Creative Cruising Concepts

In case you haven't noticed, I'm living vicariously through other cruiser's blogs. Through our blog and creative cruising we've met many new cruisers, one of them though the Google Earth blog I happen to follow (Frank created it). Frank and Karen Taylor are starting out on their five year circumnavigation and are fully loaded with all sorts of cool gear and partners that they are using to document their trip (I'm VERY jealous). We also follow our old buddies who are still out there (most aren't).

We first met our friends on Ascension in Mexico back in early 2004. We spent the first season in the Pacific together, met a couple of times during our second season and then again in Thailand as we headed across the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea together. They just finished crossing the Atlantic and are now heading towards the canal and up the West Coast towards home.

I've been tracking Tahina and realized they might be in the same neck of the woods as Ascension so I blasted off a quick email to both of them. Frank said there were tons of boats in the area so chance of a connection were slim, but he would keep an eye out. This morning he posted the above photo .. Acension is the boat to the right and Djarrka (another boat we met in Thailand) is behind the cat. Yes it takes goods eyes and a good understanding of your friend's boat. View Position

Frank described the experience from his point of view on his blog, Coincidental Rendezvous. BTW it's not the first time it's happened. I noticed my friends boat on some random cruisers blog I happened to be browsing. We had JUST met up in Arizona (during our visit home) while he was trucking their boat cross-country. It appeared in Marathon Florida a week after we saw him and two days after they had arrived there and launched.

It's a VERY small world indeed.

I actually remember reading about this a while back.. a long while. Reid Stowe just completed his 1000th day at sea, that's right 1000. Reid left New York back in April 21st, 2007 with his companion Soanya Ahmad and hasn't stopped to resupply or touch land. Their goal was to prove that humans to survive in a high-impact, isolated environment while extending the limits of human endurance. It was also dubbed the Mars Ocean Odyssey as it is expected that a trip to Mars would take over 1000 days.

The Schooner Anne is a 70 foot gaff-rigged designed and built by Reid and his family. Our longest passage was 24 days and THAT is hard to explain to other people, 1000 is beyond description, and I thought KT over-provisioned. Their trip hasn't been without incident. Soyna left the voyage on day 305 off the coast of Australia after suffering from extreme sea sickness. Turns out they must have been a little bored, Soyna was pregnant and Reid has continued alone for almost 700 days. He's still going to continue and is expected to return in June after spending more than three years at sea. I imagine he'll have just a small issue walking and the son he has not met will be almost two.

Reid is currently off the coast of Africa and will probably continue his looping route in the "safer" cyclone free sections of the oceans.

Just in case you are wondering what else you can do while you are bored, I guess you draw hearts with your wake (over a 1000's of square miles).

Jessica conquered sailing's Mount Everest when she rounded Cape Horn in her bid to become the youngest round the world sailor (unaided non-stop). She has covered 9,800 nM in 88 days and is now approaching the halfway point.

BlurbBits for this Entry w/Location

Although she was becalmed on her approach to the horn, the weather piped up Jessica was forced to earn her stripes. Here's one of the photos showing 40 knots during her rounding from her latest post

Her parents were expecting to fly over as she rounded but I haven't seen any photos (yet).

Update: Check out this article which includes video of the emotional flyover.

View the latest news or our original post for more details.

The Royal Huisman Meteor is for sale at a cool 46 Million. The schooner combines traditional lines with modern carbon fiber masts.

Check out the photos on Jameslist (basically Craigslist for rich people). You can see more photos on Meteor's website, it's stunning. I wonder if the crew of TEN comes with the boat. You can also see it in person .

If you buy it I get to go along for the sea trial.

It was a rough 2700nm trip.. they diverted once to unclog fuel filters (Cape Verde ) and again near Antigua and Barbuda for an emergency fuel after the generator failed. The boat depends entirely on electricity to run its complex electronic and hydraulic systems that enable Geoff (a quadriplegic) to sail the boat. The backup electrical supply was the alternator on the starboard engine which used 5 times the fuel.

I really liked his spirit as he approached the same bay where his accident occurred 25 years ago.

"I want my arrival to be a celebration of the past 25 years not, as someone asked recently, 'will it give you closure?' What? Closure? That infers I somehow regret or lament the past 25 years. Absolutely not. Were it not for the accident, I would not have met Elaine, had Timothy or had such a wonderful life so, closure? No. Celebration? Yes. And any tears will be tears of joy not tears of regret or sadness.

"Life is too short to worry about what 'might have been' or waiting for some 'miracle cure' for spinal cord injury. There's a magnificent world out there and I'm both honoured and humbled to have had the opportunity to put together this great project; the Atlantic was everything I had hoped it would be and just as I remembered it from all those years ago."

Route Map w/Location

You can tell the title came from the UK BBC blog post where realized is realised.

We originally covered his departure on Dec 10th in this post.

Update: You can read Geoff's blog about his accomplishment We Made it!!!

Who rammed who?

Ok this is insane.. you don't mess around at sea especially when you are 1,300 nM south of Tasmania. I've looked at a couple of the videos and I have to disagree with the captain of the Bob Barker (another anti-whaler). I'd say the Ady Gil was idling (not in neutral) and then accelerated into the ship but was certainly NOT in reverse like the captain stated.

Basically the anti whalers were antagonizing the whaling "research" vessel. Typically they throw stuff on deck, use lasers to blind the helm, and try to wrap lines/chains around their propellers. Obviously the vessel under attack will defend themselves with water cannons and evasive/defensive maneuvers. FYI, Wrapping a propeller can disable a large ship or rip it from the ship causing it to sink.

This is battle isn't going to be won at sea and certainly not using these techniques. What are they doing using a 2 million dollar carbon fiber protest vessel?

I am totally against whaling but these techniques are irresponsible and dangerous to everyone involved. They are very lucky no one was killed!! approx position. The damaged vessel is the former earthrace boat.

She did it.. Freya completed her circumnavigation of Australia by kayak in 332 days (245 paddling days). The total distance was approximately 9,000 miles, that's a lot of paddling. (see our original post).

Freya crossed the start/finish line yesterday at noon.

If anyone wants to try it, Freya says she'll be at the finish line waiting for you!!

Good-Bye For Now

When we launched this magazine ten years ago, we hoped it would find a community of people who cared about the subject matter as much as we did. It was heady stuff, really, the chance to tell stories about something that inspires us all: exploring the world, challenging our assumptions, making a difference. For those of us at the magazine, they're the things that make life worth living.

I've always loved this magazine. It taught me to dream and inspired me to step out of the "comfort zone" of traditional society. It looks like they will be focusing on special editions, books and web based content.

Hopefully they'll be back soon.. I need my vicarious adventure fix!!