TWC Quick Hits…:

Parts of Mars Once “Drenched” in Water: NASA rovers now searching for evidence of Martian Wetass…

Navy Sinking Retired Missile Cruisers and Aircraft Carriers to Create Reefs: In related news, Department of Homeland Security notices surge in Al Qaeda interest in underwater salvage schools…

Teenage Humpback Whale Seemingly Falls in Love With Coast Guard Cutter: Rubs amorously against hull…



Happy “Hump” Back: “Everybody take cover…I think he’s gonna blow!”

(Photo: Boatswain’s Mate Bret Miller via Star Bulletin)

JV Jumble II–Doldrum Dangers: Half a world away, in the tropical Atlantic, it ain’t lookin’ good for either Orange II or Geronimo. Bruno Peyron is now taking his wounded cat to southern Cape Verde island of St. Vincent after Fogo turned out to be too rough to inspect and attempt a repair on the cracked S-drive fairing. His chances of getting back into this thing, unfortunately, seem to be about, umm, zero. Time to pull the plug, Bruno…

Well to the south of Orange II, Olivier De K and Geronimo are starting to lose the trades. Worse, the windless Doldrums zone is looking large and intimidating. Geronimo is still slightly behind Orange II’s pace, and if she doesn’t find a reasonably fast route across the Equator she’s going to be hurting. We’ll know how she did compared to Cheyenne in about two days….



“What beautiful sailing, Olivier. To bad we’re going…so…damn…slow.”

JV Jumble–Cheyenne Kicking Ass: Well, Stevie Fossett and his crew didn’t quite notch up a 600 mile day, hitting 584 for the best run of this record bid as they rocketed along at speeds up to 34 knots in perfect Southern Ocean conditions–25-30 knots of reaching wind, and flat seas ahead of the cold front they are racing. The good conditions are expected to last about another day, and if they do (and nothing on the boat breaks) they will hurl Cheyenne later today past Cape Leeuwin in record time (see chart here). In 2003 Geronimo got from the English Channel to this Great Cape in 26 days and 5 hours, and Cheyenne is on track to break that mark by about half a day. Fossett and his big cat may also take the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Leeuwin record (currently 7 days, 14 hours), but this is nip and tuck. This has got to have Fossett grinning from ear to ear. Geronimo’s 2003 JV run was lightning fast, and set many of the course segment records (it was also tragic; she ran out of wind in the North Atlantic after leading Orange 2002 by days most of the way around). To be ahead of Geronimo’s 2003 pace at this point after a miserably slow run to the Equator is totally unexpected and has Cheyenne poised to put up a big number.

But to do it, she’ll have to steer in the right direction, which isn’t always easy in the Southern Ocean. Here’s watch leader Brian Thompson:

“The magnetic variation here is huge, we have just passed through a point near the Kergeulens that had 60 degrees of W variation, and by the time we reach Australia it will be back down to 0. We are passing less than 1000 miles to the north of the South Magnetic Pole and the lines of variation come pouring out from this point, so are changing very fast for our passage. Up on deck we have compass heading displayed and additionally course over Ground True as a reference, and to prove we are really sailing east and not 150 as the compass is telling us. “

And the stress on the boat and gear has got to be building….



“Uh-oh. According to the instruments we’re heading for Sri Lanka…Wait, it’s warm there, isn’t it?”

(Photo: Nick Leggatt)

TWC Breaking News–Orange Peeling….: Guess it was premature to suggest Orange II wasn’t losing any more bits and pieces….Bruno Peyron reports that through the night a loud and increasing hull vibration forced him to bring the big cat to a stop for a little underwater inspection. Over the side goes Vladimir Dzalba-Lyndis, a professional combat diver. Using a spotlight he discovers that the fairing around the boat’s S-drive propeller is cracked and water is forcing its way in…which would eventually lead to serious hull delamination. Peyron is not quitting the JV race yet. Instead, armed with a hurriedly concocted “how-to” e-mail from Multiplast, the boat’s builders, he’s headed for the Cape Verde island of Fogo, 90 miles away. There, he will anchor Orange II and attempt to make an underwater repair. This from Orange II HQ:

“Yann Penfornis, architect with the Multiplast yard, explained that two solutions could be envisaged: “if the S Drive fairing is still in place, then the crack should be repaired by applying a “strapping”–which means stretching a wide strap saturated with epoxy resin over the crack to consolidate the whole area. If the fairing has been torn off, then it will be necessary to cut it as close to the hull as possible. The main difficulty for such an operation is to find enough air capacities (it can last several hours). Unfortunately, there is no compressor onboard to refill the 3 diving bottles. The second difficulty is to saw off the aluminum S Drive (19 mm thick in its frontal area) underwater with plain handsaws.”

TWC admires the spirit, Bruno, but give it up. There’s no way a quick and dirty repair is going to survive the 25,000 miles of hard sailing remaining. And even if it does, Orange II can kiss any hope of a JV record good-bye, as both Geronimo and Cheyenne press on. And even if both of those boats suffer the same fate, Orange II isn’t even beating Orange I at the moment. No doubt the sponsor will be disappointed, but that’s the big, bad world of multihull speed sailing. Wonder if it was that shark they hit….



Peeved Peyron: “Holy Merde, all the duct tape and epoxy in the world probably isn’t enough to get this floating lemon around the globe…”

More Rinspeed Splash…: Here are some more (and much better) photos of the car that’s also a hydrofoil, featured earlier in TWC….



“Hi there, Big Boy. I just love the Viagra blue….”



“So, Baby, let me show you a little deserted island I know…”

(Photos via Newsfilter.org)

JV Jumble III–Stinky Sailing…: Sure, racing around the world on a maxi-multihull is a glamorous business. But it’s far, far from comfortable. In an e-mail that ended up in a forum of the website Sailing Anarchy, Cheyenne’s Fraser Brown provided a detailed description of the, umm, atmosphere aboard Cheyenne, and the difficulties of keeping dry:

“I will say that the heat and humidity coming down in the St Helena high was something else. Everyone one was a complete sweat ball and breaking out in salt rashes left right and centre, it’s a hard compromise between getting the kit off but still protecting yourself from the salt and sun in fact most of us ended up wearing thermal trousers and long sleeved shirts, as long as we all do it then we all smell the same right. Self preservation in the heat is actually harder than the cold. Salt rash is also something you don’t want to get especially before getting in thermals for the south.

So after escaping that we are now in some pretty damn cold conditions which brings me to Ginge and Lyn’s questions, yes the boat is like a freezer down below but worst of all the condensation is unbelievable we have shammy’s going constantly to wipe the walls and the roof. My bunk is a shocker the mattress is totally soaked and even with 2 layers of insulation on the roof which I put on in Plymouth it’s still like a rain forest. I woke up about 3 days ago to water dripping in my ear lobe and one smack bang in the eye. The only thing saving us in a goretex bivy bag zipped around the sleeping bag which is keeping the sleeping bag dryish but you still can’t get rid of the cold damp thing, oh well it’s only for another 20 days!!!!!!

It’s also been a hard call as to when to change to your southern ocean thermals and mid layers you don’t won’t to change to early because thats it until the Horn same clothes, our navigator has informed me that I have about the next 18 days in these clothes and they have already been on for 3 days. We had a cold snap 2 days ago when we saw icebergs so that was my executive decision to take the plunge and get out of the Atlantic thermals and shit did they have a hum on. Although the shower was great, a whole bunch of pampers disinfectant wipes under your arm pits and of course in the high maintenance place called the groin. So now I have peeled to 2 sets of base layer thermals one mid layer 2 pairs of socks gloves 2 balaclava’s and a neck scarf at night with another mid layer top ready to go if needed although all of that under your foulies plus a harness and boots it’s getting hard to walk. Makes it bloody hard to open the chocolate bars.

The food is a hard one, some of the lovely gourmet dishes likes shephards pie are actually okay but the curries are just disgusting although I have only had 3 times so far that I have had to really force it down just to eat. The constitution is just a shocker, sometimes when you undo the lid to your food your faced with a dried up looking chunder ( expained by our fearless navigator Ado ) then you start to add more water tabasco sauce pepper and garlic, real gut luggage. I won’t eat rice again for years.”

Luckily, aside from the ride of a lifetime there are some advantages, too. Like being able to whizz through the trampoline instead of going below….



Funky Fraser: “Damn, my watch is over and it’s time to head back down into the Black Hole of Calcutta….”

(Photo: Nick Leggatt)

JV Jumble II–Cheyenne Is About To Put the Pedal Down…: Almost half a world away, in the cold and wet, Steve Fossett’s Cheyenne has passed through a ridge of light airs (which dropped their Day 24 run to just over 400 miles) and is lining up in front of a fast-moving cold front. The pre-frontal winds are from the northwest, which allows Cheyenne to sail almost directly on course toward the next gate off Cape Leewin, about two days away, and also to line herself up with the big Southern Ocean swells. That means surfing, Baby! And this is the basic setup in which big mile days are possible in the Southern Ocean. Once the front passes over, the wind will shift to the southwest and the seas will become confused and dangerous to sail at high speed. So the key is to stay ahead of the front as long as possible, which will be quite a race because right now it is moving at 30 knots. Here’s navigator Adrienne Cahalan on the general strategy:

“We have settled down into a corridor of 50S now for this section of the Southern Ocean. 50S is the mean axis of the storm track and allows us to sail maximum east at the shortest longitudinal distance realistically possible. At 50S one degree of longitude is only about 38 miles whereas at 40S one degree of longitude is about 45 miles. So when we sail about 11-12 degrees of longitude each day being further south represents a net gain in distance of about 80 miles a day just by sailing at a lower longitude (the great circle route as opposed to rhumbline).

Weather wise however, we are limited by how far south we can go as the centres of the low pressure systems tend to sit around a mean position of about latitude 60S (also known as the circumpolar trough). If we get on the south side of a low pressure system we are into head winds, which is disastrous. In the South Pacific Ocean we will sail at a little lower latitude at around 53-54S to stay in the centre of the storm track. We will also leave our approach to the Horn hich is at 56-57S, until the last minute if possible.

So as the barometer continues to drop we prepare for a couple of days of fast sailing in probably the roughest conditions yet. The next 2 days and into next weekend we may see 30-40kts which we can not escape by diving north so it will be important to keep it all together and the boat in one piece.”

If Adrienne, who’s Australian, sounds like she knows what she is talking about, she does. She’s the top woman ocean racing navigator in the world–in addition to being a great person–and just completed an advanced degree in meteorology. Her thesis? Southern Ocean weather.

Cheyenne is now 1206 miles ahead of Orange 2002’s pace after 24 days at sea (chart here), and is probably going to stretch that further in the next few days. If the boat holds up we could see Cheyenne’s first 600 mile day of the voyage…..



Formal Dinner: “Eat up, boys, we’re going to surf this incoming depression all the way past Australia….”

(Photo: Nick Leggatt)

JV Jumble–Northern Drag Race: The drag race to the Equator between Orange II and Geronimo is heating up, with Orange peeling (heh, heh) off two consecutive 500-plus mile days and closing the gap to Geronimo almost down to nothing. Olivier De Kersauson’s big trimaran took a more easterly route between the Canary and Cape Verde Islands, and gave up some distance. But this part of the leg is all about picking your longitude and setting up for the Doldrums crossing. De Kersauson says they are looking ugly, and we won’t really know who has won Round 1 of this battle until both boats are across the Equator and into the southeast trade winds. Right now, thanks to the tricky weather and a lot of gybing, both boats are slightly behind Orange 2002’s record pace. This is good news for Cheyenne, since her slow time on this leg was vulnerable to the trailing boats, while her post-Equator passage has been pretty damn quick. So if OII and Geronimo don’t make too bog a gain on Cheyenne here, they are going to have to sail their asses off to stay ahead of her pace to Australia.

Still, Orange II is showing some decent speed, even though she wrapped a 6-9 foot shark around her daggerboard at 23 knots and needed a half hour to get the unhappy beast off. For those who are into it, this race is more than a test of crew, versus crew, and tri versus catamaran. No, no bits off boat fell off in the incident…..It is also a test of two of the world’s best weather routers, with Roger “Clouds” Badham of Australia (in TWC’s view simply the best out there) calling the shots for Orange II (which also has chronic round-the-world addict Roger Nilson in the nav seat), and France’s Pierre Lasnier (also at the top of his game and helping our buddy VDH find his way home) calling the weather for Geronimo. This is high speed, 3D chess, and TWC is loving every minute of it…..



“The Admiral” De Kersauson: “Merde, is that a flash of orange I see….Didier, get me Lasnier on the phone, right now!”

Annals Of Irresponsibility–Buy ‘Em, Dump ‘Em…Run Away: For some reason (better weed, maybe?), Miami is the exotic animal capital of the United States. Every year, tens of thousands of strange and unusual birds, lizards, snakes, monkeys–you name it, South Floridians apparently will buy it–are flown in so people with too much money and too little sense can brag about owning the only blue-tongued Nile monitor lizard on their block. And naturally, when said owner discovers–surprise–that the cute little snake or lizard they bought on a whim is not so cute once it is full grown and working on a way to eat its owner, the children and the dog, out the window and into the swamps it goes. According to the New York Times (sorry, free registration required), the result is that South Florida is teeming with weird and exotic animals, many of whom are doing just fine, thank-you very much, and starting to give native species a run for their money. The Nile Monitor lizard, for example, is living large in the canals of Coral Gable, and looking for new housing markets. “There’s no question they are expanding their range,” Dr. Kenneth Krysko said. “They are scaring the heck out of residents…Any child can go to a pet store and buy a hatchling for $10. But no one realizes the ability this animal has to tear off your cat’s head with one twist.” Dang. Sorry, Garfield.

It’s turning into a raging, unpredictable biology experiment fueled by human vanity and ignorance, with Burmese pythons proliferating in the Everglades and retirees watching them fight it out with the crocs (the crocs still win and The Times has a picture to prove it). Can’t wait ’til these animals start coming back out of the swamps to overrun the housing tracts. Oh, wait, they already are. Excellleennt…



Pesky Python: “This guy was on his way to the Early Bird at Hooters…”

(Photo: Everglades National Park via NYT)

North Pole Jumble–Sitting Around…: Apparently, just getting out onto the ice is one of the hardest parts of any attempt to walk to the North Pole or across the Arctic Ocean. Ben Saunders, who’s planning to ski solo and unsupported from Russia to Canada via the North Pole, was cooling his heels in Khatanga over the weekend, desperately trying to move on to Sredniy, near his jumping off point. His sense of humor is starting to wither:

“I’m starting to wonder if we’ll ever leave Khatanga.

One of the joys of being solo on the ice (if I ever get there!) is that I’m entirely in charge of my own destiny. Right now, that couldn’t be further from the case – our stay in the frozen town of Khatanga has now doubled and Russian bureaucracy (which at its best can only be described as baffling) has conspired to extend our sojourn here still further. So far we’ve had permit delays, radio operators unwilling to work on the weekends, gunfights over who runs the polar base and official delegations commandeering our helicopter. We have been told ‘definitely tomorrow’ at least four times. We fly to Sredniy on Monday. ‘100% for sure’, apparently. Hmm.”

I don’t think Saunders has discovered the art of the well-placed bribe yet.

Wave Vidmar, who’s also in Khatanga and hoping to be the first American to ski solo and unsupported to the North Pole, isn’t any happier:

Well, Monday morning has come and we are still here in Khatanga with no clear idea of when we will be able to proceed. This morning’s excuse was ‘bad weather’, but we all know it is simply game playing and leverage for control and money disputes that keeps us grounded. Unless things change dramatically with Cerpolex (the local expedition organizer) and their situation, planning an expedition from the Canadian side might be a wiser choice for future expeditions…[W]e (the expeditions on hold here in Khatanga) are pawns and are being leveraged by each side in this drama for polar control….[A]t the forefront of our thoughts is each day wasted waiting lessens the chances of a successful trek to the North Pole.

We got news shortly before lunch that all of our expeditions are in jeopardy, and Cerpolex conceeded that they may not even be in business next year. Not even starting the expedition would be tragic and I dare not think about the consequences. Hopefully everything will work out but things are very much up in the air at the moment.

Hmmm, sounds like the final negotiation phase has started….



“Heh-heh. Just keep stalling another day or two and these stupid capitalist adventurers will bury us in dollars….”