Friday, October 31, 2003
Annals of Adventure--Transat Jacques Vabre: Starting Saturday, 76 world class sailors will set out in 38 boats to race across the storm-strewn Atlantic. The Transat Jacques Vabre only comes along every two years, and it is without doubt one of the most compelling, dramatic...and potentially catastrophic races on the calendar. The cream of the fleet consists of 17 Open 60 monohulls and 14 60-foot trimarans. These boats are the thoroughbreds of the ocean racing world, and their two-handed crews will fight the weather and each other tooth and nail from Le Havre to Salvador in Brazil. The monohull Open 60s will leave Saturday, and sail a 4,340 mile course: across the Bay of Biscay, down through the tradewinds, across the Equator and on to Brazil. The turbo-charged 60-foot tris--which can cruise at 20-30 knots, with everything but the leeward hull out of the water--are scheduled to leave Sunday. They will sail a longer course--5,300 miles--that requires them to leave Ascension Island in the South Atlantic to starboard. The Atlantic is conjuring up its usual witches brew to greet the sailors, with an intense storm scheduled to hit the French coast over the weekend. The Open 60s will get off alright, before battening down offshore to weather the blast. The trimaran start may have to be delayed, however, because race organizers fear the spindly craft will be beat into flotsam if they venture out on schedule. A similar race last year sent the trimaran fleet through heavy weather, and the result was carnage: most of the fleet capsized or broke into very expensive chunks of carbon fiber. Delay or no, there's no getting around the fact that racing shorthanded across the Atlantic in November...with just two crew....who will get barely any sleep for the next two weeks....while trying to keep the world's most overpowered sailboats under control...is some crazy sh*t. People can die--and have--doing this. So settle back and prepare for some spectacular racing. But be prepared to cover your eyes. This race can get ugly, and the Wetass Chronicles will be bringing you regular reports........
"Alors, Jean-Luc! I know this lightens the boat, but there's no way I'm going all the way across the Atlantic like this..."
(Photo: Yvan Zedda)
"Alors, Jean-Luc! I know this lightens the boat, but there's no way I'm going all the way across the Atlantic like this..."
(Photo: Yvan Zedda)
Wetass of the Week--"Here, Sharky, Sharky": STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - An Icelandic fishing captain, known as "the Iceman" for his tough character, grabbed a 660-pound shark with his bare hands as it swam in shallow water toward his crew, a witness said Thursday. The skipper of the trawler "Erik the Red" was on a beach in Kuummiit, east Greenland, watching his crew processing a catch when he saw the shark swimming toward the fish blood and guts -- and his men. Captain Sigurdur Petursson, known to locals as "the Iceman," ran into the shallow water and grabbed the shark by its tail. He dragged it off to dry land and killed it with his knife. "He caught it just with his hands. There was a lot of blood in the sea and the shark came in and he thought it was dangerous," Frede Kilime, a hunter and fisherman who watched from the beach, told Reuters by phone from Greenland.
"Uh-oh. Who's this crazy mo' fo' sneaking up behind me....."
"Uh-oh. Who's this crazy mo' fo' sneaking up behind me....."
Woodvale Update....Surfin': The transatlantic rowing race leaders have finally passed under the 2000 miles to go marker, and are surfing along in strong northeast tradewinds. Some of the boats are putting in 80-90 mile 24-hour runs, and Calderdale Challenge almost hit 100 miles. It's wild and wet out there, reports Holiday Shoppe Challenge, currently in second place:
“I was looking up at Jesus through my feet,” said Jamie ‘Quote of the Day’ Fitzgerald, “I was looking skyward past my feet. It felt like the boat was vertical before we surfed down the front of the wave.” ...“That one particular wave was as close as we’ve come to what felt like a potential capsize or pitch pole,” said Kevin Biggar, “We were both rowing together at the time, trying to extract as much speed out of the boat as possible, when a series of good sized waves seemed to cross over and double up right where we were positioned. There was white water everywhere. It was fantastic, if a little unnerving.”
"Is it just me, or are we rowing uphill....."
(Photo: Challenge Business)
“I was looking up at Jesus through my feet,” said Jamie ‘Quote of the Day’ Fitzgerald, “I was looking skyward past my feet. It felt like the boat was vertical before we surfed down the front of the wave.” ...“That one particular wave was as close as we’ve come to what felt like a potential capsize or pitch pole,” said Kevin Biggar, “We were both rowing together at the time, trying to extract as much speed out of the boat as possible, when a series of good sized waves seemed to cross over and double up right where we were positioned. There was white water everywhere. It was fantastic, if a little unnerving.”
"Is it just me, or are we rowing uphill....."
(Photo: Challenge Business)
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Annals of Adventure Medicine--Shrinkage: There's one risk Wally probably never figured on as he planned this year's Everest attempt. According to ExplorersWeb, a rather unusual Base Camp study has shown that high altitude decreases testosterone and sperm counts in male climbers...for a period up to two years after an expedition. Post-7800 meter sperm were also determined to be abnormally shaped (were they shivering, too?), a bizarre effect which fortunately rights itself after a few months. The sample size was understandably limited to three climbers, given the fact that Everest climbers have quite enough going on at Camp 3 and above without having to, ummmmm.....I mean, the logistics are daunting. You're talking really cold hands (mittens?) and....okay, I'll stop. No word on who the three horny heroes are, or whether women climbing team members were available to assist in the research. Doctors at Base Camp would like to continue the study, however, so next year Everest may become home to a "Five Mile High" club.......and climbers will have to start knocking.
Frigid Temps Caused Unusual Research Problems: "Hey, Doc, I'm done...Do you have a scraper?"
Frigid Temps Caused Unusual Research Problems: "Hey, Doc, I'm done...Do you have a scraper?"
Wally the Wetass Update: Wally Berg and his depleted climbing team are headed back up the slopes of Everest, hoping to find a windless window to summit early next week. Berg reports that the roar of wind up high seems to have died down substantially, although he can still see some snow plumes blowing off the peaks around Everest. Weather forecasts are highly variable, so Berg's plan is to push up past Camp III to Camp IV, if possible, and then sit tight and hope for a break in the breeze that will allow him to rush the summit. This is the last time he'll be going up. The next time he comes down he'll either have summitted....or not.
Big-Ass Crevasse Between Camp 1 and 2
(Photo: Berg Adventures International)
Big-Ass Crevasse Between Camp 1 and 2
(Photo: Berg Adventures International)
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Book Corner: There's a strong new batch of titles for the adventure-minded, though they will require considerably longer than the 2 minutes 3 seconds it takes to read a blog. Buy them for yourself, buy them for your fat brother-in-law, buy them for Christmas. Support the industry! And, remember, you saw 'em here first....maybe....possibly....:
The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, by Caroline Alexander
''What caused the mutiny on the Bounty?'' Alexander asks. ''The seductions of Tahiti, Bligh's harsh tongue -- perhaps. But more compellingly, a night of drinking and a proud man's pride, a low moment on one gray dawn, a momentary and fatal slip in a gentleman's code of discipline -- and then the rush of consequences to be lived out for a lifetime.'' This sounds almost like Conrad writing, and indeed it would have taken a Conrad to gives us a psychologically satisfactory Christian or Bligh. A sea mist hangs over this age-old tale. Alexander dispels it, to the reader's fascination. But when all the facts are told and the fates of the cast are duly chronicled, the sea mist settles in again, as impenetrable and yet more interesting than it has ever been." Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Times
Evolution's Captain: The Dark Fate of the Man Who Sailed Charles Darwin Around the World, by Peter Nichols
"Throughout this meaty book, Nichols, whose previous work includes A Voyage for Madmen, quotes extensively and judiciously from a solid range of sources, notably logbooks and the official narrative of the Adventure and Beagle, of which the third volume was Darwin's Journal of Researches, later renamed The Voyage of the Beagle. He works hard at establishing the context in which events unfolded, and he has a finely tuned sense of history." Sara Wheeler, The New York Times
Over The Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe, By Laurence Bergreen
"Journalist Bergreen, who has penned biographies of James Agee, Louis Armstrong, Irving Berlin and Al Capone, superbly recreates Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan's obsessive 16th-century quest, an ill-fated journey that altered Europe's perception of the planet: "It was a dream as old as the imagination: a voyage to the ends of the earth.... Mariners feared they could literally sail over the edge of the world."" Publishers Weekly
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, by Nathaniel Philbrick
"The harrowing survival tale that garnered Philbrick a National Book Award (In the Heart of the Sea, 2000) seems almost a tune-up for this saga of wind and wave. In revisiting the long-forgotten South Seas Exploring Expedition, the author has taken on perhaps the ultimate in fact-based sea stories...When the Ex. Ex., as it was known, left these shores, the author points out, "science" in America usually meant a hobby pursued by idle intelligentsia; after Wilkes's squadron (three of sixoriginal ships) returned, and published studies began to pour forth, however, science became a real livelihood. But subsequent internecine squabbling and courts-martial quickly soured the public, relegating both Wilkes and a magnificent venture to oblivion. A rare blend of history, heroics, and gut-gripping emotion." Kirkus Reviews
And, finally.......
Four Against the Arctic: Shipwrecked for Six Years at the Top of the World, by David Roberts
"A flabbergasting, if leisurely paced, story of survival in the Far North during the 18th century, shrouded by the enjoyable mystery of half-understood but decidedly atavistic circumstances. A voracious fan of adventure-travel literature, Roberts (Escape from Luciania, 2002, etc.) came across a fragmentary report of four Russian walrus-hunters who were shipwrecked on the Svarlbard Archipelago in the high Arctic—a collection of barren plateaus, made of basalt, glaciers, and bad weather, wild and elemental and described precisely here—and survived for six years, from 1743 until 1749, having carried ashore exactly one musket, a bag of flour, and a pouch of tobacco...Caveats aside, dogged research and hard travel to distant places make for a gem in the literature of survival under dire conditions." Kirkus Reviews
The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, by Caroline Alexander
''What caused the mutiny on the Bounty?'' Alexander asks. ''The seductions of Tahiti, Bligh's harsh tongue -- perhaps. But more compellingly, a night of drinking and a proud man's pride, a low moment on one gray dawn, a momentary and fatal slip in a gentleman's code of discipline -- and then the rush of consequences to be lived out for a lifetime.'' This sounds almost like Conrad writing, and indeed it would have taken a Conrad to gives us a psychologically satisfactory Christian or Bligh. A sea mist hangs over this age-old tale. Alexander dispels it, to the reader's fascination. But when all the facts are told and the fates of the cast are duly chronicled, the sea mist settles in again, as impenetrable and yet more interesting than it has ever been." Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Times
Evolution's Captain: The Dark Fate of the Man Who Sailed Charles Darwin Around the World, by Peter Nichols
"Throughout this meaty book, Nichols, whose previous work includes A Voyage for Madmen, quotes extensively and judiciously from a solid range of sources, notably logbooks and the official narrative of the Adventure and Beagle, of which the third volume was Darwin's Journal of Researches, later renamed The Voyage of the Beagle. He works hard at establishing the context in which events unfolded, and he has a finely tuned sense of history." Sara Wheeler, The New York Times
Over The Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe, By Laurence Bergreen
"Journalist Bergreen, who has penned biographies of James Agee, Louis Armstrong, Irving Berlin and Al Capone, superbly recreates Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan's obsessive 16th-century quest, an ill-fated journey that altered Europe's perception of the planet: "It was a dream as old as the imagination: a voyage to the ends of the earth.... Mariners feared they could literally sail over the edge of the world."" Publishers Weekly
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, by Nathaniel Philbrick
"The harrowing survival tale that garnered Philbrick a National Book Award (In the Heart of the Sea, 2000) seems almost a tune-up for this saga of wind and wave. In revisiting the long-forgotten South Seas Exploring Expedition, the author has taken on perhaps the ultimate in fact-based sea stories...When the Ex. Ex., as it was known, left these shores, the author points out, "science" in America usually meant a hobby pursued by idle intelligentsia; after Wilkes's squadron (three of sixoriginal ships) returned, and published studies began to pour forth, however, science became a real livelihood. But subsequent internecine squabbling and courts-martial quickly soured the public, relegating both Wilkes and a magnificent venture to oblivion. A rare blend of history, heroics, and gut-gripping emotion." Kirkus Reviews
And, finally.......
Four Against the Arctic: Shipwrecked for Six Years at the Top of the World, by David Roberts
"A flabbergasting, if leisurely paced, story of survival in the Far North during the 18th century, shrouded by the enjoyable mystery of half-understood but decidedly atavistic circumstances. A voracious fan of adventure-travel literature, Roberts (Escape from Luciania, 2002, etc.) came across a fragmentary report of four Russian walrus-hunters who were shipwrecked on the Svarlbard Archipelago in the high Arctic—a collection of barren plateaus, made of basalt, glaciers, and bad weather, wild and elemental and described precisely here—and survived for six years, from 1743 until 1749, having carried ashore exactly one musket, a bag of flour, and a pouch of tobacco...Caveats aside, dogged research and hard travel to distant places make for a gem in the literature of survival under dire conditions." Kirkus Reviews
Annals of Misdaventure--Polar Farce: Sure, it's harder and harder to do anything new or first in the world of adventure. But that doesn't mean we have to put up with or applaud every ridiculous "expedition" that hungers for sponsorship and publicity. Today's case in point: an expedition called "Polar First," in which two helicopter pilots--Jennifer Murray and Colin Bodill--are en route to trying to become the first to fly a helicopter around the world....via the North and South pole. Ohhhhhh. Ahhhhh. I'd be impressed if they were doing it non-stop and refueling in mid-air or carrying the world's largest wing tanks. I'd be impressed if they were turning the rotors with bicycle pedals installed in the cockpit. But they aren't. They are short-hopping their way from New York to DC to Charleston to.....etc., etc (with "media opportunities" lined up for every stop). Yes, they will have to fly across the Drake Passage (see below, for the gutsy way to go). And yes they will have to land on the ice to refuel. But as far as I can tell the most difficult aspect of this entire venture will be avoiding saddle sores from sitting in their cockpit seats for so many hours. I do have to hand it to Murray and Bodill on one level: they have sponsorship out the wazoo. Bell Helicopters ponied up the aircraft and somehow the World Wildlife Fund has decided that scaring the penguins and polar bears with a clattering, fossil-fuel consuming contraption is a project they want in on. They even got Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, to see them off (has Weight Watchers donated some chocolate shakes?). What can I say? I hate everything about this stupid PR grab, I mean expedition (here's a diary entry from Jennifer Murray, and, as Dave Barry would say, I Swear I Am Not Making This Up: "made it without further problems to Charleston--weather still good and getting warmer--and to another sponsored night at one of the luxurious Eastern Oriental Hotels. Collapsed early into bed...475 miles closer to the South Pole." What? No plug for the 800 thread-count Martha Stewart sheets?) Next up: Joe Millionaire will drive a bulldozer to the South Pole, surviving exclusively on fast food (with sponsorship from Caterpillar and McDonalds).
Murray, Bodill and Fergie: "What the f**k am I doing here, dressed like a penguin? Note to self: Fire agent....."
(Photo: Polar First)
Murray, Bodill and Fergie: "What the f**k am I doing here, dressed like a penguin? Note to self: Fire agent....."
(Photo: Polar First)
Fire and Brimstone: Hurricanes, wildfires and now.....the mother of all "geomagnetic" storms:
"Kohl said scientists observed the biggest such explosion in 30 years shortly before 6 a.m. EST Tuesday. It produced a particle cloud 13 times larger than Earth and hurtled through the solar system at more than 1 million miles per hour. The resulting geomagnetic storm could be ranked among the most powerful of its kind and last for 24 hours. It is expected to disrupt the communications satellites and high frequency radios."
Solar Flares: Impressive. Now, bring on the locusts......
"Kohl said scientists observed the biggest such explosion in 30 years shortly before 6 a.m. EST Tuesday. It produced a particle cloud 13 times larger than Earth and hurtled through the solar system at more than 1 million miles per hour. The resulting geomagnetic storm could be ranked among the most powerful of its kind and last for 24 hours. It is expected to disrupt the communications satellites and high frequency radios."
Solar Flares: Impressive. Now, bring on the locusts......
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Annals of Adventure 2--The Need For Speed: Almost a decade ago Bill Green--the owner of Green Marine, a top composite boat builder--and an engineering friend named Peter Whipp were bicycling around the Outer Hebrides. For reasons barely fathomable they decided at that moment to build a carbon-fiber land yacht which, after many subsequent hours in pubs, evolved into a machine that they hoped could break records. The called the project "Windjet," and fueled by hubris and ale decided that they would not be satisfied with just the land-speed record but would also go for the ice-speed record and the water-speed record for good measure. They haven't actually managed to nail any of those records yet, but Windjet is currently on standby at RAF Waddington in England, hoping for some winter winds to speed her to a new land speed record. The target to beat is 116.7 mph (set in 1999 by American Bob Schumacher in the nicely-named "Iron Duck"). In cross winds of more than 25 mph Windjet should be capable of getting up to about 140 mph, and in training the craft has hit 113.4 mph to set a new British record. If the Windjet team can nab the land record this winter, they'll move on to the water record next summer (target: 46.52 knots set by an Australian team in 1993) and the ice record next winter (target: 143 mph, set by American John Buckstaff all the way back in 1938).
Calling Austin Powers: "Yeah, Baby! Look at those jubblies...."
(Photo: Windjet)
Calling Austin Powers: "Yeah, Baby! Look at those jubblies...."
(Photo: Windjet)
Annals of Adventure--Beach Cat Bingo: Last February, Brazilian Roberto Pandiani and South African Duncan Ross sailed a 21-foot beach catamaran from near Cape Horn to the Antarctic Peninsula, a journey which is recounted by Ross here. It's old news, but a worthwhile account with some cool pics. The little outing took the duo 82 hours, and involved crossing the 500-mile Drake Passage, one of the most brutal and unpredictable stretches of water on the planet. They were lucky with the weather--experiencing a maximum of 25-knot winds--but by the time they reached the Great White Continent they were hallucinating, thanks to the cold and physical exertion. "It was like scooting across the upturned belly of an sleeping monster," Ross concluded. The next obvious stunt is to circumnavigate Antarctica....Duncan? Roberto?
"Dammit, Roberto, we're hard aground. Don't you think you're taking this Shackleton obsession a bit far?"
"Dammit, Roberto, we're hard aground. Don't you think you're taking this Shackleton obsession a bit far?"
Where There's Smoke.....: A view of Southern California from outer space.
Governor-Elect Schwarzenegger today called on all potheads to extinguish their fatties.....
Governor-Elect Schwarzenegger today called on all potheads to extinguish their fatties.....
Monday, October 27, 2003
Ski Everest Update--Maegan Moves On: A disappointed Wally Berg reports that Maegan Carney--along with two other climbers-- has headed down the mountain, giving up on her plans to summit and ski Everest this year. Weather reports indicate winds at the top should calm down next week, but I guess Maegan couldn't take any more sitting around. Berg and the remainder of his team are sticking it out in Base Camp, hoping to pull off a post-monsoon summit attempt. Even though Maegan is done, I'll keep following their expedition because Wally sounds like a first-class wetass.
Wally's World Is Lonely: "Maegan? Brad? Grant?....I guess it's just you and me, Tenzing"
(Photo: Berg Adventures International)
Wally's World Is Lonely: "Maegan? Brad? Grant?....I guess it's just you and me, Tenzing"
(Photo: Berg Adventures International)
The Disappearing Wild--Better Book Your Safari Soon: Land reform, Zimbabwe style, is not so good for the four-footed natives, reports the New York Times:
"Hunting and tourism once pumped millions of dollars into Zimbabwe's economy each year, sustaining wildlife management programs on millions of acres of private scrubland too arid or rocky for commercial farming, but ideal for photographic safaris and big-game hunts. Zimbabwe's decision to confiscate most of that land from its white owners, and then to redistribute it to peasants and political supporters, has had an unexpected result: thousands of hungry families on land too poor to support crops have turned to poaching as their prime source of food and income. Private wildlife programs have been all but destroyed....Precise figures do not exist. But by estimates from several conservationists, former landowners and opposition politicians, as many as two-thirds of the animals on Zimbabwe's game farms and wildlife conservancies have been wiped out."
Not to mention the land owners who have tried to stand their ground against Robert Mugabe's paramilitary thugs....
Thirsty Elephants: "Hey Dumbo, maybe we should stampede Harare instead....."
(Photo: New York Times)
"Hunting and tourism once pumped millions of dollars into Zimbabwe's economy each year, sustaining wildlife management programs on millions of acres of private scrubland too arid or rocky for commercial farming, but ideal for photographic safaris and big-game hunts. Zimbabwe's decision to confiscate most of that land from its white owners, and then to redistribute it to peasants and political supporters, has had an unexpected result: thousands of hungry families on land too poor to support crops have turned to poaching as their prime source of food and income. Private wildlife programs have been all but destroyed....Precise figures do not exist. But by estimates from several conservationists, former landowners and opposition politicians, as many as two-thirds of the animals on Zimbabwe's game farms and wildlife conservancies have been wiped out."
Not to mention the land owners who have tried to stand their ground against Robert Mugabe's paramilitary thugs....
Thirsty Elephants: "Hey Dumbo, maybe we should stampede Harare instead....."
(Photo: New York Times)
California is Burning....: And the LA Times has some incredible photos. Check them out.
"Yo, valet, love the yellow! Just got it detailed, so could you park it out of the ash...."
(Photo: LA Times)
"Yo, valet, love the yellow! Just got it detailed, so could you park it out of the ash...."
(Photo: LA Times)
Woodvale Transatlantic Update--Two Down, ? To Go.....: One week into this transatlantic painfest two rowing teams have dropped out. Team Madine Meuse Lorraine were the first to bonk, just 48 hours in. And on Friday, "Calderdale: The Yorkshire Challenge" shipped oars as well. Headwinds and rough seas have tested all the teams, who still have more than 2000 miles to row. On Calderdale, it was seasickness that finally did in the team of Marcus Thompson and Sally Kettle. Thompson was so hard hit he couldn't keep anything down. It's hard to row 18 hours a day without being able to keep food and fluids down. But the real problem for Thompson was that the seasickness prevented him from being able to stomach his.....epilepsy medication. Seizures in a small rowing boat in the middle of the Atlantic. Ummm, maybe not. Kettle says next time she'll row transatlantic with her mother--which I'm guessing could raise an entirely different set of problems......
Calderdale Cruising: "Blazing Bluebeards, Marcus. You never said we'd run into pirates....."
(Photo: Challenge Business)
Calderdale Cruising: "Blazing Bluebeards, Marcus. You never said we'd run into pirates....."
(Photo: Challenge Business)
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