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Week 5
Plan for the Pond
The daunting challenge of how to cross the Atlantic Ocean may stymie most, but that’s not the case for the people of St. “Flexible” aka St. Barnabas. Finding passage on a boat out of St. John’s Newfoundland, we agreed with the captain that we would power the boat via our cumulative walking, running and cycling in return for free passage and food. With only 2,000 miles of water lying between North America and Europe, we set off into the wild North Atlantic.
Notable Atlantic Ocean Crossings
While our crossing of the Atlantic is unique, it represents just one of many famous and unique crossings.
The first documented crossing of the Atlantic occurred around 1000, when Norse explorer Leifur Eríksson, son of Erik the Red, made landfall at Vinland, tentatively identified with the Norse archeological site at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland on the Atlantic coast of Canada.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue as he departed from Palos de la Frontera (Spain) with three ships, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed on the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola.
The first non-stop transatlantic flight occurred in 1919 when a British aeroplane piloted by Alcock and Brown flew from Newfoundland to Ireland...the same route we are taking. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight in an aircraft flying between New York City and Paris.
Five years later, Amelia Earhart became the first female to make a solo flight across the Atlantic flying from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland to Derry, Northern Ireland. After a flight lasting 14 hours, 56 minutes, during which she contended with strong northerly winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems, Earhart landed in a pasture at Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland. The landing was witnessed by Cecil King and T. Sawyer. When a farm hand asked, "Have you flown far?" Earhart replied, "From America".
In 1952, Ann Davison was the first woman to single-handedly sail the Atlantic Ocean.
1965, Robert Manry crossed the Atlantic from the U.S. to England non-stop in a 4.1-meter (13-foot) sailboat named Tinkerbelle.
Double Eagle II, piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman, became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it landed 17 August 1978 in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours 6 minutes after leaving Presque Isle, Maine. [1]The 11-story, helium-filled balloon made good progress during the first four days, and the three pilots survived on hot dogs and canned sardines. The only real trouble of the trip occurred on August 16, when atmospheric conditions forced the Double Eagle II to drop from 20,000 feet to a dangerous 4,000 feet. They jettisoned ballast material and soon rose to a safe height again.
In 1980, Gérard d'Aboville was the first man to cross the Atlantic Ocean rowing solo.
In 1994, Guy Delage was the first man to allegedly swim across the Atlantic Ocean (with the help of a kick board, from Cape Verde to Barbados).
In 1998, Benoît Lecomte was the first man to swim across the northern Atlantic Ocean without a kick board, stopping for only one week in the Azores for a journey which took him over 10 weeks to complete where he swam beside both friend and foe.
Shortened Ocean Crossings
Icebergs, deadly storms and enemies at war have historically made crossing the North Atlantic an adventurous and perilous challenge. Thousands of shipwrecks populate the ocean floor whose crossings were shortened by some unforeseen challenge.
Likely the most famous among these shortened crossings was the RMS Titanic, a British passenger liner operated by the White Star Line, that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912, after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making the sinking one of modern history's deadliest peacetime commercial marine disasters.
Icebergs did not represent the only peril in crossing the Atlantic Ocean during the 1900s. From 1914-1918, during the Atlantic U-boat campaign of World War I, more than 2,100 ships were sunk and 153 U-boats destroyed. The most famous casualty during this period occured on 7 May 1915 when the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed en route to Queenstown, Ireland, at the loss of 1,198 passengers. Over the course of the Lusitania’s lifetime, it had made 201 transatlantic crossings between Liverpool and New York.
Not all unintentionally shortened crossings end in tragedy. In 1981, Steven Callahan, an American author naval architect and sailor survived for 76 days adrift in the Atlantic Ocean in a life raft after the sailboat he was piloting was swamped in a gale and suffered severe damage that Callahan suspects was due to a collision with a whale. Surviving by catching fish and birds, he captured his ordeal in the best-selling book, Adrift.
How Long Are We Going to Be Out Here?
Depending upon method of transportation, the time to cross the Atlantic varies widely. It took 73 days for Lecomte to swim across the Atlantic while the record for The fastest transatlantic civilian crossing belongs to the British Airways Concorde, which flew from New York to London in two hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds in 1996 - hitting a top speed of 1,350 mph.
For our St. Barnabas crew, the timing will depend directly upon how many miles we can cover. It could take two weeks. It could take three weeks. As we cross, we’ll have some time to learn more about the massive Atlantic and the wonders that lie within its depths.
It appears the group took a bit of a needed rest this week as we covered 550 miles after setting our record of 821 miles the previous week. In total, we have had 46 people participate. If we can get everyone to cover and submit their miles this week, we’ll be on land again in no time. At this pace, we are on track to get to Bethlehem by Christmas, but we cannot let up now, particularly in the middle of an ocean. Let’s keep it up and encourage other members to join us!