A Traveller's Research

Category: Aquatic Adventures (Page 1 of 3)

Canoeing, Kayaking, Sailing, Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP), and Rowing.

Clarisse Crémer made history sailing solo round-the-world in the Vendée Globe

French skipper Clarisse Crémer sailed around the world, alone on her sailboat, non-stop, without assistance, racing against other sailors across turbulent seas. The Vendée Globe race is often called the Everest of the seas.

The 31-year-old says her main goal was simply to complete the challenge, but in doing so in only 87 days, she smashed the previous women’s record by seven days.

It was her first time entering the competition, after six years of training.

Vendée Globe sailor Clarisse Crémer on making history in round-the-world race

Source » France24

French skipper Clarisse Cremer smashes the Vendée Globe women’s record by seven days

Clarisse Cremer broke the women’s record for the Vendee Globe round-the-world race when she completed the solo event in just over 87 days.

The 31-year-old French skipper finished the race in 87 days 2 hours and 24 minutes, smashing Ellen MacArthur’s previous mark of 94 days and 4 hours set in the 2000-01 race.

“I’m so happy to be here. It’s a big relief, we were stressed until the end,” she said on the race website. “I’m happy to have succeeded and to be back with my team. This welcome is incredible, I feel like I am dreaming.

“There were times when I wished I had pushed harder on the machine, but the goal was to finish.”

Source » France 24

French sailor Yannick Bestaven wins round-the-world Vendée Globe race

George Ramsay, CNN »

French sailor Yannick Bestaven was declared the winner of the round-the-world Vendée Globe race on Thursday following his role in the rescue of a fellow competitor.

Bestaven was the third sailor to cross the finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, but a jury awarded him a time compensation of 10 hours and 15 minutes for helping to rescue stricken competitor Kevin Escoffier earlier in the race.

Escoffier was forced to abandon his yacht off South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope in November and spent more than 11 hours in a life raft. He was eventually rescued by Jean Le Cam, the nearest competitor to the scene.

Bestaven, skipper of Maître CoQ IV, achieved a finishing time of 80 days, 13 hours, 59 minutes and 46 seconds after his role in the rescue operation was taken into account.

 

Latvian Karlis Bardelis is the first person to row from South America to Asia

Rebecca McPhee » ExplorersWeb »

At the end of June, Karlis Bardelis, 34, became the first person to row from South America to Asia. The Latvian left La Punta, Peru in July, 2018 and reached Pontian, Malaysia, one year and 11 months later — 715 days, to be precise.

He stopped at seven islands and contended with sharks, gales and some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. In all, he rowed over 26,000km. The mammoth solo row is just one leg of his plan to circumnavigate the entire world using only human power. His challenge is now on pause due to the travel restrictions currently in place.

» ExplorersWeb spoke to Karlis Bardelis about his record-breaking row and his ongoing circumnavigation.

» Follow Karlis Bardelis and his adventures at his website Bored of Borders

Dream Big. Set a goal. Go after it. ~ Fedor Konyukhov

Fedor Konyukhov, one of the greatest living adventurers, perhaps one of the greatest of all time, became the first person in history to cross the Southern Ocean by rowing boat. 154 days. 11,525km. Alone. In the world’s most dangerous Ocean. At the age of 67 years.

Radix – Fedor Konyukhov World Record Southern Ocean Row

Fedor Konyukhov, a Russian national, is an extraordinary man.

Sailor. Hot Air Balloonist. Trekker (Desert and Polar). Dog-sledder. Rafter. Priest. Artist. Author. Skier. Cyclist. Fedor has set world records in many of those disciplines.

At the age of 67 he rowed further south than any other rowing boat had ever been at 56°40’S – a latitude known by sailors as the Furious Fifties.

Fedor spent 154 days being thrown around in the washing machine of the Southern Ocean, solo rowing some 11,500 from New Zealand to Cape Horn, Ushuaia, Argentina.

Fedor Konyukhov »

On 9 May 2019, Russian citizen Fedor Konyukhov crossed the longitude of the Chilean Diego Ramirez Islands and became the first person in history to complete a solo voyage on a row boat across the Southern Ocean, from New Zealand to the Drake Passage in the “roaring forties” and “furious fifties” latitudes.

 

 

When international flights were cancelled due to the COVID-19 lockdown, Juan Manuel Ballestero solo sailed across the Atlantic for 85-days from Portugal to Argentina to be with his 90 year old father

When flights to his native Argentina were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, 47 year-old Juan Manuel Ballestero devised an ambitious plan to be with his parents » to single-handedly sail his small 29 foot Ohlson 29 from Porto Santo, Portugal, 12,000 kilometres across the Atlantic ocean, to Mar del Plata, Argentina.

BBC »

Explorer’s Web »

What do you do when you’re prohibited from international air travel but can’t fathom being away from your aged father? Sail 12,000km across the Atlantic, of course.

Juan Manuel Ballestero lives on the small Portuguese island of Porto Santo. When Argentina cancelled all international flights in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he reasoned that the best alternative to reach his 90-year-old father was by sailing. Ballestero‘s voyage from Port Santo to Mar del Plata took 86 days. He arrived on June 17 to a celebrity’s welcome.

NY Times »

So he said he loaded his 29-foot sailboat with canned tuna, fruit and rice and set sail in mid-March.

“I didn’t want to stay like a coward on an island where there were no cases,” Mr. Ballestero said. “I wanted to do everything possible to return home. The most important thing for me was to be with my family.”

Sailing across the Atlantic in a small boat is challenging in the best of circumstances. The added difficulties of doing it during a pandemic became clear three weeks into the trip.

On April 12, the authorities in Cape Verde refused to allow him to dock at the island nation to restock his supply of food and fuel, said Mr. Ballestero.

While he didn’t get to celebrate his father’s 90th birthday in May, he did make it home in time for Father’s Day.

Argentine sailor reunited with family after crossing the Atlantic | AFP

Six rowers become the first to cross the infamous Drake Passage unassisted

Six men, rowed their 29-foot (9-meter) rowboat for 13 days, to become the first to cross the Drake Passage unassisted.

Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press via Time »

Six men fought for 13 days to make history, becoming the first people to traverse the infamous Drake Passage with nothing other than sheer manpower.

They dodged icebergs, held their breaths as giant whales breached near their small boat and rode building-sized waves while rowing 24 hours a day toward Antarctica.

The team of men from four countries finished crossing the Drake Passage on Wednesday in just under two weeks after pushing off from the southern tip of South America.

Oskar Speck, the man who paddled a kayak from Germany to Australia starting in 1932, and Sandy Robson, the woman who recreated the adventure some 80 years later

Justin Housman, writing in The Adventure Journal »

In a span of seven years, he paddled a series of 15-foot kayaks more than 30,000 miles from the Danube River in Europe to the tropical shores of far northern Australia. Even better, when he first set out, he was “merely” planning to paddle to Cyprus for work, with no intention of traveling by kayak to the other side of the world. But the paddling proved irresistible and Speck did not stop once he reached Cyprus.

[…]

Speck was 25 years old when he set out on his incredible journey. He was an unemployed electrician living in Hamburg. Work was scarce and prospects were dim after the 1929 stock market crash ripped through Germany, so Speck decided to seek work in the copper mines of Cyprus. With no other means to get there, and as a proud member of a kayaking club since his youth, Speck decided to paddle his way to, hopefully, a job.

In May, 1932, Speck shoved off from banks of the Danube in a collapsible and very much not seaworthy 15-foot kayak, and began paddling south. He arrived in the Balkans several weeks later and, lulled to boredom by the languid waters of the Danube, Speck made for the Vardar River, where soon fierce rapids dashed his boat nearly to splinters. While awaiting repairs, winter set in and the Vardar froze over, locking Speck in place for months.

Read the whole article in The Adventure Journal »

A German adventurer

In November 2016, Western Australian woman Sandy Robson (aged 48), recreated Speck’s adventure, completed in some 5 years, having visited 20 countries and paddled some 23,000 kilometres.

Germany to Australia - by kayak

Lia Ditton is getting set to row across the Pacific Ocean unassisted—and she’s afraid

Adventure Journal »

Lia Ditton is a 39-year-old licensed sea captain, yachtswoman and solo ocean rower from London. She has racked up over 150,000 miles on the sea and has taken part in some of the most grueling races on earth, such as the OSTAR transatlantic race, the Le Route du Rhum, and the Woodvale challenge. And she’s about to embark on her greatest challenge yet, rowing solo and unsupported across the Pacific Ocean. This is her story.

Three months before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, I will depart from Choshi, Japan, on a mission to row 5,500 miles alone and unsupported, across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of the USA. Nineteen attempts have been made to row this distance. Two were successful. Both men, both towed to land the last 20 and 50 miles respectively. One person was lost at sea.

If I succeed, I will be the first woman ever to row the North Pacific unsupported and the first person to row land-to-land [ed note: Sarah Outen rowed the North Pacific solo from Japan to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, but with a support team, back in 2013].

Read the rest of Lia’s essay at Adventure Journal »

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