w o r d s

This is an amazing new sailing record:

At 23:35 GMT 51 year old sailor Francis Joyon sailed across the start finish line near Brest in France aboard his his 30 metre trimaran IDEC to set a new solo round the world of 57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds.

That takes 14 days, 44 minutes and 27 seconds from the preceding record, held since 2005 by the Britain’s Dame Ellen MacArthur.

Joyon sailed nearly 26,400 nautical miles (nearly 49,000 kilometres) at an amazing average on the water of 19,09 knots, 4 knots faster than MacArthur.

He sailed the 30 metre trimaran without conventional diesel/ electric charging, instead used a windmill and solar panels.

Its was tough last week for Joyon, with a mast stay threatening to fail, which would have caused the dismasting of IDEC, but the gritty Frenchman held his nerve, climbing the mast four times to make repairs.

Sail World, Jan19, 2008

Looks like I’ll be retiring my trusted Simonelli bike sooner rather than later. Last week I was preparing the bike for a ride to work, when I noticed that the frame is damaged. Those fat off-road tires I like, wore a hole in the frame! The side of the tire was rubbing slightly against the frame and I fiddled with it for the longest time to get it to stop, but eventiually I gave up. I figured that the rubber would eventually wear off. Instead the steel frame wore off!

That and the saddle stem that’s fused to the frame and the worn out gears and chain now had me come to the conclusion that the time has come to retire the old bike a start shopping for a new one. The frame is now 17 years old and I rebuilt the bike in 2000. We have been through hell and high water together. Snow storms in France, sand storms in Morocco, a rough encounter with semi and another one with a chicken. The two of us have been around the block a bit - I rode this bike in Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo, as well as in North Carolina and Florida A girlfriend left me because of this bike.

So retitiring this bike is not easy. But there are some very cool new bikes out there. right now I have my eyes on a Gary Fisher 29er (the Rig) for roughly a thousand bucks. Seems like great bike. Although I don’t thik I’ll ever have as great a time on a bike as I did with my old Simonelli.

[update 12/2: added the pic of the bike on Fes]

The Moon from inside the eye of Hurricane Felix, shot by Randy Bynon during a hurricane hunter mission. Amazing photo - click on the thumbnail to see the large version on the Wunderground site.

Out of 538 vehicles at the start (264 bikes, 189 cars, 85 trucks ) 300 made it to the finish line today. Stephane Peterhansel won the cars category in his Mitsubishi, Cyril Despres won the bikes on a KTM, and Hans Stacey won the trucks category with his MAN.

Tragically, this rally also cost the lives of four people. Two children were hit by cars and died, and two bike riders died in the competition. The deaths of people who live in the host communities is especially tragic, and this makes the Dakar quite controversial. The riders know the risk they take, but the rally organizers need to make an even greater effort to ensure the safety of the host communities. The deaths of these children due to a motor sports event is not acceptable. If spectators died at Formula One or NASCAR events it would certainly be taken very seriously. It should be taken just as seriously here.

Although the organizers claim to impose strict safety rules, it is apparent that this was not sufficient, and that even more efforts have to be made to ensure the safety of the population and spectators.

Still, this is a fascinating event - check out these cool pictures on the BBC website.

In Salina, Kansas, at 2:49 pm ET Steve Fossett made aviation history when he touched down in his Global Flyer after a 25,000-mile (40,234 kilometer) around-the-globe voyage that took 67 hours and two minutes.

Right now, Fossett is flying over Morocco, at an altitude of 45,478ft (speed: 369 knots) in his bid to fly aroound the globe solo and non-stop.
Flight Tracker

Steve Fossett took off in his Global Flyer for his attempt to fly around the globe, solo and non-stop. Track his progress at the Global Flyer Flight Tracker.

… in 71 days 14 hours 18 minutes and 33 seconds, that is. Ellen MacArthur just broke the non-stop singlehanded round the world record set just a year ago by Francis Joyon. She crossed the finish line off Ushant, France, after sailing her 75 foot trimaran B&Q solo around the world.

Ellen sailed 27,348 miles at an average speed of 15.9 knots, along a course similar to the Vendee Globe course. from France, arcoss the Equator, round the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean, through the Southern Ocean, Past Cape Leeuwin, Australia, across the Pacific, around Cape Hoorn, across the Equator, back to France.

The Vendeé Globe is drawing to a close after the first three sailors reached Les Sables d’Olonne. It took the winner, Vinent Riou on PRB, 87 days 10 hours 47 minutes and 55 seconds to finish the 23680 miles around the world, solo, at an average theoretical speed along the course of 11.28 knots (22 km/hr). And Karen Leibovic, on Benefic, had just rounded Cape Hoorn, and is working her way up the South Atlantic.

I had been following the adventures of one particular skipper, Nick Moloney, and Australian, who was ranked 7th (out of the remaining 14), when he had to drop out near Rio de Janeiro because the keel of his boat broke off.

Another interesting saling race is Ellen MacArthur’s around-the-world record attempt.