1000 days at sea??

I have been a Reid Stowe skeptic.  

When I heard his pitch at a New York maritime event "If we don't think humans can spend 1000 days non stop at sea, how can we expect astronauts to spend 1000 days in a tiny capsule in space?", and saw the girl at his elbow, and saw his unromantic steel schooner Anne at the 23rd St. RR barge - I thought the real objective was to set the Guinness record for man alone at sea with a woman half his age.  And when he set off with novice crew I was sure, but Soanya proved herself game, if not up to the whole voyage, departing off Perth after 300 some days.  

Reid has continued on his own sailing idly across oceans, contemplating the meaning of it all.  Now at New Years 2009, day 618 he was approaching Cape Horn, with tales of gales and repairs, and still dreaming his dreams. 

He may not be much of a philosopher but he's proven he's a hell of a sailor. You can follow his voyage and his musings at 1000days.net

Vendee - Desjoyeaux First Around the Horn

      At 0310 this morning (UTC), leader Michel Desjoyeaux on Foncia rounded Cape Horn after 56 days, 15 hours and 08 minutes of racing — a little faster than the time taken in 2004 to reach the Horn (56d 17h 13’), even though this year’s route has been extended by some 1200 miles.

Foncia is the first boat to exit the Pacific and enter the Atlantic Ocean — and begin the final climb north to the finish line. Mich Desj passed just a couple of miles off the coast of the fearsome landmark, reporting squalls of 35-40 knots, gusting 45, at around midnight in local, Chilean time – his path flagged by the famous lighthouses on the rocks. However, on rounding the tip of South America Foncia is experiencing flatter seas. After a strong NW'ly wind this weekend, the leaders are being greeted by a 20-25 knot westerly, likely to ease further as a high pressure zone develops off the tip of Patagonia.  For more go to VendeeGlobe.org/en 

January 4 - Winter has come to New York

Failed winters are the bane of life in New York.

Winter means ice in the Hudson as the North River is commonly called.

Today winter came to New York.

At the Execution Rocks Buoy three miles east of City Island, outside Hempstead Harbor, just off Sands Point at 8 AM the wind is west gusting to 17.5 kts, it is 28 F, and the apparent temperature is 17.2 F.

Modest sheets of ice calm the North River outside our window and fragments bunch along the shore.

Year-end voyage

The shortest voyages can be the most gratifying.  Today in a December thaw I rowed my 8 ft. plastic dinghy out .48 nm, past Big Tom (a rock)  to  R2 - the nun buoy that marks the entrance to Eastchester Bay.  Outbound is a lot farther than inbound.  Rowing into the sea and the wind, aiming for the bridge, and pulled south on the ebb, you earn the leisurely slide back to the dock, feathering the oars, cutting across the sea, spinning and pulling to put the stern into the swells when a big one rolls in.  When you get to the dock that .48 nm looks far again and you're glad the pump can still put out enough to carry you there on the strength of your arms and your back.

Then check North River 2 at Barron's.  Boat yards are at their best in winter - full of boats.  Looking at the keels, hulls, and spars you can tell how they sail.   The functional shapes and  primary colors look their best against the gray sky.

And then Brian Dempsey's American Ale House.  Vikings 20, Giants 19.  Season not over.

Vendee - 4,000 miles front to back - NZ - to Perth

18 of 26 still racing, Michel Desjoyeaux leads the fleet by 44 miles (after 14,000 nm) as they approach the "gate" east of New Zealand.  Gates are designed to bring the fleet north of the ice zones.  The leaders have 10,000 nm to go - aiming next for Cape Horn. 

Here's the Christmas Day Roundup, and a graphic with the fleet position. 

Southbound 650 - Valparaiso, Chile

Valparaiso - a neutral city and site of a key battle in our War of 1812, is the headquarters of the Chilean navy.   Taisy studied there at the Pontifical University - the only Catholic school I ever got her to.  Marilyn, Gary and I visited her there and heard Inti-Illimani in a pub, reminding me of the Allende years, as did the Esmeralda - the white tall ship in the naval base shot.  Prisoners were tortured aboard and Susan was arrested unfurling an anti-junta banner from its deck during an Op-Sail visit to NY when Reagan was blessing the Statue of Liberty or smtg.

We stayed in a Bohemian neighborhood at a hostel across the street from the Lutheran Church (called the German Church there) - and next door to the place where Jesse stayed, a coincidence.  So here are some of Jesse's typically well composed and selected shots of Valparaiso, plus one of a strange sculpture in the desert on the way south from Antofagasta.

Jesse and Andy parted ways in LaPaz.  Next post will (hopefully) be Tierra DelFuego.

For more pictures of desert, sea and highway go to Southbound 650.

The Long River 长江

That's what they call the YangTze 扬子江 - The Chang Jiang 长江，the Long River - which is in fact the longest river in the world.  What you see here is the river  at Wuhan 武汉, a city of 6 million about 400 miles west of Shanghai.  A coal carrier heads west, a tug pushes a barge loaded with fiber of some kind (while crew on top of the pile directs the pilot), a fisherman and mate - tossing a net by hand.

You'll also see here a couple of dredges, a fish monger selling to people on line for the ferry, two friends Liao Meizhen 廖 美珍, Teng Rui 腾锐 and fellow passengers on the ferry ride. Cruise ships leave from here down river to Shanghai - or west up through the 3 Gorges Dam locks to the Three Gorges 三峡 at the border of Sichuan and Hubei provinces. 

Viking ship Sea Stallion - Dublin to Roskilde, DK

Experimental archeology is what they call a crew of 60 sailing Sea Stallion - a 30 meter replica Viking ship - 1,150 nm from Dublin to Roskilde, Denmark - a 6 week effort from June 29 - August 9, 2008.  The idea is to learn how the Vikings did it - by using identical equipment (like binding the rudder with a fresh sapling, not line; and pumping out tons of Irish Sea water as they plowed windward in 5 meter swells ).  When they couldn't sail they rowed - 30 at a time in 30 minute shifts.

The pictures here show the good weather. For the best pix and a good retelling you'll have to go to Wooden Boat magazine # 206 (Jan/Feb 2009).  But the Viking Musem in Denmark does a pretty good job here.

Iditarod on Foot, Bike, Skis - no dogs allowed

Riders Through the Snow

New York Times

December 24, 2008

During the Iditarod Trail Invitational, racers brave hundreds of miles of frozen Alaskan wilderness on foot, ski or bicycle.  Maybe it really is a spiritual experience - 350 miles of Alsakan wilderness in the winter.  Here's the video   Wanna sign up for next year? Here's the link to Alaska Ultra Sport.

Guangzhou, Guangdong (Canton) by Sea?

I haven't yet approached China by sea.  When I went to Shanghai for a couple weeks in 2005 I went with British piloting charts, hoping to charter something that would get me out into the East China Sea.  No luck.  There were a couple of power boats across the river from the campus but no way to get my hands on them.

This time, going to Guangdong (Canton) I imagined coming up the Pearl River to Guangzhou, under sail, passing by the Portuguese outpost of Macao and the Brits in Hong Kong, landing in Guangzhou. But all I have is this photo of the Spirit of Baltimore 2  tied up by White Swan Hotel, not far from the stadium , of which I got a misty shot from the bridge over the Pearl River.  Here's a link to Spirit 2's log of their 1998 voyage to East Asia.