10 ms·
Rowing across the Atlantic in 48 days
- m3kw9 9y agoHow does one prove they did that officially?
- clementmas 9y agoThe Ocean Rowing Society keeps track of the expeditions: http://www.oceanrowing.com/ORS_Archive/ORS_archive2017.htm http://www.oceanrowing.com/ORS_Archive/ORS_archive2017.htm
- chrissnell 9y agoThe map is neat but I want to hear the story and see the photos!
- clementmas 9y agoPhotos are on the blog. You can read more about the expedition on the blog of another team member: http://atlanticrowblog.blogspot.com http://atlanticrowblog.blogspot.com
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- kpil 9y agoWhere can you start? Wouldn't starting from West Sahara shave of some days? Or would you drift too far south?
- Someone 9y agoI wouldn’t know, but looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_winds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_winds, that should be an option. It may be unpopular because of logistic and security concerns, though (the Canary Islands are regular departure points, but that may be cheating for this record) The (I am sure) bestselling book “How To Row An Ocean” (http://thenextchallenge.org/books/row-ocean/ http://thenextchallenge.org/books/row-ocean/) probably has an answer.
- curiousgal 9y agoWhenever I hear of someone crossing the Atlantic, be it in a boat or a barrel, my immediate concern is the huge waves, how would they deal with them?
- imaginenore 9y agoI remember reading about that. During storms they close their boat, so the water can't get in, and then they wait it out.
- jws 9y agoThe key is to move up and down with them. If you are stationary, then you are looking at things like 5 meter high waves with a 10 second period. So you go up for 5 seconds then down for 5 seconds. You get used to it. For sailors, they tend to be going more or less downwind which makes the period longer for a given wave height. Assuming they aren't going straight down wind, their sail also forms a sort of feedback system which keeps them heeled over at a fairly constant angle so there isn't a lot of boat rocking going on. You can see typical values at http://www.stormsurf.com/page2/papers/seatable.html http://www.stormsurf.com/page2/papers/seatable.html Note that is in "feet@seconds" and the blue values are typical, the white cells wander off into computational fantasy.
- clementmas 9y agoYes, we had a storm at the end of the first week. 6m high waves. We dropped the para-anchor, locked ourselves in the cabins and waited 36 hours.
- wrigby 9y agoI had never heard of a para-anchor[1] before, so I just looked it up - they're really cool! It's a brand of sea-anchor[2] that looks like a big parachute that goes underwater, effectively anchoring the boat where it is without having to reach the sea floor. 1: http://para-anchor.com/ http://para-anchor.com/ 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_anchor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_anchor
- 9y ago
- dsnuh 9y agoAmazing accomplishment! Strange thought: A future where we have VR world records, crossing a virtual realtime ocean. Sitting for days in a chair, rowing and rowing.
- clarabaloo 9y agothere are already WR for indoor rowing. We are getting there!
- dredmorbius 9y agoAs a friend at a rowing club said, ergs don't float. It's good exercise, but it's not at all the same thing.
- Someone 9y agohttp://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/racing/records/ultra-distance/world/longest-continual-row http://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/racing/records/ultra-d... only goes to 12 days, 12 hours, for a team of 10. They don’t give distance rowed, but I guess that’s in relay with one rower at a time because that’s what is done in the 24 hour records (they also change rowers every !15 seconds or so! because that is fastest. For an example, see https://youtube.com/watch?v=WSbK9gP5pYU https://youtube.com/watch?v=WSbK9gP5pYU)
- bisRepetita 9y agoCongrats Clément and team! Just spent 45 minutes reading the blogs! Two random comments I liked: "Last night we saw a meteorite land a couple miles away from us - it was only small but it had a big blue trail" "For example, one weekend, go out saturday morning on your bike and don’t come home until Sunday evening. Or maybe take the whole family out, bring a tent and go for a hike that takes longer than a day. Or even just sleep in your garden one night with the kids"
- tetraodonpuffer 9y agoso for 48 days they were on a 2-hour-row-2-hour-sleep schedule with no breaks? wow
- clementmas 9y agoYes, the 2 hours on / 2 hours off non-stop for 48 days was the toughest. After eating and cleaning ourselves, there wasn't a lot of time left to sleep.
- didymospl 9y agoCongrats! If you like the story, here's something that may interest you: a website of 71-year-old man who kayaked alone across the Atlantic three times in the last few years http://www.aleksanderdoba.pl/en/ http://www.aleksanderdoba.pl/en/
- imglorp 9y agoAnd there's Katie Spotz who rowed it solo in 3 months in 2010, for a clean water charity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Spotz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Spotz
- jpalomaki 9y agoThere's also organized, annual race for rowing across the Atlantic: https://www.atlanticcampaigns.com/the-challenge/ https://www.atlanticcampaigns.com/the-challenge/
- nraynaud 9y agoLets us all remember Alain Bombard ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Bombard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Bombard ) who taught us the most important lesson: if shit happens you will survive a very long time at sea.
- dhskajvddbfk 9y agoI was under the impression his claims were discredited and he was sneaking supplies (including fresh water).
- nraynaud 9y agoI don’t know that, but his impact is on the psychology of the victims: the idea that they will survive for a long time.
- armenarmen 9y agoReminds me a bit of Thor Heyerdahl's Ra expedition: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/heyerdahl-sails-papyrus-boat http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/heyerdahl-sails-p...
- Theodores 9y agoIn case nobody noticed but the author of the blog and the record breaking rower also wrote the software to do the blogging. Very clever!!! I liked the entry concerning Red Nose day: "We are team 4 nations and one of us is English. He brought us all today a red nose because today is red nose day in England and you have to wear the thing all day so that you can't hardly breath during rowing but that's all ok because it is for charity! Colin explained us that today that they collect money to support poor English who don't have a penny left to buy enough booze to get drunk which results in a nice little red nose. As team 4 nations we support that kind of causes so to everybody out there who reaches this tune in this evening to the BBC and make your donation!" I imagine banter on expeditions goes like this, it reminds me of some of Shackleton's journals and the things the men did for amusement. I do think that one thing that is forgotten is how brave seafarers have to be. I get on the water to kayak the mile or two to work, just on the Thames which has to be the easiest water to be on. Nonetheless the terror of the water is real. If it is slightly too cold, too windy, too rainy or the tide is not right then I go by bicycle instead. Having read about 6 metre high waves, the mind boggles as to how Team 4 Nations coped. Congrats.
- mikhailfranco 9y agoHow long does it take without rowing, just relying on winds and currents? Are there good examples of a 'control' crossing of a (perhaps unmanned) drifting boat?
- danielvf 9y agoIn 1970 a guy named Thor had a reed raft built matching stuff found in an Egyptian tomb. He then rode it with friends from Morocco (Africa) to Barbados (Caribbean). The book is great if you can find it. Travel time 59 days, but the rowers covered a longer distance - mainland Europe to mainland Americas.
- mikhailfranco 9y agoThe Algarve is close to Morocco, even if they left from Agadir, so not much difference in distance. The total drifting distance Agadir-Barbados is about 5500km, compared to nearly 6000km for rowing Algarve-Guiana. In 48 days they could have drifted up to 4500km (75%), leaving over 1500km (25%) due to rowing, which is an average rowing speed of at least 1.3kph.