Twenty of the world's top athletes and explorers share their wildest dream trips—a dazzling list of never attempted feats daunting to even these world-class competitors. For the rest of us, consider their must-do adventures—and start planning. —Kate Siber
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Vote for the National Geographic People's Choice Adventurer
For seven years, National Geographic has combed the globe to find Adventurers of the Year, each selected for his or her extraordinary achievement in exploration, conservation, and adventure sports.
This year, in partnership with Glenfiddich, we selected men and women who are pioneering innovation in the world of adventure-by reinventing distance hiking on the Appalachian Trail, launching a backyard microadventure movement, skiing the Andes under human power, and much more.
Here we present our 2012 Adventurers of the Year. Check them out, then vote every day for your favorite in the People's Choice Award.
Allow us to introduce the outstanding individuals who made our year in adventure with their remarkable achievements in exploration, conservation, and adventure sports. Click on a candidate's name or picture to access in-depth profiles. Then place your vote for the person you think best embodies the spirit of adventure.
Vote every day for your favorite adventurer through January 18, 2012. We will announce the People's Choice Adventurer of the Year in February 2012.
http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventurers-of-the-year/2012/vote/
Here we present our 2012 Adventurers of the Year. Check them out, then vote every day for your favorite in the People's Choice Award.
Allow us to introduce the outstanding individuals who made our year in adventure with their remarkable achievements in exploration, conservation, and adventure sports. Click on a candidate's name or picture to access in-depth profiles. Then place your vote for the person you think best embodies the spirit of adventure.
Vote every day for your favorite adventurer through January 18, 2012. We will announce the People's Choice Adventurer of the Year in February 2012.
http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventurers-of-the-year/2012/vote/
Monday, December 19, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Race to the South Pole - 100 Years Ago Today
One hundred years ago today, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and four others in his team were the first explorers to reach the South Pole. A British party led by Robert Falcon Scott, who had made a previous, but unsuccessful, attempt to reach the Pole, was not far behind, and arrived a month later. However, whereas the Norwegian party returned home, Scott’s party all died from cold and hunger. Scott’s diary of his last expedition was first published in 1913, but Amundsen’s diary has only just recently been published in English for the first time.
Amundsen was born in 1872 to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge, 80km or so south of Oslo. Initially, he chose to study medicine at the urging of his mother, though gave up at the age of 21 when she died. Having long been inspired by the great Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen (see Siberian driftwood cannot lie), he sold his medical books and took work as ordinary seaman. By 1895, he had obtained his papers as mate, and by 1900 his master’s license. His first experience of the polar regions came in the late 1890s on a Belgian expedition with Adrien de Gerlache.
In 1903, Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully traverse Canada’s Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, though the team had to over-winter three times before returning home in 1906. Significantly, during this time, Amundsen learned various skills from the native Eskimos, such as the use of sledge dogs and the wearing of animal skins.
Amundsen planned next to go to the North Pole, but on hearing in 1909 that others had already claimed that prize, he secretly decided to reorganise his forthcoming expedition - to Antartica. Employing the Fram, the same vessel used by Fridtjof Nansen, Amundsen and his team arrived at the Bay of Whales in January 1911, and made a base camp. Five of them set off on 20 October using skis, four sledges, 52 dogs, and employing animal skins, rather than heavy wool, for clothing. Less than two months later, they were the first to reach the Geographic South Pole. Scott, meanwhile, with four colleagues reached the Pole five weeks later, and were bitterly disappointed to have lost the race. All five of them died on the return journey. So tragic was their fate, indeed, that their story has become far more famous that Amundsen’s
After his venture in Antartica, Amundsen developed a successful shipping business, and set out on more ventures using a new vessel, Maud. An expedition, starting in 1918, during which he planed to freeze the Maud in the polar ice cap and drift towards the North Pole (as Nansen had done with the Fram) proved troublesome, costly and ultimately unsuccessful.
Subsequently, Amundsen focused on air travel to reach the Pole. After a promising effort using flying boats, he, and 15 others (including the Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile), succeeded in flying an airship from Spitsbergen to Alaska in two days, crossing the Pole, in May 1926. However, the last years of Amundsen’s life were embittered by disputes over credit for the flight. He died in 1928 while on a mission to rescue Nobile who had crashed an airship returning from the North Pole.
Wikipedia and the Fram Museum website have more biographical information. And The International Journal of Scientific History has a briefing on the claim that Amundsen and his colleague Oscar Wisting were not only first to the South Pole, but also to the North Pole.
Scott’s diary of his ill-fated expedition was published (by Smith, Elder & Co) as early as 1913, in the first volume of Scott’s Last Expedition. This is freely available at Internet Archive. However, it was not until last year (2010) that Amundsen’s diary of his South Pole expedition was published in English, thanks to Roland Huntford. According to the publisher Continuum, Huntford is ‘the world’s foremost authority on the polar expeditions and their protagonists’. His book - Race for the South Pole: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen - contains Amundsen’s diary entries alongside those of Scott, and also Olav Bjaaland, one of Amundsen’s colleagues.
‘Cutting through the welter of controversy to the events at the heart of the story,’ Continuum says, ‘Huntford weaves the narrative from the protagonists’ accounts of their own fate. What emerges is a whole new understanding of what really happened on the ice and the definitive account of the Race for the South Pole.’
Here are entries from both Amundsen’s and Scott’s diaries concerning their arrivals at the South Pole. The one by Amundsen is taken from Huntford’s book, while the Scott entries are taken from the 1913 publication. It is worth noting, though, that the British Library website has made available, since last year, photographs of Scott’s original 1911 Antarctic diary.
By mistake, Amundsen’s calender was not put back when the Fram crossed the International Date Line, and when the mistake was discovered Amundsen decided it would be too difficult to revise all the diary and log entries, and so he kept the wrong calendar dates going - hence he actually arrived at the Pole on the 14th, even though his diary dates it the 15th. Håkon VII was King of Norway at the time.
14 December 1911, Roald Amundsen
‘Thursday 15 Decbr.
So we arrived, and were able to raise our flag at the geographical South Pole - King Håkon VII’s Vidda. Thanks be to God! The time was 3pm when this happened. The weather was of the best kind when we set off this morning, but at 10am, it clouded over and hid the sun. Fresh breeze from the SE. The skiing has been partly good, partly bad. The plain - King H VII’s Vidda - has had the same appearance - quite falt and without what one might call sastrugi. The sun reappeared in the afternoon, and now we much go out and take a midnight observation. Naturally we are not exactly at the point called 90°, but after all our excellent observations and dead reckoning we must be very close. We arrived here with three sledges and 17 dogs. HH put one down just after arrival. ‘Hlege’ was worn out. Tomorrow we will go out in three directions to circle the area round the Pole. We have had our celebratory meal - a little piece of seal meat each. We leave here the day after tomorrow with two sledges. The third sledge will be left here. Likewise we will leave a little three man tent (Rønne) with the Norwegian flag and a pennant marked Fram.’
16 January 1912, Scott
‘[. . .] Half an hour later he detected a black speck ahead. Soon we knew that this could not be a natural snow feature. We marched on, found that it was a black flag tied to a sledge bearer; near by the remains of a camp; sledge tracks and ski tracks going and coming and the clear trace of dogs’ paws - many dogs. This told us the whole story. The Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the Pole. It is a terrible disappointment, and I am very sorry for my loyal com- panions. Many thoughts come and much discussion have we had. To-morrow we must march on to the Pole and then hasten home with all the speed we can compass. All the day dreams must go; it will be a wearisome return. [. . .]’
17 January 1912, Scott
‘Camp 69. T. -22° at start. Night - 21°. The POLE. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected. We have had a horrible day - add to our disappointment a head wind 4 to 5, with a temperature -22°, and companions labouring on with cold feet and hands.
We started at 7.30, none of us having slept much after the shock of our discovery. We followed the Norwegian sledge tracks for some way; as far as we make out there are only two men. In about three miles we passed two small cairns. Then the weather overcast, and the tracks being increasingly drifted up and obviously going too far to the west, we decided to make straight for the Pole according to our calculations. At 12.30 Evans had such cold hands we camped for lunch - an excellent ‘week-end one.’ We had marched 7.4 miles. Lat. sight gave 89° S3’ 37”. We started out and did 6 1/2 miles due south. To-night little Bowers is laying himself out to get sights in terrible difficult circumstances; the wind is blowing hard, T. -21°, and there is that curious damp, cold feeling in the air which chills one to the bone in no time. We have been descending again, I think, but there looks to be a rise ahead; otherwise there is very little that is different from the awful monotony of past days. Great God! this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority. Well, it is something to have got here, and the wind may be our friend to-morrow. We have had a fat Polar hoosh in spite of our chagrin, and feel comfortable inside - added a small stick of chocolate and the queer taste of a cigarette brought by Wilson. Now for the run home and a desperate struggle. I wonder if we can do it.’
Posted by Paul K Lyons http://thediaryjunction.blogspot.com/2011/12/race-to-south-pole.html
Amundsen himself died on June 18, 1928, while flying on a rescue mission in the Barents Sea. Unlike Scott, Amundsen’s body was never found.
But today is Amundsen’s day, and history is long overdue in saluting the achievements of this consummate explorer.
One hundred years ago and today -
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in Antarctica on Monday for the centennial of Amundsen's expedition.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Bitter Sweet - the end of a dream - The Best Odyssey comes to an end - GREY GOOSE underway in 2012 - All Aboard!
We all have dreams... not many of us make them come true.... Captain Gavin McClurg is one who has succeeded - KUDOS! - my hat goes off to you!
THE DREAM
Looks something like this: As "Discovery" sails around the world you fly in to meet up with her. There you are sailing through crystal blue seas with a group of great friends, exploring remote tropical islands and discovering pristine anchorages. The day begins with a lazy cup of coffee while you focus on the perfect waves you have all to yourself, yet again. The first decision of the day is what board to ride. After an epic early surf session it's time to think about breakfast, maybe a quick freedive to get the blood pumping. Maybe it's the adrenaline, or the coffee, or a combination of both; but the conversation is animated and smiles abound. Slowly the glass outside picks up small wrinkles as the morning breeze strokes the surface of the water. Like clockwork our private bay is slowly transformed into a festival of action and color as first one kite and then another is launched into the sky...
THE NIGHTMARE
The yacht you wanted and the one you could afford meant a few compromises. She's not exactly luxury, a bit rough around the edges, but hey, she's yours! It's not really big enough for all your friends and their gear but that's okay, a small crew is better anyway. With the demands of your job, family and other responsibilities it's difficult to get the time to go sailing but if you stay close to home you might get out most weekends and then there's holidays. So the round the world thing is a bit unrealistic but hey, there's probably lots of undiscovered places right where you live. So it's not tropical where you live. You can stay warm in just about any weather, and don't get me started on the benefits of layering! Besides, the sun does irreparable damage to your skin anyway. Your friends really seem to enjoy those early surfs but someone has to stay onboard and get breakfast going.
It really is surprising how much maintenance boats require. More to fit into those weekends and holidays. But you love your little yacht and enjoy working on her.
THE REALITY
People who have owned a yacht know this- without unlimited time and very deep pockets sailing beyond the home marina can rarely be realized. Today it is becoming more and more difficult to justify sole ownership of a yacht when you compare the cost to actual use. A more economical but equally limiting alternative is to charter a boat- in places where hundreds of others can do the same, on boats that can't compare to the luxury and itinerary of The Best Odyssey.
The yacht you wanted and the one you could afford meant a few compromises. She's not exactly luxury, a bit rough around the edges, but hey, she's yours! It's not really big enough for all your friends and their gear but that's okay, a small crew is better anyway. With the demands of your job, family and other responsibilities it's difficult to get the time to go sailing but if you stay close to home you might get out most weekends and then there's holidays. So the round the world thing is a bit unrealistic but hey, there's probably lots of undiscovered places right where you live. So it's not tropical where you live. You can stay warm in just about any weather, and don't get me started on the benefits of layering! Besides, the sun does irreparable damage to your skin anyway. Your friends really seem to enjoy those early surfs but someone has to stay onboard and get breakfast going.
It really is surprising how much maintenance boats require. More to fit into those weekends and holidays. But you love your little yacht and enjoy working on her.
THE REALITY
People who have owned a yacht know this- without unlimited time and very deep pockets sailing beyond the home marina can rarely be realized. Today it is becoming more and more difficult to justify sole ownership of a yacht when you compare the cost to actual use. A more economical but equally limiting alternative is to charter a boat- in places where hundreds of others can do the same, on boats that can't compare to the luxury and itinerary of The Best Odyssey.
MAKING THE DREAM YOUR REALITY
As a corporate body the substantial risks involved in such an endeavor are minimized and distributed between all the owners while the rewards are maximized for each individual. Our owners consistently tell us they are thrilled to own a yacht many times over what can be offered by a charter company, with an experienced, proven professional crew and professional chef, which operates in a new remote paradise year after year. Offshore Odysseys is not a charter company. The Best Odyssey is being offered to serious explorers who are willing to make an investment to participate in a world sailing expedition that has never been done. We'll sail to wild places, kitesurf where no one has, spearfish and freedive pristine coral gardens, paraglide over mindblowing lagoons, surf breaks Kelly Slater hasn't even found. But we won't cater to stiff upper lips and won't baby whiners. Take a look at all we have to offer and if what you find is exactly what you've been looking for, contact us. An incredible Odyssey began in February 2007 and ends in 2012- time is running out!
THE CREW
The Best Odyssey Yacht Share, Dream to Reality:
By: Gavin McClurg, CEO and Captain
The blueprint for Offshore Odysseys started in 1998 when we went offshore for the first time. Over the next 7 years we sailed half way around the world, over 45,000 blue water miles. Our clients loved our trips, we learned what works and what doesn't at sea, and we had some amazing life changing adventures. I haven't drafted a balance sheet since business school, but I've learned to hold my breath to hunt for fish and lobster, sail a boat safely in violent weather, use the stars for navigation and the sun to gauge the time. Though I didn't realize it at the time, those past voyages were more than an education, they were the foundation for an extraordinary future journey.
That journey is The Best Odyssey. We've taken what works, thrown out what doesn't, added everything we would want to make for an expedition that is as close to perfect as we can create for our owner's, for our sponsors, and our crew. Kitesurfing expeditions to the last frontiers on earth; spearfishing and surfing adventures that no magazine has ever published; sailing itineraries the cruising guides could never envision.
THE CAPTAIN
My goal in life is to live from one series of moments to another. To stay out of the future and stay out of the past, and concentrate on the NOW. The Best Odyssey allows us to spend time and create trips with people who are as passionate about exploration and enjoying life as we are.
Other than sailing, my hobbies and passions include spearfishing, kiteboarding, surfing, paragliding, cooking, reading, writing and planning incredible trips. I'm passionate about protecting the environment and always seek ways of contributing positively to the places we visit. I grew up in Lake Tahoe, Nevada and spent my youth ski racing before getting an international business degree at the University of Colorado.
I have the following licenses and training's: USCG 100 tonne Master Captain's License. New Zealand Launch Master. Wilderness First Aid Responder, Swiftwater Rescue Technician, Celestial Navigation, CPR, First Aid. Alpine Intensive, River Intensive, Alpine Site Management, and River Site Management training's for Outward Bound, who I instructed for for three seasons.
THE MATE, PHOTOGRAPHER AND CO-FOUNDER
Jody MacDonald grew up in Saudi Arabia to Canadian parents, the youngest of four children. She's traveled the world and excels in any sport she's ever tried (tame sports like paragliding, snowboarding, kiteboarding, skateboarding...). Jody is the co-founder of the expedition and it is her vision and drive for excellence that has made the Best Odyssey a reality. Her images adorn the pages of our web site and are viewed regularly around the world in dozens and dozens of sport and documentary publications. She's recently been published in Outside, Forbes, Outside Go, National Geographic, Kiteboarding, Stance, Cruising World, Kiteworld, Cross Country, Hang Gliding and Paragliding and many others; and was recently awarded on the National Geographic web site.
What does it look like to take a look back after five (5) years of circumnavigating the world on a 2002 Lagoon 570 catamaran while sharing the road-less-traveled with some 20 other adventuring shareholders?
Just the numbers please:
Total miles sailed: 54,000 (the distance of nearly two circumnavigations)
Circumnavigation completed: December 10th, 2010 (near Cape Verde)
Countries visited: 50
Total trips operated: 90
Days with guests on board: 986
Documented virgin kite locations: 148
Dinghies destroyed: 2
Trips cancelled or delayed: 0
Money spent on food: $123,321.00 USD
Approximate bottles of beer consumed: 4,320
Cumulative Staph infections suffered by Jody and me: 23
Pros on board: 37
Reefs I’ve planted us on: 3
Times hitting the reefs caused an emergency haul-out: 2
Number of times rebuilding a toilet has caused me to swear profusely: 24 (the exact number of rebuilds I’ve done)
Number of people I kicked off the boat: 1
So sit back and watch a fantastic video put together by Jody - enjoy.... dream..
'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from
the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.'
- Mark Twain
As a corporate body the substantial risks involved in such an endeavor are minimized and distributed between all the owners while the rewards are maximized for each individual. Our owners consistently tell us they are thrilled to own a yacht many times over what can be offered by a charter company, with an experienced, proven professional crew and professional chef, which operates in a new remote paradise year after year. Offshore Odysseys is not a charter company. The Best Odyssey is being offered to serious explorers who are willing to make an investment to participate in a world sailing expedition that has never been done. We'll sail to wild places, kitesurf where no one has, spearfish and freedive pristine coral gardens, paraglide over mindblowing lagoons, surf breaks Kelly Slater hasn't even found. But we won't cater to stiff upper lips and won't baby whiners. Take a look at all we have to offer and if what you find is exactly what you've been looking for, contact us. An incredible Odyssey began in February 2007 and ends in 2012- time is running out!
THE CREW
The Best Odyssey Yacht Share, Dream to Reality:
By: Gavin McClurg, CEO and Captain
The blueprint for Offshore Odysseys started in 1998 when we went offshore for the first time. Over the next 7 years we sailed half way around the world, over 45,000 blue water miles. Our clients loved our trips, we learned what works and what doesn't at sea, and we had some amazing life changing adventures. I haven't drafted a balance sheet since business school, but I've learned to hold my breath to hunt for fish and lobster, sail a boat safely in violent weather, use the stars for navigation and the sun to gauge the time. Though I didn't realize it at the time, those past voyages were more than an education, they were the foundation for an extraordinary future journey.
That journey is The Best Odyssey. We've taken what works, thrown out what doesn't, added everything we would want to make for an expedition that is as close to perfect as we can create for our owner's, for our sponsors, and our crew. Kitesurfing expeditions to the last frontiers on earth; spearfishing and surfing adventures that no magazine has ever published; sailing itineraries the cruising guides could never envision.
THE CAPTAIN
My goal in life is to live from one series of moments to another. To stay out of the future and stay out of the past, and concentrate on the NOW. The Best Odyssey allows us to spend time and create trips with people who are as passionate about exploration and enjoying life as we are.
Other than sailing, my hobbies and passions include spearfishing, kiteboarding, surfing, paragliding, cooking, reading, writing and planning incredible trips. I'm passionate about protecting the environment and always seek ways of contributing positively to the places we visit. I grew up in Lake Tahoe, Nevada and spent my youth ski racing before getting an international business degree at the University of Colorado.
I have the following licenses and training's: USCG 100 tonne Master Captain's License. New Zealand Launch Master. Wilderness First Aid Responder, Swiftwater Rescue Technician, Celestial Navigation, CPR, First Aid. Alpine Intensive, River Intensive, Alpine Site Management, and River Site Management training's for Outward Bound, who I instructed for for three seasons.
THE MATE, PHOTOGRAPHER AND CO-FOUNDER
Jody MacDonald grew up in Saudi Arabia to Canadian parents, the youngest of four children. She's traveled the world and excels in any sport she's ever tried (tame sports like paragliding, snowboarding, kiteboarding, skateboarding...). Jody is the co-founder of the expedition and it is her vision and drive for excellence that has made the Best Odyssey a reality. Her images adorn the pages of our web site and are viewed regularly around the world in dozens and dozens of sport and documentary publications. She's recently been published in Outside, Forbes, Outside Go, National Geographic, Kiteboarding, Stance, Cruising World, Kiteworld, Cross Country, Hang Gliding and Paragliding and many others; and was recently awarded on the National Geographic web site.
What does it look like to take a look back after five (5) years of circumnavigating the world on a 2002 Lagoon 570 catamaran while sharing the road-less-traveled with some 20 other adventuring shareholders?
Just the numbers please:
Total miles sailed: 54,000 (the distance of nearly two circumnavigations)
Circumnavigation completed: December 10th, 2010 (near Cape Verde)
Countries visited: 50
Total trips operated: 90
Days with guests on board: 986
Documented virgin kite locations: 148
Dinghies destroyed: 2
Trips cancelled or delayed: 0
Money spent on food: $123,321.00 USD
Approximate bottles of beer consumed: 4,320
Cumulative Staph infections suffered by Jody and me: 23
Pros on board: 37
Reefs I’ve planted us on: 3
Times hitting the reefs caused an emergency haul-out: 2
Number of times rebuilding a toilet has caused me to swear profusely: 24 (the exact number of rebuilds I’ve done)
Number of people I kicked off the boat: 1
So sit back and watch a fantastic video put together by Jody - enjoy.... dream..
'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from
the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.'
- Mark Twain
So here it is, a slideshow that takes us back to the beginning and all the way to the end. From the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, across the South Pacific, Micronesia, Indonesia, across the Indian Ocean to Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, Namibia, Cape Verdes, Azores, Scotland and Spain:
Slideshow: http://animoto.com/play/0m0w0qHVkVYkQXSUZUaPxQ
People keep asking Jody and I what’s next? To be honest neither of us knows. I’m not sure I want to know, at least for the time being. For these five years and eight years before that I have been charged with keeping a lot of people safe in some seriously tight situations at sea. At times the stress of it was as suffocating as drowning, but to witness the smiles and hear what the expedition meant to those who joined was more payback than I could ever get from a paycheck. Even in the very dark times I knew my office was something I should never take for granted, and hopefully I never did. Neither Jody nor I consider ourselves planners, but somehow we planned what is certainly one of the most complex expeditions that has ever happened. If someone died, or got hurt, or got sick the show had to carry on. No calling in sick, no taking a day off. At times I felt like I was living inside a pressure cooker that had no relief valve. More than once Jody and I had long, tearful, serious talks about pulling the plug. But always these times would pass and be replaced with some of the most precious and happiest moments I’ve ever lived. I’m humbly proud of what we’ve achieved and at the same time scared that what we’ve achieved is only human, which succumbs like everything…to history.
We owe much of our success and all of our most incredible moments to our owners and sponsors, who dedicated much of their own lives (and no small amount of their hard-earned money!) to The Best Odyssey. Each of you took a huge gamble on us, two people you had never met before and to you we say THANK YOU. Thank you for making this absurd, crazy, impossible dream come true. We hope it has also been a dream realized for you.
Because it certainly was for us.
Many thanks to each and every one of you, all those thousands of people who I’ve never even met who have followed our trials and tribulations in the form of the Captain’s Logs for these past five years. As most of you know, writing these logs is always hard for me and without your continued support I would have given it up long ago. But again and again you have reached out to me with your own stories, sorrows, joys, hopes, and fears and blessedly- your encouragement, which always makes penning the next story possible.
I hope we’ve kept you entertained.
But now we have reached a point that five years ago I couldn’t even imagine, and I still can’t believe has come. This is the final log of The Best Odyssey. An era has come to an end.
But really, somehow I think it’s just the beginning.
As always, I leave you with a quote. It’s one I’ve used before but it remains my favorite. Someday I hope to be as cranky, profound and important as Edward Abbey, who fought his entire life to preserve wild places. Unfortunately it’s a fight that will continue to be lost to the Corporations unless we get seriously pissed off and do something about it. Seems like now is a pretty good time.
“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.“ — Edward Abbey
Slideshow: http://animoto.com/play/0m0w0qHVkVYkQXSUZUaPxQ
People keep asking Jody and I what’s next? To be honest neither of us knows. I’m not sure I want to know, at least for the time being. For these five years and eight years before that I have been charged with keeping a lot of people safe in some seriously tight situations at sea. At times the stress of it was as suffocating as drowning, but to witness the smiles and hear what the expedition meant to those who joined was more payback than I could ever get from a paycheck. Even in the very dark times I knew my office was something I should never take for granted, and hopefully I never did. Neither Jody nor I consider ourselves planners, but somehow we planned what is certainly one of the most complex expeditions that has ever happened. If someone died, or got hurt, or got sick the show had to carry on. No calling in sick, no taking a day off. At times I felt like I was living inside a pressure cooker that had no relief valve. More than once Jody and I had long, tearful, serious talks about pulling the plug. But always these times would pass and be replaced with some of the most precious and happiest moments I’ve ever lived. I’m humbly proud of what we’ve achieved and at the same time scared that what we’ve achieved is only human, which succumbs like everything…to history.
We owe much of our success and all of our most incredible moments to our owners and sponsors, who dedicated much of their own lives (and no small amount of their hard-earned money!) to The Best Odyssey. Each of you took a huge gamble on us, two people you had never met before and to you we say THANK YOU. Thank you for making this absurd, crazy, impossible dream come true. We hope it has also been a dream realized for you.
Because it certainly was for us.
Many thanks to each and every one of you, all those thousands of people who I’ve never even met who have followed our trials and tribulations in the form of the Captain’s Logs for these past five years. As most of you know, writing these logs is always hard for me and without your continued support I would have given it up long ago. But again and again you have reached out to me with your own stories, sorrows, joys, hopes, and fears and blessedly- your encouragement, which always makes penning the next story possible.
I hope we’ve kept you entertained.
But now we have reached a point that five years ago I couldn’t even imagine, and I still can’t believe has come. This is the final log of The Best Odyssey. An era has come to an end.
But really, somehow I think it’s just the beginning.
As always, I leave you with a quote. It’s one I’ve used before but it remains my favorite. Someday I hope to be as cranky, profound and important as Edward Abbey, who fought his entire life to preserve wild places. Unfortunately it’s a fight that will continue to be lost to the Corporations unless we get seriously pissed off and do something about it. Seems like now is a pretty good time.
“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.“ — Edward Abbey
Sidebar
SAILING VESSEL DISCOVERY IS FOR SALE
If you're tired of the rat race, been dreaming of sailing around the world and have been waiting for the right opportunity this is IT! Discovery is a spectacular 2002 Lagoon 570, which has proven an awesome luxury catamaran for our expedition. She's just taken us around the world- over 50,000 blue water miles to the most remote corners of the globe. She has been METICULOUSLY maintained and is absolutely show-ready. All new rigging, sails, teak decks, loads of upgrades, newly painted, all newly varnished interior. Ready to leave tomorrow? Discovery is kitted out with everything you need. Thousands of dollars of spares, tools, and of course all the required toys and a LOT more.
She has 4 beautifully appointed private guest cabins and two crew cabins which sleep 11. Flat screens/DVD in each and a generous interior layout. Huge main salon and cockpit, brilliant galley, 2 fridges, 2 freezers, ice maker, beer fridge topside, tons of storage everywhere, laundry machine, A/C and heat, dive compressor, new tender with new 50hp 4 stroke outboard, and a tow winch for paragliding. Of course all system electronics (GPS, radar, SSB, sat phone, broadband internet, etc.).
Maybe you're interesting in funding your dream sail around the world by running a kitesurfing expedition like we did? We'll sell you the boat, and ALL the IP of our company (this website, contracts, financials data, itinerary advice, sponsor contacts, etc.) as well to help get you going! We started from scratch, now we have a proven, working blueprint. Go on, get out there! She's listed at 490,000 Euros- a heartbreaking (for us!) steal!
Send us an email if you are interested.
It's sad to think no more living vicariously through Best Odyssey emails filled with Jody's wonderful pictures and videos... but a new opportunity has unfolded - the 55' steel expedition trawler Motor Vessel (M/V) GREY GOOSE will be underway in 2012 - looking for a slice of your dream to fulfill? Come join us and capture memories, pictures, videos and friendships that last a lifetime aboard M/V GREY GOOSE ... details are available online at:
Website: http://www.greygooseadventures.com/
Monday, December 12, 2011
Japan funding whale hunt with tsunami rebuilding money
The ship Steve Irwin from the fleet of environmental activist group Sea Shepherd sits at anchor in Gage Roads off Fremantle near Perth, Australia on Dec. 7, 2011. Australia has rejected a call from Japan to provide more security for its whaling fleet in Antarctic waters, the site of violent clashes with animal rights activists in previous years.
Japan is spending ¥2.3-billion ($29-million) from its supplementary budget for tsunami reconstruction to fund the country’s annual whaling hunt in the Antarctic Ocean, a fisheries official confirmed Thursday.
Tatsuya Nakaoku, a Fisheries Agency official in charge of whaling, defended the move, saying the funding helps support Japan’s whaling industry as a whole, including some whaling towns along the devastated northeastern coast. One ship on the hunt is based in Ishinomaki, a town hit badly by the March 11 tsunami, he said.
The budget request was made to beef up security and maintain the “stable operation” of Japan’s research whaling, he said, which has faced increasingly aggressive interference from boats with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Conservationist group Greepeace blasted the funding move, claiming it was siphoning money away from disaster victims.
The Japanese government has passed supplementary budgets totalling ¥18-trillion ($230-billion) for reconstruction after the March 11 tsunami. Nearly all the items are rebuilding projects, including nearly ¥500-billion for fisheries projects directly in the region, but some, including the whaling expedition, appear less directly related.
Media reports said Japan’s annual whaling expedition left Shimonoseki in southern Japan on Tuesday with plans to cull 900 whales, mostly minke whales, which are not endangered.
Japanese officials didn’t confirm departure details, citing safety reasons. But Coast Guard spokesman Masahiro Ichijo said this year’s fleet is carrying “the biggest protection ever,” including an unspecified number of Coast Guard officers, safety equipment and a Fisheries Agency patrol ship.
He said the announcement of the deployment of coast guard officials “would serve as a deterrent” against attacks by the conservationist groups.
“We have no intention to show off our capability to respond to their attacks or declare a fight,” Mr. Ichijo said.
Each year, protesters try to harass the whaling fleet into stopping the hunt Japan says is a scientific exemption from an international moratorium on commercial whaling.
The protesters say whale research does not require killing the animals, and Japan’s scientific program amounts to commercial whaling in disguise because surplus meat is sold. Whale meat, however, is not widely eaten in Japan.
Clashes between the two sides often take place, and last January a Sea Shepherd boat was sunk after its bow was sheared off in a collision with a whaling ship. The hunting season runs from about December through February.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Hydrothermal Vents - new life forms without photosynthesis
Oceanographer Robert Ballard used a 1977 National Geographic grant—and the Alvin submersible (file picture)—to help discover hydrothermal vents deep in the Pacific Ocean's Galápagos Rift, which contained the first known life-forms not dependent on photosynthesis. (Watch video of hydrothermal vents.)
National Geographic's Francis said, "The idea that there are still unique life-forms on the planet that have yet to be discovered is something that most people don't fully appreciate." (Also see "Deepest Volcanic Sea Vents Found; 'Like Another World.'")
In 1985 Ballard made headlines again as leader of the expedition that found the wreck of the H.M.S. Titanic.
The first National Geographic grant was awarded in 1890, when the two-year-old National Geographic Society decided to launch an exploration program to increase geographic knowledge of Earth. That grant was given to a team to explore Canada's Mount St. Elias. The explorers had to turn back because of menacing weather and avalanches, but they returned with a wealth of scientific information, including the first documented sighting of Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak.
The combined total of National Geographic's grants awarded since 1890 is U.S. $153 million. Several committees, consisting of experts in their fields, review more than a thousand grant applications every year and give awards to about a third of them.
"We like to think of ourselves as a risk-taking enterprise," Francis said. "We like for people to come to us with their new ideas and to give them an opportunity to test things that perhaps others wouldn't take a risk on."
(Watch video: "Why Nat Geo Exploration Is 'Important to Us All.'")
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Adventurer Jon Turk Retirement? Only in words - not spirit
Ode to an Ageless Adventurer
About to retire, Jon Turk checked one more item off his to-do list: 2,400 km of icy hell.
By Chris Cannon, Today, TheTyee.ca
Turk pulling kayak during epic circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island.
One of many they battled or dodged on the trip, the bear saw Jon as a wrinkled piece of human jerky, unaware he was facing a man who had biked the Gobi desert; who pioneered big-wall ascents on Baffin Island; who kayaked around Cape Horn; who holds first-ascent honours in China, Kyrgyzstan, Kamchatka and Bolivia; who, in 2000, at an age when most guys are looking for tax deductions and worrying about their prostates, spent two years paddling from Japan to Alaska, retracing the steps of Stone Age mariners in what has been named one of the ten greatest sea kayak expeditions of all time.Jon is my personal Paul Bunyan. This summer, at age 65, he and his 26-year-old teammate Erik Boomer became the first to circumnavigate Ellesmere Island, a 2,400 km expeditionso treacherous it had never been attempted. They walked, they skied, they kayaked. They spent 17 days trapped by churning ice floes. They repelled a 3,000-pound walrus with a paddle. They screamed a polar bear out of their tent -- "The right tone could communicate, 'You're bad. We're just as bad,' " Jon told National Geographic, which hasnominated the duo for Adventurers of the Year.
My friend Jon Turk is retiring. There will be no office party, no gold watch, no long, slow drive to a nursing home to eat mushed carrots and wait for his children to ignore him. I don't think Jon would recognize an office if it punched him in the face. I don't think he'd set foot in a nursing home unless he was booked to wrestle grizzlies to slow, oxygen-tank-fueled applause.Pardon me while I venerate.
Spiritual journeys
Jon did all of this after earning a PhD in organic chemistry and co-authoring the first environmental science textbook in the U.S. He has since lived a dual life as a scientist and a seeker, ever-curious about the myths that give meaning to the numbers, a series of spiritual journeys he chronicles in his books Cold Oceans, In the Wake of the Jomon andThe Raven's Gift (descriptions below). When I stand next to Jon, it feels like there are two people in the room, and I am less than one of them. I can picture that bear retreating across the tundra, only a mouthful of tent for his troubles, looking over his shoulder at Jon, who gives his best Clint Eastwood squint and whispers a warning: "Tell the other bears what you saw."
Route followed by Jon Turk and Erik Boomer.
After 104 days, Jon and Erik rounded the island's southern tip where they had started, completing what National Geographic called "The last great unattempted polar expedition." Jon was flown to a hospital, narrowly surviving renal failure. He had announced beforehand that this was his last big adventure, and in honour of his wife Chris, whom he had lost in an avalanche in 2005, he left behind on Ellesmere the skis he was wearing when they got married.
Not a retiring personality
Jon has a rich life to retire to -- hideaways in Fernie and Montana, three children, six grandchildren, a kind and genuine new love named Nina and many friends, like me, who stand in awe of his accomplishments, no less than his warmth, wisdom and unassailable youth. While his adventuring is far from over -- he's already planning a trip to Tibet -- he acknowledges the Ellesmere route was his last major expedition, and like an old soldier or retiring sports hero, he must be struggling to reconcile that his major feats are behind him.
I write this to assure him that they are not. When I met Jon in 2007 at the Banff Literary Journalism Program, we were both working on painful memoirs, and in him I found a real-life hero who had faced greater challenges than mine and emerged with a wisdom and humility I am only beginning to grasp. Reading his stories helped me to understand my own.
No matter our adventure, whether scaling the unscalable or navigating the ice floes of our own tortured psyche, the real feat is finding wisdom in the challenge -- both in victory and in defeat -- and to share those hard-won lessons with the next generation of lost souls. Jon, a gifted writer and a giant of a man, will shape the lives of future explorers in ways he'll never know. In his retirement -- if you can call it that -- I wish him calm seas and friendly carnivores.
Below is a guide to Jon's books, taken from his website.
Cold Oceans: Adventures in Kayak, Rowboat, and Dogsled, 1998, HarperCollins.
"An evocative and mesmerizing page-turner, Cold Oceans is the thrilling story of Jon Turk's expeditions to some of the most inhospitable regions on earth. Even after being shipwrecked off Cape Horn, stopped by ice in the Northwest Passage and beaten back by Arctic blizzards, Turk has continued to follow an irresistible urge to explore."
Icy expression: Jon Turk in May on Ellesmere expedition.
In the Wake of the Jomon: Stone Age Mariners and a Voyage Across the Pacific, 2005, International Marine/McGraw Hill. "In 1999 and 2000, adventurer Jon Turk and partners sailed a small trimaran and paddled a sea kayak from Japan to Alaska. Paddler Magazine called this voyage: One of the 10 All-Time Greatest Sea Kayak Expeditions.In the Wake of the Jomon tells the story of the modern expedition and looks backward in awe at Stone Age mariners who paddled these waters over 10,000 years ago. The book asks, Why did people with primitive stone tools leave their homes in the lush temperate bamboo forests, with salmon in the rivers, seals in the bays and deer in the forests to paddle into the frozen Arctic during the Ice Age?"
The Raven's Gift: A Scientist, A Shaman, and Their Remarkable Journey Through the Siberian Wilderness, 2010, St. Martin's Press.
"In 2000, in the remote Siberian village of Vyvenka, I met an elderly woman named Moolynaut, a Koryak shaman, and learned about her voyages to the spirit world. A year later, Moolynaut entreated the spirit of a great, black raven to help mend my pelvis, which had been previously fractured in a mountaineering accident. When the healing was complete, I was able to walk without pain. As a scientist, I could find no rational explanation for the healing, and the experience changed my life, irrevocably altering my view of the connectivity between the natural and spiritual worlds. Searching for the Raven Spirit, I traversed the frozen tundra where Moolynaut was born, camping with bands of reindeer herders, and recording stories of their lives and spirituality."
http://thetyee.ca/Life/2011/12/07/Jon-Turk-Retirement/
About to retire, Jon Turk checked one more item off his to-do list: 2,400 km of icy hell.
By Chris Cannon, Today, TheTyee.ca
Turk pulling kayak during epic circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island.
One of many they battled or dodged on the trip, the bear saw Jon as a wrinkled piece of human jerky, unaware he was facing a man who had biked the Gobi desert; who pioneered big-wall ascents on Baffin Island; who kayaked around Cape Horn; who holds first-ascent honours in China, Kyrgyzstan, Kamchatka and Bolivia; who, in 2000, at an age when most guys are looking for tax deductions and worrying about their prostates, spent two years paddling from Japan to Alaska, retracing the steps of Stone Age mariners in what has been named one of the ten greatest sea kayak expeditions of all time.Jon is my personal Paul Bunyan. This summer, at age 65, he and his 26-year-old teammate Erik Boomer became the first to circumnavigate Ellesmere Island, a 2,400 km expeditionso treacherous it had never been attempted. They walked, they skied, they kayaked. They spent 17 days trapped by churning ice floes. They repelled a 3,000-pound walrus with a paddle. They screamed a polar bear out of their tent -- "The right tone could communicate, 'You're bad. We're just as bad,' " Jon told National Geographic, which hasnominated the duo for Adventurers of the Year.
My friend Jon Turk is retiring. There will be no office party, no gold watch, no long, slow drive to a nursing home to eat mushed carrots and wait for his children to ignore him. I don't think Jon would recognize an office if it punched him in the face. I don't think he'd set foot in a nursing home unless he was booked to wrestle grizzlies to slow, oxygen-tank-fueled applause.Pardon me while I venerate.
Spiritual journeys
Jon did all of this after earning a PhD in organic chemistry and co-authoring the first environmental science textbook in the U.S. He has since lived a dual life as a scientist and a seeker, ever-curious about the myths that give meaning to the numbers, a series of spiritual journeys he chronicles in his books Cold Oceans, In the Wake of the Jomon andThe Raven's Gift (descriptions below). When I stand next to Jon, it feels like there are two people in the room, and I am less than one of them. I can picture that bear retreating across the tundra, only a mouthful of tent for his troubles, looking over his shoulder at Jon, who gives his best Clint Eastwood squint and whispers a warning: "Tell the other bears what you saw."
Route followed by Jon Turk and Erik Boomer.
After 104 days, Jon and Erik rounded the island's southern tip where they had started, completing what National Geographic called "The last great unattempted polar expedition." Jon was flown to a hospital, narrowly surviving renal failure. He had announced beforehand that this was his last big adventure, and in honour of his wife Chris, whom he had lost in an avalanche in 2005, he left behind on Ellesmere the skis he was wearing when they got married.
Not a retiring personality
Jon has a rich life to retire to -- hideaways in Fernie and Montana, three children, six grandchildren, a kind and genuine new love named Nina and many friends, like me, who stand in awe of his accomplishments, no less than his warmth, wisdom and unassailable youth. While his adventuring is far from over -- he's already planning a trip to Tibet -- he acknowledges the Ellesmere route was his last major expedition, and like an old soldier or retiring sports hero, he must be struggling to reconcile that his major feats are behind him.
I write this to assure him that they are not. When I met Jon in 2007 at the Banff Literary Journalism Program, we were both working on painful memoirs, and in him I found a real-life hero who had faced greater challenges than mine and emerged with a wisdom and humility I am only beginning to grasp. Reading his stories helped me to understand my own.
No matter our adventure, whether scaling the unscalable or navigating the ice floes of our own tortured psyche, the real feat is finding wisdom in the challenge -- both in victory and in defeat -- and to share those hard-won lessons with the next generation of lost souls. Jon, a gifted writer and a giant of a man, will shape the lives of future explorers in ways he'll never know. In his retirement -- if you can call it that -- I wish him calm seas and friendly carnivores.
Below is a guide to Jon's books, taken from his website.
Cold Oceans: Adventures in Kayak, Rowboat, and Dogsled, 1998, HarperCollins.
"An evocative and mesmerizing page-turner, Cold Oceans is the thrilling story of Jon Turk's expeditions to some of the most inhospitable regions on earth. Even after being shipwrecked off Cape Horn, stopped by ice in the Northwest Passage and beaten back by Arctic blizzards, Turk has continued to follow an irresistible urge to explore."
Icy expression: Jon Turk in May on Ellesmere expedition.
In the Wake of the Jomon: Stone Age Mariners and a Voyage Across the Pacific, 2005, International Marine/McGraw Hill. "In 1999 and 2000, adventurer Jon Turk and partners sailed a small trimaran and paddled a sea kayak from Japan to Alaska. Paddler Magazine called this voyage: One of the 10 All-Time Greatest Sea Kayak Expeditions.In the Wake of the Jomon tells the story of the modern expedition and looks backward in awe at Stone Age mariners who paddled these waters over 10,000 years ago. The book asks, Why did people with primitive stone tools leave their homes in the lush temperate bamboo forests, with salmon in the rivers, seals in the bays and deer in the forests to paddle into the frozen Arctic during the Ice Age?"
The Raven's Gift: A Scientist, A Shaman, and Their Remarkable Journey Through the Siberian Wilderness, 2010, St. Martin's Press.
"In 2000, in the remote Siberian village of Vyvenka, I met an elderly woman named Moolynaut, a Koryak shaman, and learned about her voyages to the spirit world. A year later, Moolynaut entreated the spirit of a great, black raven to help mend my pelvis, which had been previously fractured in a mountaineering accident. When the healing was complete, I was able to walk without pain. As a scientist, I could find no rational explanation for the healing, and the experience changed my life, irrevocably altering my view of the connectivity between the natural and spiritual worlds. Searching for the Raven Spirit, I traversed the frozen tundra where Moolynaut was born, camping with bands of reindeer herders, and recording stories of their lives and spirituality."
http://thetyee.ca/Life/2011/12/07/Jon-Turk-Retirement/
Monday, December 5, 2011
$60,000 to See Titanic? PRICELESS FOR TITANIC FANS
A Mir submersible, with room for only three people, can travel far undersea. One popular destination is the site of the Titanic.
Video: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/12/04/science/100000001179478/visiting-the-titanic.html
Down, down, down you go, for two and a half hours, jammed with two other people in a tiny submersible, all the way to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean — and all for a glimpse, through a five- or eight-inch porthole, of the ravaged remains of the once-grand ship where the Astors and the Strauses played, dined and, in some cases, died.
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The New York Times
The Titanic sank about 380 miles off Newfoundland.
The trip is not for the claustrophobic, nor the 99 percent: a two-week cruise that includes one dive, lasting eight to 10 hours, costs $60,000.
But for fans of the Titanic, no price or privation is too great — especially with the 100th anniversary of the sinking coming up on April 15.
“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Renata Rojas, a banker in New York City, said of diving more than two miles down to the muddy seabed. “I’ve been obsessed with the Titanic since I was 10 years old.”
With the centennial in mind, at least 80 people are expected to take the plunge down to the wreck, according to the company that runs the trips, Deep Ocean Expeditions.
And while this may be the most extreme observance in the works, there are myriad others: cruise ships will sail to the exact spot in the Atlantic where more than 1,500 Titanic passengers drowned; people will hold Titanic-themed dinner parties, complete with napkins bearing the flag of the White Star Line; and the Titanic Historical Society will hold a gala dinner at which people are welcome to dress as an officer, a crew member or a passenger “to create the ambience of a festive maiden voyage.”
Already, you can buy centennial books, jewelry and other memorabilia galore.
As for an undersea visit to the ship itself, this coming season may be your last chance. Although diving trips have been offered sporadically to paying tourists since the wreck was discovered in 1985, Deep Ocean Expeditions says it plans to discontinue the wreck tours permanently, no doubt to the disappointment of future generations of Titanic devotees and Leonardo DiCaprio fans.
“This is our last year of passenger operations,” said Rob McCallum, the expedition leader. “We won’t head to Titanic again.”
Next summer, however, passengers will travel in Russian Mir (“peace”) submersibles that can withstand the deep’s crushing pressures. Inside, a pilot and two tourists occupy a space less than seven feet wide, wearing layers of clothing to ward off the cold. Travelers bring a light lunch but are reminded that there are no toilet facilities.
“Your Mir will glide over the top of the wreck to look down into the cavern where Titanic’s famous grand staircase was once located,” Deep Ocean Expeditions promises on its Web site. “You will also spend time exploring the iconic bridge and promenade areas.”
Such a trip is not without its dangers — two people died in a submersible that once got entangled in a wreck off Florida — or without controversy. Scientists and scholars worry about new damage to the famous ship and new dishonor to a gravesite strewn with the shoes and other belongings of so many drowned people. However, they see the centennial as not only a potential threat but also an opportunity to lobby for a global accord that would establish rules for the Titanic’s protection.
“We need a basic agreement,” said James P. Delgado, director of maritime heritage at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors the wreck.
Already, the site is quite littered. Passing cruise ships dump beer cans and garbage bags. On the seabed, the mini-submarines have set up memorial plaques with artificial flowers. At times, the subs have also accidentally bumped into the increasingly fragile wreck.
“It could get real crowded out there,” Dr. Delgado said of the centennial rush. Despite the legitimacy of wide public interest, he added, “there are some things that shouldn’t happen,” like dumping trash and leaving behind equipment.
The Titanic has long fascinated, because it symbolized the end of an era of technological innocence and seemed like a cosmic rebuke to privilege. Ten millionaires were on board, including the financier John Jacob Astor IV, the industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidor Straus of Macy’s, the world’s largest department store. All three perished with the ship.
During its inaugural voyage, the opulent liner hit an iceberg and sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, going down some 380 miles off Newfoundland in international waters. It came to rest on the seabed upright but split in two.
Deep Ocean Expeditions
Anatoly Sagalevitch, center, with two tourists before taking them down to the Titanic shipwreck in a Mir submersible.
Multimedia
Today, the wreck is a mess. Gaping holes have opened up in the decks, and metal walls have slumped. The hull in many places is covered with rivulets of rust known as rusticles, which look like brownish icicles.
Still, the allure is great enough to prompt repeat dives. James Cameron, director of the blockbuster “Titanic,” is said to have taken the plunge more than two dozen times.
Others will have to settle for a single glimpse. Indeed, so many tourists want to see the Titanic that Deep Ocean Expeditions, the only company currently offering such a dive, has raised the number of cruises it is planning to four from two, and it is considering a fifth.
Demand for the tours remains high because the expeditions are so infrequent; the last was in 2005. And tourists line up despite a sharp rise in prices: in 1998, the company charged $32,500; today, it sells the same experience for $59,680.
“It’s gone up a lot,” conceded Mike McDowell, the founder of Deep Ocean Expeditions and a star of adventure tourism. He cited soaring fuel costs and other factors.
The expeditions are advertised as luxurious two-week affairs that depart from St. John’s, Newfoundland, and feature expert lectures and “five-star cuisine.” During the dive, visitors see not only the liner’s remains but a parade of bizarre sea life. Ghostly fish swim by, their tails long and sinuous. Sea anemones wave long tentacles in the currents to catch their next meal as squat lobsters poke about for juicy morsels.
The company, which also runs other deep-sea tours, says the Titanic trip attracts a mixed clientele that runs from the superwealthy to people of lesser means.
“They’re not all spoiled rich kids,” Mr. McCallum, the expedition leader, said of his customers. “They’re people who have worked hard for their money and not made this decision lightly.”
Ms. Rojas, the New York banker, is a scuba diver and a longtime Titanic fan. “I saw the movie ‘A Night to Remember’ and read the book,” she recalled. After that, while still in high school, she did many research papers on the shipwreck.
Ms. Rojas failed to get on the 2005 expedition for lack of space and now stands at the head of the line. “It’s going to be an opportunity to pay my respects,” she said. “If I could, I would stay under for days.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/science/celebrating-the-titanic-at-100-by-going-to-see-it.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/science/celebrating-the-titanic-at-100-by-going-to-see-it.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Deschutes Landmark... what if this was remade on a 10,000 nautical-mile M/V GREY GOOSE voyage through the Northwest Passage?
Landmarks
A Deschutes Film
Thank you, Fate. Karma. Destiny. Cascade peaks out the front door. The Deschutes swirling out the back. Everywhere we turn, nature tosses something epic, jaw-dropping or downright spiritual our way. We take inspiration, and pay tribute, with intense, pioneering, namesake beers. In fact, a person could carve out a damn fine adventure careening from Black Butte to Mirror Pond to Green Lakes and the far reaches of our High Desert home. Not that we’d ever suggest that or anything. That would be crazy. Or Bravely Done.
Deschutes Landmarks from NORTH on Vimeo.
Join us? See details at http://www.northwestpassage2012.com/
Deschutes Brewery: http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/
World Beer Awards 2011: http://www.worldbeerawards.com/2011/
A Deschutes Film
Thank you, Fate. Karma. Destiny. Cascade peaks out the front door. The Deschutes swirling out the back. Everywhere we turn, nature tosses something epic, jaw-dropping or downright spiritual our way. We take inspiration, and pay tribute, with intense, pioneering, namesake beers. In fact, a person could carve out a damn fine adventure careening from Black Butte to Mirror Pond to Green Lakes and the far reaches of our High Desert home. Not that we’d ever suggest that or anything. That would be crazy. Or Bravely Done.
Deschutes Landmarks from NORTH on Vimeo.
Join us? See details at http://www.northwestpassage2012.com/
Deschutes Brewery: http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/
World Beer Awards 2011: http://www.worldbeerawards.com/2011/
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