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Rowing Across the Atlantic
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Wired News has an article about 68 men and women who are rowing across the Atlantic. "All 34 boats in this year's race are equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, and practically all the rowers have satellite phones and other wireless gadgets with Internet access.""
The original trans-Atlanitc rowing record (Canary Islands to Barbados in 41 days) was set by two New Zealanders, Phil Stubbs, and Robbie Hamill back in 1997. Their fully-laden boat weighed over 2000 pounds. Stubbs later died in a plane crash.
It sounds less impressive when you consider this guy did the same thing, only swimming.
if you're interested in this sort of thing, I suggest you head over to OceanRowing.com. I worked for the director of the Ocean Rowing Society, Kenneth Crutchlow, for a year compiling metric assloads of data about every single ocean rower who ever attempted a crossing. It was definitely one of the strangest jobs I've ever held, but after spending so much time surrounded by this close knit community of people who want to test the limits of human endurance, you begin to understand what drives someone to want to do this. Every rower has their own personal drama to tell, and it is a riveting experience to hear them describe their lone rowboats amid 50 foot swells in mid-Atlantic hurricanes or having to jump out of their boat to spear fish when food runs out halfway across the Pacific.
I can't wait to eat that monkey...
A crazy Brazilian called Amir Klink rowed from Africa to Brazil by himself.
I just so happened to have spent a night in Kilkee, Ireland in late September on the night that "Retired Chcago cariologist Nenad Belic, 62, was trying to become the thir person to row a boat from Cape Cod to Europe when he ran into trouble in a storm."
I don't know if GPS would have helped or not, I can attest to the storm that night. But more than a month later only boat turned up.
I'd buy that for a dollar. (canned laughter)
They're not rowing against the Gulf Stream or against the prevailing winds. The Gulf Stream flows North up the western Atlantic (North American East Coast) and West across the North Atlantic. Since the race is from Spain to the Caribbean, the Gulf Stream won't affect the rowers. The prevailing winds, the Trade Winds, in the East and Mid Atlantic blow in a Westerly direction this time of year. That's why they're starting now. Even if they don't row, they'll eventually be blown to Barbados. Hurricane season has also passed, so it's fairly safe.
The same conditions that dictate that the race should be done in this season made it inevitable that Columbus would get to America and powered the sailing ship trade by between the Europe, the Caribbean and the Colonies.