JV Jumble–A Study In Contrasts: It’s pretty simple down there in the Southern Ocean today. Geronimo: fast. Cheyenne: slow. De Kersauson and his guys are tucked nicely into the backside of a depression, and are rode the 30 knot northwesterly winds to a 543 miles day. That puts her almost 700 miles ahead of Orange 2002, but just a slim 63 miles ahead of the ghost of Cheyenne, which was also having a pretty good run at this point in her voyage. Up ahead, Cheyenne is only about 500 miles from Cape Horn, but suffered cruelly as light winds caught her during her mast track repair. That resulted in her worst Southern Ocean day yet, a paltry 265 miles, and cut her lead over Orange 2002 to just over 1500 miles. The only blessing is that the calm weather allowed the crew to do a lot of work on the mast and boat. Which turned out to be a very, very good thing, because as they worked two of the crew noticed that some bolts attaching the lower shrouds (which help hold the mast up) had sheared. Oops. They were quickly replaced, and Cheyenne is setting up for her Cape Horn rounding, which will take place in northwesterly winds of 30-35 knots. The scary part is that it is the leg after rounding Cape Horn (the passage from the Horn to the Equator) which historically has been the hardest on boats and rigs, because there is frequently a lot of sailing to weather (as opposed to easy downhill running) in nasty seas. Don’t forget to double-check that headstay repair, boys…..



“Uhhh, Steve, shouldn’t we be turning a little to the right about now…?”

Everest North Face Expedition–Ama Dablam: Check…: Well, after that Arctic downer, we’d better check in on our always cheerful Russian buddies, who are warming up for an attempt on Everest, via the ridiculously extreme center of the North Face. When you are about to try one of the hardest climbs in the world, you’d better be ready. So this Russian climbing Dream Team has been off for a warm-up on Ama Dablam, a little old hill that happens to top out at 22,400 feet. Two climbing teams from the Russian group have already hit the summit and a third is on the way. And just in case the Russians aren’t kicking enough ass in the climbing world, another Russian climbing team is gearing up for an assault on the north face of Jannu, a massive rock wall that is known as the “Peak of Horror.” Many have tried, all have failed. If the Russians make it, they will be the first. It’s all part of a program called “Big Wall–Russian Way,” in which the Russians are trying to put up new routes on 12 of the planet’s most monstrous rock faces (and they’ve nailed seven so far). Just what are they putting in the vodka over there?



Russians Rule: “Sure, we’re incredible climbers. But sooner or later they’re going to have to update our equipment…”

Arctic Update–No Joy Up North…: Still no sign of North Pole soloist Dominick Arduin, but a helicopter with a thermal imager will start looking for her later this week.

Meanwhile, Ben Saunders isn’t having such a good time…

From Friday: “I was psyched up for a big-mileage day today, but the Arctic had other ideas. Really nasty rubble ice this morning and a nice big open lead (area of open water) this afternoon.

It was about 100m wide, ran to either horizon and was just starting to freeze. I tested the ice with a ski pole. Click… click… splosh. Too thin to ski over. I skied east for a bit, then decided to use my drysuit – the ice conditions on the far side looked perfect. I clambered into the orange suit and headed off on all fours. The far bank seemed a million miles away and the surface was like a badly inflated air bed – I was sinking in all over the place. A few metres out, my knee went through, followed in slow motion by the rest of me. It sounds scary, but the water is warmer than the air, and the suit keeps me stone dry. It was like swimming in creme brulee – no way was I going to get the sledge across as well. So I decided to call it a day, wait for it to freeze properly tonight and make an early start tomorrow.”

From Sunday: “Overnight I’d drifted back to where I was THREE days ago and it was so cold this morning that I thought my toes might get frosbitten INSIDE my sleeping bag. The wind was still blowing, although not as hard as yesterday, so I thought I’d better get on with the job. What a day it turned out to be – headwinds, -39 (before windchill), ridiculous rubble ice, snot, sweat and tears.”

So, let’s see how Wave Vidmar is getting on. Wave, dude, how was your weekend?

“Did I happen to mention IT’S COLD IN THE ARCTIC?!! I’ve come to manage -35c without much issue, -25c is nearly balmy, but when the temperature dips below -45c, it’s downright cold! Last night I believe it dipped below -50c…This morning I got out of the tent and tended to my sledges. Two hours later when I went back out I noticed open water near my tent, it wasn’t there two hours earlier. A lead opened up just to the South of me, only 25 yards away!”

Doesn’t Arctic trekking sound fun? Check out the Explorer’s Web North Pole Expedition Guide to get the full, sick picture (“Thin and dangerous ice is commonly black, whilst thick, old, frozen and safe ice is light in color. Check ice safety by poking it with the ski pole. One poke–too thin. Three pokes before going through the ice is fine. Two pokes–be prepared to possibly fall through and move fast”).

I feel a morbid fascination, but no envy whatsoever, as I track these ongoing struggles in the high latitudes. I guess there is a reason this isn’t called “The FrozenAss Chronicles”…



Thin Ice: “Hmmm. I’m having trouble remembering why I am doing this….”

(Photo: Explorer’s Web)

Weekend Update I–Geronimo Goin’ Good: Olivier De Kersauson and his 110-foot trimaran are now into the Indian Ocean. They crossed the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope 17 days, 22 hours, 58 minutes after their start. Here’s a measure of how close they are to Cheyenne’s pace: they got to the Cape of Storms just 31 minutes faster than Fossett and his boys (and girl). And that’s after 8,000 miles of sailing! Now we’ll see whether they can match Cheyenne’s fast Indian Ocean crossing, and Cape Leeuwin record…

Weekend Update–The Perils of Cheyenne: It was a bad, bad 48 hours for the record-chasing crew of the 125-foot catamaran. On Saturday, as they closed toward Cape Horn, the mainsail started ripping the mast track off the mast in rough water. The crew got the huge sail down before it unzipped the entire track from the mast, which would have been instant end of game. But they were left with a damaged track which prevented them from hoisting the mainsail beyond the second reef. Plan A was to make do until after Cape Horn and then anchor in a calm spot at the Falklands and send people up the rig to dig out the damaged track and replace it with working track from very low on the mast. All the while, Cheyenne would be sailing slow and bleeding miles from her 2000 mile lead on Orange 2002, and giving miles to Geronimo, who is still chasing hard. The record hopes of the crew, so high as they overcame every obstacle to build a big lead, would be dwindling minute by minute. In other words, sitting around until after Cape Horn was sheer torture, so much so that the crew decided that going up the 150-foot mast in the depths of the Southern Ocean as it whipped through the air, was–somehow–doable. So Plan B kicked into action. Here’s Steve Fossett’s report:

“I can’t believe these guys fixed the mast. With a “Do it now” attitude, the Cheyenne crew mobilized on Sunday morning to make the necessary repairs. As reported earlier, a section of mainsail track on the mast ripped off early Saturday morning. The initial repair plan was to anchor in a protected bay in the Falkland Islands to attempt the repairs. The suspense of not knowing if it was repairable was too great – and the crew attacked the problem at sea 3 days from Cape Horn.

Justin Slattery and Dave Scully were up the mast for over 6 hours during the day. The first challenge was to remove the 13 screws which had sheared off. This required drilling and use of Easy Out tools. Then a similar section was removed from the Third Reef location and fitted to the more important First Reef point. All this while suspended from the Main Halyard of the swinging mast. Meanwhile Mike Beasley fabricated replacement Third Reef track out of damaged and miscellaneous spares. Mike and Damian Foxall went up the mast to install the replacement.

Without a successful fix, Cheyenne was limited to raising the mainsail only to the Second Reef, a restriction which would have made it impossible to sail fast enough to break the record of Orange. Sure, we lost a lot of time on this whole episode, but now we are again in the hunt for the record.”

Cheyenne lost about 200 miles of their lead on Orange 2002 (chart here). But their next major worry is getting around Cape Horn safely in a couple of days….and then surviving the 7,000 mile run up the Atlantic. Whether they break the record or not, this has been a heroic effort…



Southern Ocean Surfing: “Sh*t…I wonder what’s going to break next?”

(Photo: Nick Leggatt)

Have A Wetass Weekend…



Daida Moreno Heats It Up

(Photo: Dani Miguel)

Arctic Agonies–Dominick’s Campsite Found?: The helos were up again yesterday, looking for missing Polar explorer Dominick Arduin. This time they spotted some ski tracks and the remains of a camp site, which they believe might be Dominick’s. The report raised hopes that Dominick might have survived the open water crossing and the recent storms, and is simply having trouble with her position beacons. The Russians don’t have the resources to keep flying every day to look for her, so the plan now is to head for a preplanned rendevous in a few days (where Dominick is supposed to be resupplied), and hope that Dominick shows up. Stay tuned…

Meantime, Ben Saunders is enjoying himself not at all (Hey! At least you are alive, buddy…):

“No easy miles today. Things started out looking good, but within an hour the headwind had started (frozen face and drifting backwards) and the cloud had descended. I could hardly see a thing. Fun fun fun. Swearing into my iced up face mask, I managed to grind out three nautical miles. It felt like more than that but today, as is often the case in the Arctic, I was going up the down escalator…”

Wave Vidmar didn’t do any better (at least he gets to stop when he gets to the Pole, while Ben will only be halfway home…) and is trying to keep his head on straight:

“During the day I fill my head with pleasant thoughts, like sleeping in my own bed, taking a shower, or just going to the store for a food I desire. The odd thing is I often have songs playing in my head. Typically older songs from the last 20-30 years. I guess a bit of sensory deprivation will do that (at least to me). The other thing you experience when out here in the Arctic is that your senses become heightened. You can hear a pin drop, and opening a box of matches I can smell the chemicals used to make them, the cardboard box, everything.”

Doesn’t Arctic adventuring sound tempting?



“Quit your bellyaching, boys. We’ve lived here for centuries, and don’t even have Gore-Tex…”

Jules Verne Gymboree–“The Admiral” Is Chasing Hard: 608 miles. That’s the tally from Geronimo’s first day in the Southern Ocean as Olivier De Kersauson rockets towards the Cape of Good Hope in fine winds and flat seas. Hitting the Roaring Forties is always a dramatic experience for any sailor, and here’s what the big man had to say about it: “[I]t’s the point where you leave the normal world behind to enter another that’s full of beauty and extraordinary unexpected sights, but also has an enormous potential for violence. Once you get below 40° South, there’s no mistaking where you are!” Geronimo is sailing a careful course, trying to thread her way past a danger of high pressure to her north and a danger of ice to her south.

De Kersauson is obviously pushing his boat hard, though. Why? He knows that up ahead Fossett and Cheyenne are 2000 miles ahead of the current record (chart here). From a tactical point of view this is one of the downsides for Fossett of broadcasting his positions twice a day. Geronimo knows how hard she has to sail. It’s ironic that De Kersauson is the beneficiary of this modern PR aspect of record breaking on the web. In the bad old days of the Jules Verne, De Kersauson was famous for going totally silent about his positions or even reporting false positions to screw the opposition up. And today, thanks to the web, The Admiral can comfort himself with the thought that Cheyenne is no longer extending her big lead. She ripped off 508 miles yesterday as she continues to deal with mediocre wind angles and a rough sea on the approach to Cape Horn. TWC will report on their rounding strategy as it becomes apparent. But my bet right now is that it’s not going to be an easy one. Meanwhile, if you want to know more about the sleeping arrangements belowdeck on a maxi-cat, here’s a report from Nick Leggatt (who has time for these things now he is stuck below recuperating from getting his bell rung)…



“Hang on, Stevie, here we come…!”

TWC Quick Hits…

Fisherman Out For A Little Cod, Nets 500-Pound Shark Instead: “I was really just going out to get something to cook for dinner.” Needs four hours and tractor to land the monster…

“GULP” Biodegradable Fishing Lures Could Revolutionize Industry: Decompose naturally, smell like garlic and crawfish (“Like Gummi Bears for bass”). Bye-bye, rubber worms…

Bethany Hamilton Surfs Down Under: Aussie sharks leave her alone. But not the media…



“Alright, Mate, you got your picture. Can I go back to being a 14-year old now?”

Arctic Agony–Still No Sign Of Dominick: The helicopters were in the air all day, and the weather was good, but still no sign of missing explorer and TWC hero Dominick Arduin. Arduin is as tough as they come, according to Outside Online:

“Arduin, who has lived in northern Finland since 1988, has proven her ability to endure harsh conditions. In 1987 she won the Paris to Dakar Mountain Bike Rally, and has also competed in the Eco-Challenge and the Raid Gauloise. Last year, she attempted to become the first woman to ski solo to the North Pole . On that unsuccessful expedition, she fell into the water, sustained severe frostbite, and eventually had several of her toes partially amputated.”

Her family and supporters are hoping she is just suffering communication problems, and is out there on the ice somewhere, just skiing along oblivious to all the efforts to find her. TWC hopes so too, but….



Dominick Arduin And Her Trusty Kayak…