Sarah Outens bid to row the Pacific ends in capsize rescue While on her solo row across the North Pacific Ocean, Sarah was hit by the tropical storm Mawar and her boat, Gulliver, has rolled on several occasions.
Following an emergency call from Sarah, the Japanese Coast Guard sent a plane to assess the situation and then a boat to pick Sarah up on Friday pm JST, 8th June, 2012. A Coast Guard plane stayed overhead to keep an eye on Sarah and a cargo ship nearby also kept watch until the Coastguard boat arrived. The Japanese Coast Guard vessel made a rendezvous with her at around 0800BST (1600JST) Friday 8th June. And they began the journey back to Japan, they made landfall at 0900hrs JST (0100hrs BST) on the 10th June. Sarah spent some time in hospital on an IV drip to combat the dehydration she was suffering and has since been spending time at a friends house for much needed rest and recovery. We are very sad to see such a brave attempt end in disappointment and we only hope that Sarah will one-day return to complete this section of her epic round the world expedition.
Even if you plan everything right do everything right you can sometimes still walk into a knock-out punch that puts you on your backside and it appears that that is what happened here. http://www.sarahouten.com Meanwhile fellow British Rower Charlie Martell also needed rescue in his boat Blossom. He sent a distress call to the authorities at around 0900 BST 7th June also following damage to his boat whilst passing through the tropical storm Mawar. Charlie was approximately 280 miles NE of Sarahs position. He was rescued by a merchant vessel, the MV Last Tycoon on its way to Canada, he is uninjured and apparently very pleased to be alive. Mark Kalch is about to start the US portion of his 7 Rivers 7 Continents expedition The 7 rivers, 7 continents project is an endeavour to complete source to sea paddling descents of the longest river on each continent. A combined total distance of 35 000km (22 000 miles). Amazon River (South America) 6937 km (4300 miles) completed 2007/2008 Nile River (Africa) 6650 km (4132 miles) Yangtze River (Asia) 6300 km (3916 miles) Missouri Mississippi River (North America) 6275 km (3912 miles) Volga River (Europe) 3645 km (2266 miles) Murray-Darling River (Australia) 3370 km (2904 miles) Onyx River (Antarctica) 40 km (25 miles) Follow his journey from http://www.7rivers7continents.com/
Four men in a boat to attempt first row across the Arctic Ocean Four explorers are trying to raise awareness about the Arctic Ocean by undertaking the first, non-stop, unsupported row across the Arctic Ocean. Beginning in Inuvik, Canada and ending in Providenya, Russia. The expedition is made up of 4 crew members for 2 rowing positions. The team will rotate, rowing 2 hours on / 2 hours off for 24 hours a day. The team consists of Paul Ridley, Colin West, Neal Meuller and Scott Mortensen, all US citizens they are set to launch the attempt in July. Follow their progress online at http://www.arcticrow.com Massive solar powered aeroplane flies 1500 miles The HB-SIA is a prototype for a much larger aircraft that may attempt a round the world flight in 2014. Its massive wingspan is the same as an airbus A340, yet it weighs no more than a saloon car. With 200m of photovoltaic cells and a 12 % total efficiency of the propulsion chain, the planes electric motors achieve an average power of 8 HP or 6kW. Thats roughly the amount of power the Wright brothers had available to them in 1903 when they made their first powered flight. And it is with that energy, optimized from the solar panel to the propeller, that Solar Impulse managed to fly day and night without fuel in 2010. Currently the HB-SIA prototype piloted by Swiss Andre Borschberg is attempting to fly from Rabat's Sale airport in Morroco the city of Ouarzazate in the south, however strong winds have forced it to turn back. Follow their blog at http://www.solarimpulse.com/en/ Alastair Humphreys, Martin Hartley and Ben Saunders complete Greenland training for Scott 2012 expedition
The three Brits finished a 14 day training expedition in Greenland late last month as part of the final preparations for an attempt to complete Captain Scott's ill-fated journey to the South Pole 100 years ago. Although little information is being released about the planned attempt it appears that the trio will be starting in October on their four-month, 1,800-mile trip to the South Pole on foot, which if successful will be the longest unsupported polar journey in history. Ben and his team should return to the UK in February 2013. To watch the trip as it unfolds visit http://scott2012.org/ University of Houston NCALM Uses Airborne laser to Unveil Possible Honduran Archaeological Ruins A team from the University of Houston and the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) has used lasers mounted on light aircraft to map a remote region of Honduras that may contain the legendary lost city of Ciudad Blanca.
The results seem to show an area of jungle containing large man-made structures in the dense rain forests of the Mosquitia region, one of the worlds least-explored virgin rainforests. Ciudad Blanca or the 'White City' supposedly contained large amounts of gold hoarded by the Aztecs as they fled the advancing Spanish conquistadors and has been sought out by explorers and treasure hunters since Hernando Cortes first made reference to it in a 1526 letter to King Charles V of Spain.