Comments on: Small World After All?

Small World After All?

Xurando — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:50:34 -0800

The circumnavigators are out there. In February, Mike Beaumont completed the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle. Tomorrow, Rosie Swale, age 62, finishes her 4 1/2 year run around the world. As posted previously, Zac Sunderland is now attempting to break the record for the youngest sailing circumnavigation of the planet, now held by Jesse Martin.

By: opsin

opsin — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:56:08 -0800

That would be Mark... Good ol' news print. I think most/all of the four parts of the BBC series he did are still on iplayer. I wound up watching them while not feeling well, and wound up feeling great, since I wasn't cycling 100 miles that day.

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:01:05 -0800

It's a small world.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:16:45 -0800

I'm not sure Mark Beaumont actually circumnavigated the globe. His North American stint was across a narrow part of the continent. Is there some part south of Alaska that he cycled? South of the Canadian Maritimes? He went from Australia to New Zealand...do they overlap? I have no globe handy and my geo-fu is weak. The impression I got was that he traveled the distance but did not actually circumnavigate. I also got the impression that his planning was spectacularly poor - Ramadan, monsoon season, untested bicycle, single season sleeping bag. Half-assed saddle-sore madness in the finest British tradition of mad-dawgery. I suspect he will have skin cancer on his nose. That said I am only closing in on 1000km for this summer so I should open up a can of STFU.

By: opsin

opsin — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:53:49 -0800

I'm not sure how his route worked out as to maximising the latitudinal travel. He wound up headed north and south quite far at various points though. He did 18,000 miles, which seems as much part of the record as the going around the world part.

By: boosh

boosh — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:28:38 -0800

Coincidentally, a program about the Transglobe Expedition by Ranulph Fiennes was just on BBC Radio 4 (Listen Again link). Makes these circumnavigations look easy by comparison: "Perhaps his most famous trek was the Transglobe Expedition he undertook from 1979 until 1982. Fiennes and two fellow members of 21 SAS Oliver Shepard and Charles Burton journeyed around the world on its polar axis using surface transport only, covering 52,000 miles and becoming the first people to have visited both poles by land."

By: ericb

ericb — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:57:20 -0800

...the record for the youngest sailing circumnavigation of the planet, now held by Jesse Martin. Actually the current record is held by Aussie David Dicks.

By: scottymac

scottymac — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:09:33 -0800

Revisiting Zac's location on Google Earth, it shows only estimated positions since the 18th.

By: Flunkie

Flunkie — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:39:26 -0800

The circumnavigators are out there.

Well, they're around, at least.

By: jonp72

jonp72 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:00:44 -0800

the record for the youngest sailing circumnavigation of the planet, now held by Jesse Martin. He's in the Broadway cast of Rent and circumnavigates the globe! How does he have time to appear on Law and Order? Different Jesse Martin? Never mind...