October 2006 – Volume Thirteen, Number Ten

EXPEDITION NEWS, now in its 12^th year, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.

EARTHRACE PUTS BIODIESEL FUEL TO THE TEST

Pete Bethune, 41, an amateur sailor from New Zealand, has a new $2.4 million trimaran speedboat fueled by a substance most of us throw away. Next year he hopes to complete the fastest circumnavigation of the globe in a motorboat while using nothing but biodiesel – renewable fuel that can be made with salvaged French fry grease, refined soybean oil and other organic and recycled oils. The record attempt is due to start in March from Barbados, after a North American tour this fall helps raise funds and publicize the experimental boat, dubbed Earthrace. The boat is a showcase of environmentally friendly technologies such as low-emission engines, non-toxic anti-foul paints, and efficient hull design.

While an estimated $500,000 is needed for the project, none of it will be spent at the pump. According to the New York Times, in Hawaii the boat was powered by the drippings of cruise liners’ deep fryers. In Vancouver, Bethune said “fill ‘er up” to tallow, drawn from the hard fat of sheep and cattle.

Bethune is actively seeking corporate sponsorship; for $50,000 he’ll plaster a logo on the side of the 78-ft. craft. Meanwhile, he’s just keeping his head above water. Bethune has sunk $650,000 of his own money in the project, has mortgaged his home three times, and has borrowed another $650,000 from banks, friends and family. Undaunted, he nonetheless understands why nautical sponsors can be hard to find. “The sight of a boat sinking with someone’s name on the side can be disconcerting,” he tells the New York Times.

The world record for circumnavigating the globe by powerboat is 75 days, set in 1998 by a British vessel called the Cable & Wireless Adventurer. Bethune’s Earthrace hopes to do it faster while raising awareness for the environmental benefits of biodiesel. (For more information: EarthRace.net)

EXPEDITION UPDATE

Now You’re Tawking – Fast-talking New Yorker Fran Capo, who we first wrote about in the August 2004 issue of EN, is helping to market greetings cards with a fellow Kilimanjaro climber. Fran, you’ll recall, climbed Kili on July 10, 2004 and managed to garner a new world record in Ripley’s Believe it or Not - Planet Eccentric book, by being the first author to do a book signing at the top of that mountain. She’s also a record-breaking fast-talker, but that’s another story. Capo met Eitan Battat, owner of Kiwi Publishing, who climbed Kili in February 2005. Together they are now marketing a line of greeting cards containing images Battat photographed on his climb. After they have raised a sufficient amount of money, Eitan and Capo plan to return to Africa, donate funds to the Tella Primary School in Tanzania, and produce a documentary of the entire experience. (For more information: Tella-Jerusalem.com, KiwiPublishing.com, FranCapo.com)

EXPEDITION NOTES

Give a Hand to Sir Ran – Sir Ranulph Fiennes, 62, who has dragged sleds across Antarctica, run marathons on each continent and summitted Everest – but is terrified of heights – climbed the 450-ft. (137m) Old Man of Hoy in the Orkneys last month with only one good hand. He tackled the sandstone sea stack as a warm-up for his planned March 2007 ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in the Swiss Alps to raise money for cancer care. His first wife, Ginny, died from cancer in 2004 and his mother and two sisters also died from it. Sir Ran, who started climbing when he was 60, suffers from vertigo, a heart condition, and after developing severe frostbite on a solo polar journey in 2000, had all the fingers on one hand amputated at the half knuckle. The Old Man of Hoy is one of the most famous and distinctive summits in the British Isles.

Alpha Global Expedition Postponed – The U.K.’s Adrian Flanagan has been forced to postpone the final phase of his Alpha Global Expedition. Flanagan, 45 of Ludgershall near Oxford, set sail from Falmouth last October in his quest to sail the first single-handed “vertical” circumnavigation around the Russian Arctic coast. Unfortunately, 10 and a half months later, after a succession of misfortunes, he's decided he'll now have to wait until next year to complete his voyage.

Flanagan's big problems started with gear failure on Barrabas, his 38-ft. stainless steel sloop. Then difficulties in obtaining permission to enter Russian waters led to a delay which finally spelled the end of his journey this year. Flanagan recorded the first single-handed, non-stop and unassisted passage between the U.K. and Hawaii when he arrived in Honolulu last May after 18,000 miles. Reportedly, the Russian Arctic has never been sailed single-handed – only five fully crewed yachts have made the passage. In June 2007, Flanagan will pick up where he left off.

Pie in the Sky – Briton Francis Williams and his wife, Sue, claim to have raked in £4 million in four years by selling land on the moon. Spurring sales for this lunar land grab was a recent warning by astrophysicist Stephen Hawking’s that mankind would have to leave Earth and colonize space if it was to survive. The Williamses company, MoonEstates, based in the U.K., is making more than £1 million annually selling lunar real estate for £20 an acre.

The couple – Francis calls himself “Celestial Ambassador to Britain” – were granted the rights to sell off the moon by American Dennis Hope, who in 1980 exploited a loophole in the U.S. legal system to lay claim to owning every planet in the solar system. He cited the 1967 Outer Space Treaty which states that no government or country can own land in space. It does not, however, outlaw individual claims to territory. The Williamses earn around £2 for every £20 acre sold, with the rest going to the original American franchise. “We are simply offering the chance to live on another planet. We think in about 15 years time it will be viable to go to the moon,” said Sue Williams. Like the infamous International Star Registry in the U.S., most of the land they sell is given as gifts.

Mont Blanc Trashed – Europe's tallest mountain is dirty and overcrowded, according to a French mayor who has ignited controversy with a proposal to limit the number of climbers on Mont Blanc. Jean-Marc Peillex, mayor of the Alpine village Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, estimated that up to 30,000 people climb the 4810m (15,781-ft.) mountain each summer, overwhelming overnight refuges and polluting glaciers with garbage and human waste.

"It's intolerable," he told a packed public meeting in Saint-Gervais last month, recounting how on a recent survey of Mont Blanc his helicopter landed on a glacier strewn with frozen excrement, the ice stained yellow from urine. "The problem is that many people think that a garbage truck and a street cleaner will pass the next day."

He said requiring permits to access the Voie Royale path starting at Saint-Gervais – the most popular Mont Blanc ascent because it is easier than routes in France's Chamonix or Italy – could ensure mountain refuges are not filled beyond their capacity, and alert amateur hikers to the demands of the climb, and the importance of carrying their garbage down.

Scientific Exploration Society Seeks Volunteer Explorers – The U.K.’s Scientific Expedition Society is offering explorers of all ability levels an opportunity to gain more experience on paid expeditions. Trips include: