Dee does some gardening

Check out this extraordinary graphic evidence of what it's like bashing upwind through the Southern Ocean for three months. It's so wet you need antifouling on deck.

This photo of weed growing on the foredeck of Aviva was sent to me by Dee Caffari, who is about to round the Cape of Good Hope later today and enter the final Atlantic phase of her bid to become the first woman to sail non-stop round the world against winds and currents.

"It was like the green fur you see on rocks along shoreline," she told me during a chat yesterday. "I got the lawnmower out. I had to scrub it all with a green back [sponge] and bleach!"  

More of that in a podcast with her to come shortly.

Goodbye, Kingfisher 2?

The OC Group (Offshore Challenges, as was) is on the verge of selling the maxi catamaran Kingfisher 2, confirms CEO Mark Turner. The 110ft cat was dismasted in the Southern Ocean in February 2003 during Ellen MacArthur's ill-fated crewed round the world record attempt and has been mothballed ever since – long enough to earn the unkind (if amusing) nickname 'The Orange Lemon'.

The buyer, apparently, is Baron Benjamin de Rothschild's Gitana Team, based in La Trinité sur Mer in France. The maxi cat will join his racing stable, which includes the 60ft trimaran Gitana XI. The maxi cat will have a new rig and be refitted to take part in the 2007 maxi-mulithull race from Vannes in France to Iceland and back.

In case of floods

So what should you do you if you expect sea levels to rise drastically? Build an Ark. Thanks for the comment below, Tillerman - good one!

The funny thing is someone's working on this idea already. If your foreign languages are up to it, take a look at the video of Dutch businessman Johan Huibers's Biblical interpretation in build here.

Parlier's speed mission

French sailor Yves Parlier is in the final stages of preparing his hydroplaning 60ft catamaran Médiatis Région Aquitaine to sail to the Canary Islands for another stab at a solo speed record this spring or summer. A freethinking innovator, Parlier is nicknamed ‘the extra-terrestrial’ in France for his scientific approach and dedication to pursuing new technical ideas.
 
Yet success with his most radical boat to date, Médiatis Région Aquitaine, has been patchy. The twin-rig catamaran, which is chiefly funded by €4.5 million in regional investment subsidies, failed to perform upwind in the 2004 Transat and flipped last year while attempting a speed record off the Canaries. As a result the boat was seriously damaged and Parlier suffered several crushed vertebrae and a broken rib.
 
Now completely rebuilt and slightly reconfigured, the boat has been undergoing two phases of sea trials from Parlier’s base in France. Later this year, Parlier will again attempt a 24-hour solo record and comments: “In terms of pure speed, we have every confidence in the increased potential of Médiatis Région Aquitaine. It is now possible to sail easily at 30 knots average and we have the excitement of seeing the instruments flick into or pass 40 knots more and more often.”

Letting rip

A spectacular shot by Oskar Kihlborg of the Volvo Extreme 40 Tommy Hilfiger flying a hull off Rio de Janeiro during the Volvo Ocean Race in port series. The fleet of five one-design catamarans was shipped to Rio to compete as a side show to the round the world race, and each can take one passenger while racing.

Looking at this picture wouldn't you love to be that lucky one?

Thaw theories

Nothing grabs the attention quite like a harbinger of doom story. A scientific study published in the US journal Science has been widely reported in recent weeks, leading to speculation that we will lose low-lying islands like the Maldives and see radically changed coastlines as sea levels rise.
 
Scientists from the University of Arizona used a computer model to simulate climate changes going back 130,000 years, then ran it forward and concluded that by 2100 sea levels could be 2-3m higher. The extra water, they speculated, would come from the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
 
To go along with this theory you must first accept that data can accurately determine the long-term behaviour of a chaotic universe. Calculating chaos sounds like a contradiction in terms to me. And anyway, surely the thawing of massive permafrost areas could come about only over thousands of years, not hundreds? Or is it really possible that the calving rate of ice could increase so vastly? (Incidentally, the photo above is one I took off the Antarctic Peninsula in 2002, and as you can see it was calving. A bit.)
 
Right now, it seems there’s no urgent need to worry. Actual measurements by satellite have determined that sea levels are rising annually by 1.8mm.

Vintage-style solo voyage

French sailor Guy Bernardin is making a pitstop in Cape Town on his latest solo circumnavigation. Guy, 61, has had an illustrious career in ocean racing that includes the OSTAR, the Route du Rhum, two BOC round the world races and the first Vendée Globe, but this voyage is something completely different.
 
He left Les Sables d’Olonne in September in Spray of St Briac, a replica of Joshua Slocum’s 36ft gaff rigged yawl Spray, in which the American sailor made the first ever solo circumnavigation in 1895. Originally the voyage was planned to take 10 months, but it has proved much longer than expected with some excitements along the way. The boat lost a keel bolt in the Atlantic and Guy had to pump out 1,000 litres of water a day, then a broken chainplate forced a stop. [Thanks, guys, you are absolutely right, it was not in Brazil; he managed to carry on despite the problem right across to Walvis Bay, Namibia, before stopping for a repair.]
 
Guy is planning to leave again this month and head towards New Zealand.

Windsurfer's extreme voyage

Tomorrow Frenchwoman Raphaëla Le Gouvello will leave the Fremantle Sailing Club in Australia on the first ever attempt at crossing of the Indian Ocean by windsurfer. The challenge is a year-and-a-half in the making and Raphaëla will be sailing a custom-made board that is something like a cross between a windsurfer and a dinghy.

The 45-year-old vet from Brittany is hoping to sail 3,500 miles Australia to the island of Réunion. She has already notched up an Atlantic and Mediterranean crossing, but this will be her longest ocean record at an estimated 75 days.

The challenge will be unaccompanied and hence Raphaëla's windsurfer has room within to stretch out and (perhaps) sleep, but also contains navigations equipment and essential spares.

Long wait for maxi debut

A PR nugget from big hitters Hill & Knowlton, which suggests they are missing the spell check function...

'Alfa Romeo, the Neville Crichton’s new maxy yatch will make its debut in Europe during the Zegna Trophy. The Trophy will be played in Portofino, Italy from 12th to 14th May 20006.'

Only another 18,000 years to wait! Never mind, the photo is good.