JV Jumble–What Did We Miss…?: Not much, thankfully. No falling masts, no collisions with underwater objects. Cheyenne, Orange II and Geronimo are all sailing hard. Cheyenne has covered more than 10,000 miles since the start, and has gybed south past the Kerguelen Islands (chart here). After a slow day of just 422 miles on Sunday, she’s back up to speed as she drops below 50 South to find stronger winds. Her lead over Orange 2002 is around 1187 miles, or about 3 days, and she hasn’t had a daily run under 400 miles for 11 days now. Next up: Australia’s Cape Leeuwin, the second Great Cape on the route, in about 3 days. If you’d like to know more about the watch rotation and daily routine aboard a maxi cat, check out Dave Scully’s description. The icebergs have been left behind for the moment, replaced by a less deadly annoyance. Here’s watch leader Brian Thompson:

“There has been quite a bit of kelp floating around, in long strands of brown strips about a foot wide. We have caught quite a few on the dagger boards, causing a great rushing sound inside the hull. Usually they fall off very quickly, but one time we did have to raise the dagger board fully up to free some of the tough strands. To look at what is happening underwater we have an endoscope, a metal rod about 2 feet long that fits through a special hull fitting. At the top of the rod is an eyepiece, and at the bottom a tiny lens. By rotating the tube you can see, in a fish eye view, the bottom of the hull and the dagger board. There are 4 of these through the hulls, one each near the dagger boards, and one each near the rudders.”

Plus, it gives the onboard doctor another option for….

Meanwhile, back in the warm waters of the tropics, Orange II and Geronimo are continuing their race to the Equator. Light winds have forced the boats to gybe their way south, and they are struggling to keep up with Orange 2002’s pace. Bruno Peyron checks in from his new toy to report that the rudder design is not optimum, and means that Orange II is giving her helmsmen big biceps: “[W]e drive her like a big unruly truck. We use a lot of muscle power. It’s very physical – she’s not sensitive to the helm.” After four days of sailing, Geronimo is still south and east of Orange II, so Bruno Peyron’s Monster Truck hasn’t caught Olivier De K’s tri…yet. But she’s making little gains every day now. Peyron says he is loving the chase. No word from “The Admiral,” De Kersauson, but he’s undoubtedly looking over his shoulder a lot…



Olivier De K Is Nervous: “Keep pushing, you swabs. It’ll be a dozen lashes all around if that bastard Peyron passes us in that pig of a boat….”

Have A Wetass Weekend…



Kayaker Shaun Baker Drops Through Godafoss Falls

(Photo: David Higgs, via Canoe & Kayak)

JV Jumble–Geronimo and Orange II Dead Even: Well the first day of the head-to-head cat versus tri match race delivered the following result: in the first 24 hours Orange II sailed 494 miles, and Geronimo sailed…495. Amazing, just a mile difference. Both boats are ahead of Orange I’s 2002 record pace, and well ahead of Cheyenne’s early pace. And they’re skirting the Portuguese coast as they try to avoid some lighter winds to their west. Bruno Peyron is happy with Orange II’s performance potential, but he’s learning that the boat is a beast (just like Cheyenne):

“It’s easy to tell, the boat is heavier and more powerful than Orange I. She requires more efforts, more anticipation. We really must be careful not to lose control!…Earlier today, we performed 2 consecutive manoeuvres, which took us about an hour, and right afterwards, I saw the guys taking out oysters and a nice piece of “foie gras”. “

It’s a French boat, alright…

Meanwhile, Cheyenne peeled off 564 miles down South, and stretched to a 780-plus mile lead (a day and a half) on Orange 2002. Plus, they saw only one additional iceberg. Click here, for chart. And, here, for a great description of all the personalities sailing aboard Cheyenne.



Orange II Setting Off: She’s Really Ugly, So She’d Better Be Really Fast

TWC Quick Hits…:

Kiwi Surfer Punches Out Shark: Ahh, so that’s how to handle it…

Oil Spills Should be Pushed Onto Beaches, Not Out To Sea: Umm, why? “There is not much life on the beach, so it’s quite safe to have the oil being stranded on the beach, and remove it,” Dr Schulton told BBC World Service’s One Planet programme. “It’s easier to remove it from the beach than to remove it from the water or to remove it from rocky shores.” Oh.

Did Drug Traffickers Kill 128 seals, 9 Dolphins and 9 Pelicans? Must have been quite a party…

Freestyle Skiing Ace Jonny Moseley To Be Auctioned On EBay: Mother is tired of paying hospital bills…



On The Block: “I have only one thing to say: I don’t do windows.”

Cheyenne Update–Tactical Dilemma Approaching: Cheyenne, knocking off 500 miles a day on her southern route (near 50 South), has found her first iceberg (see pic in day’s first post). Here’s Fossett’s reaction:

“We got a close look at our first icebergs of the trip this morning. This one is at 3 miles. Maybe we have gone far enough South for the time being!

These full sized icebergs should be easy to avoid hitting. The danger are the growlers – which are chunks of ice of mere ‘truck’ size. If we hit one it would be — well, catastrophic. The theory is that growlers will be found up to 3 miles downwind of an iceberg. This means we must divert course to assure that we pass upwind of icebergs. We have tuned up the Radar for constant monitoring at nighttime.

The winds are bit better to the South but we are pleased with our progress and we must not get greedy.”

Good thinking, Steve. But if the weather forecast is accurate Fossett will have an interesting choice going into the weekend. Over to weather router Ken Campbell:

“They should be looking at good winds for the next 4 or 5 days, moving them across the Southern Indian Ocean very quickly. The breeze will back a little on Friday and they’ll need to make a decision then whether to push further South or to go a bit to the North – where the winds may get a little lighter.”

And there you have it: the classic Southern Ocean dilemma. Sail south for a shorter route and better winds and risk tearing the boat apart on a block of frozen water. Or sail north for safety and risk slowing down. Fossett is the king of cool, emotionless risk analysis (how do you think he got so rich in the Chicago options pits?) so it will be interesting to follow his decision making. A lot will depend on how many icebergs they see in the next day, and how big a lead on Orange Fossett thinks he needs to carry past Cape Horn. Stay tuned…



Master Decision Maker: “Hmmm, I wonder if I bought my lucky coin…..”

Annals of Achievement–Masters of Speed (Take 2): Windsurfer Finian Maynard and his gang of speed freaks are back at the “French Trench” in Camargue, trying to break the outright sailing speed record of 46.52 knots, held since 1993 by an otherworldly multihull called Yellow Pages Endeavour. Maynard came damn close in December, setting a new windsurfing speed record of 46.24 knots (averaged over 500 meters), but he and his pals won’t rest until they take the outright record back from the sailors. Earlier this week, Maynard knocked off a 45.76 knot run in the 1100 meter long, 15 meter wide canal, which is perfect for speed windsurfing because the wind howls across it and the water is flat. But the best winds came with an overnight storm that has the surfers considering the installation of lights so they can hit the water at any time when the breeze is promising. Yup, they are a determined group, and if they get lucky with the wind TWC predicts they will snatch this record back…



Finian Flying: “Oh Mama…Must..Hang…On…..”

(Photo: Roger von Tangeren)

Wetass of the Week–Brick (the Lab): The winter waters off Alaska are treacherous and sometimes deadly. They killed logger Greg Clark on January 22, when his boat foundered on the rocks off Cape Lynch on Heceta Island. Clark had two dogs with him, Brick and a young puppy, and all were assumed lost. But you can never count a lab out (okay, there’s one snoring at my feet), and yesterday two fishermen found ol’ Brick alive on the island, more than a month after he was shipwrecked. According to the AP, “Brick swam to the men’s boat and was hauled aboard — underweight, with an injured leg, fur matted with tree sap, but wiggling with joy.” Give that dog a T-bone….



“Man, what took you guys so long…”

JV Jumble–Everybody’s Back At Sea: Geronimo hit the start last night just before midnight GMT, and Orange II followed today just after 8 am GMT, so they are off and running in their match race, with Geronimo grabbing an 8 hour head start. Both boats are sailing in good northerly winds which should get them south to the Canary Islands in good shape. After that there may be some tricky weather before they find the trade winds that will hurtle them to the Equator. No doubt, the two will have good leads on Cheyenne by the time they cross the Equator, but Cheyenne had a great passage through the South Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope, so we’ll see how they all stand after they hit that first Great Cape.

Meanwhile, Cheyenne has found the fast lane in the Indian Ocean, reaching along at 20-25 knots between 47S and 48S, and looking to notch up a series of 500 mile days. Fossett figures they’ve stretched their lead on Orange 2002 to about a day and a half (see chart), but they will need every advantage they can get, because after New Zealand, Orange had a great passage across the Pacific, riding a single depression all the way to Cape Horn, and did very well on the final leg up the Atlantic as well. The key in the Southern Ocean is to keep (or hope) breakages don’t slow you up, because this is the place where you really rack up the miles. So far in the South, Cheyenne’s crew has dealt with a broken forestay, and a broken batten car (which forced them to drop the main for 45 minutes). And there’s probably some 7-8,000 more miles of Southern Ocean sailing ahead. Here’s a report from Dave Scully, which captures some of the feeling of sailing in the world’s greatest ocean:

“How to stay warm is the latest topic of conversation. Although I awoke to bright sunshine, the temperature has dropped to 5 deg C, and the wind chill is bitter. We are reaching east along lat 48 south, and as much as you remind yourself that this is no further south than say, La Rochelle is north, it feels a lot colder.

We are looking forward to four or five days of fast sailing, as we chase a high pressure system that is passing to the north of us. The consistent winds will help us make short work of the Indian Ocean, the most hazardous part of the trip. Hauling up the solent is a very warming activity. We miss the roller furling already!

It is a great experience to be back in the Southern Ocean. The incredible power of the weather here is like a thinly veiled threat of which we are constantly aware, and yet there is peace in the slow arc of the albatross’ glide, and in the endless swell of the sea. As sailors, we are closer to the elemental force of our environment in this place, than we are anywhere else.

It is one thirty in the morning, cold as a steel bar. Gizmo (Guillermo) is in the galley, singing to the helm station over the VHF. Jacques’ watch has the con, and my watch, on standby, is huddled into the warmest corners to be found. In a few minutes, we hit the deck to hoist the solent, to enable us to direct our course more to the east. The closer angle to the wind will pay a boat speed dividend, but cost us in comfort, as icy spray will be added to the icy wind. The faster we go, the sooner we will get to turn north.”

More later, when Geronimo and Orange II check in….



A View From Cheyenne: Uh-Oh…….

(Photo: Nick Leggatt)

JV Update–Cat vs. Tri: Geronimo’s departure from Brest has been delayed slightly, and it now looks as if the big trimaran and Orange II will restart within hours of each other, sometime tonight or early tomorrow morning. Bruno Peyron is already getting hot and bothered about the prospect:

“We should encounter good conditions at the beginning, but we’ll probably be slowed down in two to three days by a high which is blocking our path off the Canary Islands. Afterwards, we’ll catch the Trades promptly, and they will propel us to the Equator. With Geronimo setting off as well, we’ll be in a race configuration. It will add tactics and strategy, and will be quite interesting. We had been expecting this trimaran — catamaran showdown for a long time. Undoubtedly, we’ll learn a few things from this confrontation rather quickly. It promises to be a real duel, and the whole crew is very motivated by this combat at the highest level of our sport. The battle will be a tough one psychologically.”

Bring it on…

Annals of Adventure–Across the Top of the World: Lots of hard-core maniacs put everything they have into trying to get to the North Pole solo and unsupported. Ben Saunders, a 26-year old Brit, is about to raise the ante by turning the Pole into just a rest stop. He’s about to set off with the intention of making the first solo ski crossing of the Arctic Ocean, starting from Cape Arktichevsky– the northernmost tip of Russia (81°30’N 97°0’E)–via the North Geographic Pole (90°N) to Ward Hunt Island, on the north coast of Canada (83°05’N 75°0’W). That’s 1,240 miles of bitter cold, Polar bears, thin ice and the possibility of an unexpected Arctic swim. And Saunders is doing it pure: no dogs, no kites, no guides and no resupply. No one has ever done this solo, and according to Explorer’s Web, the last two guys who pulled this stunt were out for 109 days, lost their sleds, all their gear and 50 kgs of body weight. When they finally staggered ashore at Cape Discovery, Canada, a doctor took one look at them and estimated that they were just 48 hours from death. So this is no stroll in a winter wonderland, and going solo will be doubly hard. Saunders expects it will take him about 3 months, and you can follow his expedition in detail (want to know what his average daily heart rate is, or how many calories he consumed?) on his excellent web site. Saunders is now in Siberia, getting ready to set off. Here’s his first dispatch. He’s clearly got a good sense of humor (and he’ll need one, no doubt):

“After a 23-hour journey to the outermost reaches of northern Siberia (currently a nostril-freezing -35°C), we feel we should pass on the following points to anyone considering such a voyage:

1) 21 bags of kit several hundred kilos over the limit should not be considered something the BA check-in desk ‘just won’t notice’.

2) If you arrive at Moscow airport with high explosives, satellite communications equipment, controlled medicines and several cases of camera gear (with no filming permit), barging through the nothing to declare channel professing a complete inability to understand the language works far more effectively than any attempt to negotiate or follow the rules.

3) The knowledge that regional carrier KrasAir is pronounced CrashAir should be restricted to a small group of people who are either drunk, sedated or complete strangers to the English language. Do not assume that your camera crew are drunk, that is their natural demeanour.

4) If, after boarding a clapped out ‘vintage’ Tupolov, you are told that ‘the flight will take six hours… if we live’ take full advantage of the vodka ploughman’s brunch available.”

Good luck…



Solo Saunders: “Crazy?…Why would you think I’m crazy.”

(Photo: via Explorer’s Web)