Ocean Expedition List 2003/04
Last updated: April 13, 04
Note: List is preliminary and can be subject to change |
Extreme sailing expeditions
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Henk de Velde - The Campina adventure
Dutchman Henk de
Velde has been roaming the world's oceans for two years now on his
boat The Campina. When departing Henk wanted to sail along the North
East Passage above and along Siberia, the Pacific from north to
south, make it around Cape Horn and via the Antarctic back home to
the Netherlands.
Henk has sailed around the world several times, the first one lasted
between 1978 and 1985 so Henk is known to take his time when out
exploring. The reason for traveling like this is to experience new
things and enjoy life to the fullest.
ww.henkdevelde.nl/go
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Ellen MacArthur to break world solo speed record
Ellen MacArthur shot to fame
when she became the fastest solo woman to sail round-the-world in
2001’s
Vendee Globe. Now she has her sight set on breaking the world solo
speed record over the next two years
in a brand new £1.5million trimaran designed by Nigel Irens. Named
Castorama B&Q, after its sponsors,
the 75 ft long triple-hulled boat is built for speed, said to
reach over 35 knots. Ellen is eyeing several records including the
24-hour distance record as well as making it round-the-world
fastest. Typically, trimarans are fast boats, but trickier to
handle in high winds. After last year’s dismasting on her
catamaran Kingfisher 2 in the Jules Verne Challenge and everything
it took to come this far, Ellen is thrilled to be on the water
again.
Expedition website
Offshorechallenges.com
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Youngest woman to sail around the world
Roslin Forrest is attempting to become the youngest woman to sail
around the world single handed and
non-stop. Now 22 years of age, she is working everyday, twelve hours
a day, on her Columbia 34’ sailboat
christened 'Stargazer' preparing for the trip. She will be leaving
in September 2004. From Vancouver she
sails south until Chile’s Cape Horn. Heading east in the Southern
Ocean all the way to New Zealand’s
Southwest Cape then heading north in the Pacific again and home to
Vancouver. She will pass all five
capes and pass through all necessary meridians as set out by the
World Speed Sailing Record Counsel.
Based on a conservative 100nm/day, she will leave in late September
2004 and estimates a return in less
than 10 months. ExplorersWeb will be following Roslin this fall and
into next year.
Some records in the realm of round-the-world sailing are; Ellen
MacArthur, British, 24yrs 7 months,
youngest woman to sail around the world solo, non-stop and
unassisted. Jesse Martin, Australian, 18 yr.,
youngest male to sail solo, unassisted, non-stop around the world.
Kay Cotte, New Zealand woman, first
to sail solo, unassisted, and non-stop. Jon Sanders, Australian,
first to ever sail three times around,
unassisted, non-stop.
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Francis Joyon non-stop round-the-world record
Starting November 22, 2003,
Francis hopes to break the solo record. Having lost his previous
sponsor, he
managed to pull everything together on a shoe-string budget and did
not even use the “outside
assistance” of weather routing analysis.
Feb 5, 2004, the sailing world saluted Francis Joyon as he
shattered the non-stop solo round-the-world
record with his arrival in Brest, more than 20 days ahead of the
previous record. Sailing aboard his
90-ft trimaran IDEC (designed for a crew of eight people), Francis
completed his 26,000 mile journey in
less than 73 days.
At one point in the journey, he and fellow French sailor Jean Luc
Van den Heede, who was sailing solo
round the world the other way, thought they would come within
passing distance of one another. The
weather and seas did not permit the “visit.
Expedition website
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Joe
Fontes
Joe Fontes is returning home on his 34-foot
sail boat, the Imigrante. On October 3 he set out from Barbados and
will cross the Atlantic to the Azores. He now sails northeast to
Cape Verde before turning north for a 1,700-mile run up to the
Azores and home. In the past Joe has sailed to Papua New Guinea,
Torres Straits, the Timor Sea, the Indian Ocean, South Africa around
the Cape of Good Hope, into the Atlantic Ocean and then cut west
across the Atlantic to Brazil, a detour needed to avoid a dead area
of wind and sea in the Atlantic near Africa.
On October 26, 2003, Joe Fonte reached the Azores
after having completed his journey.
www.imigrantevoyage.com
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Vagabond for the first polar circumnavigation
Through the North-East Passage,
then the North-West Passage, the 2 arctic routes that link the
Atlantic
Ocean to the Pacific Ocean - sailing these 2 famous passages one
after the other, each one without
wintering and without any ice-breaker assistance, is a first in the
sailing history.
On 31st August 2002, Vagabond crossed Bering Strait and became
the first yacht to sail the North-East
Passage without wintering, and without ice breaker. The Vagabond
next sailed the North-West Passage, the
sea route going from Bering Strait to Greenland, via Alaska and
Canada. "Our emotions were worthy of the
adventure" the team told Royal Geographic Society from Nuuk, the
capital of Greenland, on 23rd September
2003. While crossing the Davis Strait on 20th of September, Vagabond
reached the Labrador Sea and the
Atlantic Ocean Sep 26, 2003.
The team reported heavy ice conditions this year in the Arctic.
Polar Bound and Dagmar Aaen seem to be
trapped for the whole winter in the dangerous Franklin Strait. In
Russia, the Chelyuskin Cape remained
surrounded with a lot of ice over the summer, the sail boat Campina
will spend the winter in Tiksi and
will try to complete the North-East Passage 2004.
Expedition website
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Around the world solo/non-stop from East to West
Try, try again. This time-honored
expression sounds like Jean Luc Van Den Heede’s guiding motto. The
58-year old sailor is on now on his fourth solo attempt to sail
around the world non-stop the “wrong
way.” Meaning - from East to West, against the prevailing winds for
the majority of the voyage. It’s a
journey only four others have accomplished. Chay Blyth was the first
in 1970. He completed the voyage in
292 days. French skipper Philippe Monnet set a new record in 2000
when he succeeded in rounding the
world the “wrong” way in 151 days.
Circumnavigating the world from East to West is said to require
“Twice the Distance - Three times the
Time - Four times the Suffering.”
March 9, 2004, at 2.26 pm local time, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede set
a new record for a solo
circumnavigation "the wrong way", East to West. The new record is
122 days, 14 h, 3 min, and 49 sec.
Jean Luc beat Philippe Monnet by 29 days.
Expedition website
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Solo surfing across the Pacific
French adventurer Raphaela le
Gouvello is trying to cross the Pacific Ocean solo and unsupported
on a
surfboard. Raphaela has earlier solo surfed the Atlantic Ocean and
the Mediterranean Sea. Her current
sail follow in the footsteps of Thor Hejerdahl's Kon Tiki.
Nov 2, 2003 Raphaela Le Gouvello arrived in Tahiti at 12:57 a.m.
local time, after 89 days and 7 hours
completing a 4,455 mile solo journey across the Pacific Ocean on her
windsurf board. Raphaela began her
journey from Peru on August 5, and surfed across the Pacific right
according to schedule. Raphaella
approached through Papeete’s natural harbor with a smile on her
face, but a tinge of sadness that her
adventure had come to an end.
Expedition website
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Extreme diving expeditions |
North Pole scuba diving
In May 2003, Marcus Fillinger
wants to complete a solo dive at the North Pole while taking
photographs and
shooting a documentary of the experience. It is a continuation of
previous high Arctic ice diving
expeditions, in pursuit to be the world’s first pole solo and
unassisted dive at the Pole.
Marcus did it and filmed the documentary entitled “15 Below.”
Future expeditions include diving the world’s five water based
poles, as well as several dive based projects including diving the
World War wrecks, and shark dives of the world. A documentary and
stills images will be captured on all expeditions.
Expedition website
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Queen of the Deep
Austin based diver Tanya Streeter
aims to break the women's record of 312 feet in variable ballast
diving. "All I want is another 4 metres (13ft)", Tanya writes in her
diary. "Everywhere I go I look at
trees or poles and ask if this or that is 4m high so I can get an
idea of what I am adding.
Well, Tanya got a whole lot more than that! She descended to
122m/400feet on a single breath of air
returning to the surface under her own power in a dive time of 3
minutes 38 seconds. Tanya shattered the
earlier record (93.6 meters), set by Canadian Mandy-Rae Cruickshank
by 40 meters!
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For the love of a lady
Diver Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras
announced his plans to match his wife Audrey Mestre's unofficial
world
record (on training) of 561 feet (168.3 meters) in her honor as
Audrey lost her life in her record
attempt.
October 12, 2003, exactly one year after Audrey’s passing, Off
the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico,
Pipin Ferreras set an official 'No Limits' free diving world record
of 558 feet. The record took 2
minutes 39 seconds. "This was a very difficult and sad dive for me"
Pipin said. "Audrey did the dive
with me and helped me make it back."
Expedition website
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Extreme rowing expeditions |
Theodore Rezvoy - Atlantic West to East
This 35 year old Ukraninan is out to retrace
the classic route across the North Atlantic first accomplished by
Americans of Norweigian origin, Harbo and Samuelsen, in 1896.
Starting out from New York in mid June he aims to reach the French
coast after about 65 days of rowing. Theodore crossed the Atlantic
in the opposite direction via the southern route two years ago. This
journey will be a much tougher one.
The attempt was aborted after about a week
at sea on July 10th when Teddy spotted a vessel approaching on his
radar. They asked him if he needed help and a short time afterwards
he was boarded by the USS Doyle, a Navy missile frigate and searched.
They left Teddy's boat out in the middle of the Atlantic as they
took him to a police station. The boat was later recovered. Teddy
will make a new attempt summer 2004.
www.oceanrowing.com
www.rezvoy.com
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Maud Fontenoy - Atlantic West to East
French rower Maud Fontenoy set out from St.
Pierre et Miquelon, Canada on June 13 in an attempt to become the
first woman to row across the Atlantic West to East. Maud got a
rough start with winds up to 35 knots and swell measuring 4 m
throghing her out of course. Bad weather conditions have made Maud's
row difficult and strong winds keep pushing her backwards.
After a breathtaking voyage, where she was
attacked by a shark, drank seawater when her watermakers failed and
got caught in endless storms, on October 9 Maud set foot on Spanish
turf after 117 days of rowing. Maud is now the first woman to row
across the Atlantic ocean West to East. For her spirit, courage and
brutally honest reports, Maud was selected "Expedition of the
Year" by ExplorersWeb.
http://maudfontenoy.free.fr
www.oceanrowing.com
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Ocean rowing regatta - Mother and Daughter
Mother and daughter team Sally and Sarah Kettle are out rowing the
Atlantic ocean. Sallys first row was
with her boyfriend Marcus Thompson (Tommo). They raised money to
highlight the need for research into a
cure for epilepsy and as Tommo suffers from the condition. Yet
severe sea sickness brought on his first
seizure in over 2 years and that's when Sally called on mom, Sarah:
"When Sally first phoned me from the
boat asking if I could take Marcus’s place I couldn’t believe my
luck! I packed some baked beans and
some rice cakes and caught the ferry from Tenerife to La Gomera the
next morning."
Regatta website
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The Atlantic Ghost rowers
Two rowers, Brett Sparrow and
Scott Wonenberg, got the word of the Ocean Rowing regatta and
decided they
would participate. For that, they needed a boat for 25 thousand
sterling pounds and a permit from the
regatta, another 8 thousand sterling pounds. Well, for various
reasons, they didn't have the money. In a
series of events that followed, including the president of Zimbabwe,
the guys took off two days after
the regatta started and took off with the speed of light in their
"illegal" boat "against all odds".
Don't try to find them on the official tracking list, they are
invisible there although the organizers
do keep track on them for safety reasons.
Scott Wonenberg,33, grew up living in California and Zimbabwe. At
the age of 20, he flew a single engine
Cessna from California to Zimbabwe. Brett Sparrow, 29, grew up on
large game reserves in Zimbabwe.
Together they completed an expedition on Africa’s Lake Karibain in a
ten-foot 4O year old dinghy,
covering nearly 1000km in the circumnavigation, almost entirely by
rowing. It took them 23 days through
some of the worlds most crocodile populated waters and remote
wilderness areas.
The Ghost Team arrived Barbados March 9, in spite of their later
start placing third in the Regatta
oceanrowing competition. By hugging the shore to extreme (no more
than fifty meters, often much less)
they were able to row to Port St Charles unassisted. Broke on
arrival of course, they stayed at the
Sugar Cane Club, courtesy of Jan Meek, herself an Ocean Rower.
Regatta website
www.oceanrowing.com
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Woman to row both ways across Atlantic
Anne Quemere plans to row
Atlantic W-E from Chatham (USA) to Brittany (France) in her new
rowboat "Le
Connetable" to become the first woman to row an ocean in both
directions solo. Departure is scheduled
for June 2004. The challenge will take Anne 2700 nautical miles,
from Chathan, Cape Cod (USA) to
Brittany (France), her native land. She hopes to make it in less
than 90 days. The first woman to row
from West to East was Maud Fontenoy, who made it in 117 days this
past October.
Last year Anne Quemere, 37, broke a major record in ocean rowing. In
56 days she made a solo, unassisted
crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, beating the previous women’s record
by 25 days.
Expedition website
www.oceanrowing.com
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Young gun v. grey wolf
Sam, 23, a marine biologist and
Pavel Rezvoy, 65 a geologist and dad to Teddy Rezvoy in a close
battle
for the top position of the six participating solo rowers in
Oceanrowing Society's regatta between
Canary Islands and Barbados. Ocean Rowing Society Atlantic Rowing
Regatta ORSARR 2004 takes place to
celebrate the 35th anniversaries of the first East-West solo ocean
row by John Fairfax and first
West-East solo ocean row by Tom McClean; and 33rd anniversary of the
first Atlantic East-West double row
by Geoff and Don Allum.
Pavel Rezvoy crossed the finish line at Port St. Charles Barbados
March 22, 2004 at 05:15:23GMT. He
arrived 2,5 days after the winner, Sam Knight, who crossed the
finish line Friday 16:48:20GMT March 19,
becoming the winner of the solo class in ORSARR 2004, and the
youngest ocean rower.
At 65 years old, Pavel Rezvoy is the oldest ocean rower in the
history of ocean rowing. It was a tight
race between the two for the top position of the six participating
solo rowers. Sam went out in the
lead, but was eventually overtaken by Pavel. Pavel was leading until
around two weeks back, when he
suddenly dropped his average speed and Sam caught up. Pavel rezvoy
is currently planning to continue rowing to Cuba.
Regatta website
www.oceanrowing.com
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Rowing into horrific past for better future
Victor Mooney is preparing for
the journey of his life. The African-American rower aims to retrace
the
route taken by slave ships from Goree Island, Senegal (West Africa)
to New York City, an 8,000 mile test
of endurance that Victor will row solo beginning February 1, 2005 –
the start of “Black History” month
in the U.S.
Expedition website
www.oceanrowing.com
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Graham Walters - Double Ocean Row
Late October British rower Graham Walters
will depart from the Canary Islands and try to row solo across two
oceans. First the Atlantic and then the Pacific. After departure he
will row across the Atlantic to Barbados and continue on towards
Panama and through the canal where the toughest part remains; the
Pacific Ocean. The row is expected to last for several months and
will finish in New Zealand.
Graham Walters arrived in Port St. Charles
Barbados at 17:00 GMT on January 26th, marking the completion of
the first leg of his journey to become first solo rower across
both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Originally hoping to
complete the double ocean row non-stop, Graham had to pull ashore
and take care of some financial matters before he could continue
on. He plans to launch the Pacific leg of his journey in 2006.
Expedition website
www.oceanrowing.com
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Emmanuel Coindre
- Atlantic West to East
Emmanuel Coindre departed Saturday July 26
from Chatham, USA on his quest to became the first person to row
the Atlantic solo three times. His earlier achievements actually
already involve three crossings; two in a row boat and one on a
watercycle.
After just a few days the boat capsized
about 100 miles east of Chatham and a Coast Guard Jayhawk rescue
helicopter arrived to rescue him from the Ladybird. His boat then
went missing but was recovered some weeks afterwards.
www.emmanuelcoindre.com
www.oceanrowing.com
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Jim Shekhdar - Double Ocean Row
In October British rower Jim Shekhdar will
try to row from New Zealand to South Africa around Cape Horn, South
America - a total of 8087 miles. Jim rowed across the Pacific Ocean,
solo and unassisted from East to West in 2001. The journey lasted
for 274 days and during that time he covered more than 10,500 miles.
The departure has been delayed but Jim is to set out any day now.
On November 16, only eleven days after
starting off on his attempt to row two oceans solo, Jim was caught
in a violent storm which pitchpoled his boat, wiping most
everything away and resulting in a head injury. Jim
called for help and was picked up a couple of days later. It was
his second such turnaround in four weeks. The first ended October
16th, less than 24 hours after launching.
www.oc2003.com
www.oceanrowing.com
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Miscellaneous water expeditions |
Amazon queen - Phil
Gonzales
Captain Phil Gonzales is planning a 600 mile
voyage on the Amazon from Leticia to Iquitos Peru in November. The
interesting part is the communication he is setting up. He will be
transmitting pictures using a transistor radio. This voyage is in
preparation for the main trip next year: A 4-5 month voyage on the
Amazon covering 6,000 miles.
Captain Phil made his trip and is now preparing for his 2004
Amazon crossing.
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The Everest Piano player in inflatable across Arctic
Bear Grylls and longtime friend and climbing
partner Mick Crosthwaite (who accompanied Bear on his 1998
expedition to Mount Everest), Nigel Thompson, cameraman Charlie
Laing and Andy Leivers departed from
Nova Scotia, Canada, attempting to make the first unassisted
crossing of the North Atlantic south of the
Arctic Circle. (A British attempt at the crossing in 1997 ended
when its boat became encased in pack ice
off of Greenland.) They are traveling in an open inflatable,
island hopping from Canada to Greenland,
then Iceland and finally ending up in Scotland.
The first unassisted crossing of the North Atlantic in an
inflatable boat was completed August 17, 2003.
Expedition website
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Mike Horn - Arktos
Mike Horn has undertaken a giant 18 month expedition,
an attempt to circumnavigate at the polar circle. The expedition is
divided up in 11 legs and an logistics team will meet up with Mike
at 8 stages along the journey for resupply. Mike departed from North Cape in August 2002.
www.mikehorn.com
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