything to do well. For a guy who likes sailing, this is the best university.’”
Abby Sunderland, a 16-year-old from Thousand Oaks, California, who is sailing her 40 foot boat, Wild Eyes, around the world to best the record of her older brother Zac (who completed his own 13-month solo-circumnavigation last summer at the age of 17), has recently rounded South America’s Cape Horn.
“She had safely traversed a passage known as the Mt. Everest of the yachting universe, a mariners’ graveyard fraught with unpredictable gales and gargantuan waves,” reports Pete Thomas of The Los Angeles Times.
“‘It’s the milestone I’ve been waiting for,’ the budding adventurer said, when reached via satellite phone, minutes after she had crossed from the Pacific into the Atlantic. ‘It’s pretty much the hardest part of my trip, and now it’s over so it’s really great being here.’”
Jennifer “JJ” Fetter–a Californian sailor who recently was inducted into San Diego’s Breitbard Hall of Fame for her two Olympic medals and four world championships–has been trailblazer for women in the sport of sailing.
But the ride hasn’t always been easy:
“At the time, many of the West Coast’s leading yacht clubs didn’t have facilities for female racers. ‘I remember having to dress in the parking lot at St. Francis YC in San Francisco. Other clubs also had facilities only for the men,’” she tells Bill Center of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO and winner of last week’s 33rd America’s Cup, tells the Wall Street Journal that he hopes to bring the next edition of the regatta to the San Francisco Bay:
“I intend to talk to Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, and we’ll see if there’s room on the waterfront to do this. Maybe we can get out to Treasure Island. We want to develop a sailing village like they have in New Zealand and like they had in Valencia [in Spain, where the America's Cup was just held.] We want teams from all over the world to come here.”
Entrepreneur Jay Gardner has an idea: harness San Francisco Bay’s consistently strong winds with high-tech sails attached to redesigned ferries to help power the city’s waterborne commuters. Gardner isn’t claiming to completely cut ferry fuel consumption, but believes his company Wind+Wing Technologies can trim as much as 40 percent.
“‘Especially with the Bay Area and the amount of wind we have, it’s something that really clicks with people,’ Gardner said. ‘Once you get past the initial resistance and start showing them the studies we’ve developed, the light comes on,’” reports David Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Many ferries burn 70 gallons of diesel per hour, or more, giving ferry companies and transportation districts a big incentive to try more efficient designs. Gardner has presented his plans to three of the local ferry operators, and they’ve expressed interest.”
The Mars Ocean Odyssey: Sailor Reid Stowe has spent more than three years at sea aboard a 70-foot schooner (he built himself), battling loneliness, sewing torn sails, even growing his own food–all intended to break the record for the longest sea voyage.
photo credit: ktylerconk
