I would liked to hear more about wildlife he saw during his journey. To me, that would be one of the most wonderful experiences.
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Umm... If you build the barrel right, you're going to survive until one of two things happen. Either you crash into something or something crashes into you. Your only other chances for death are running out of supplies or getting separated from the vessel. This seems self-evident to me. I don't know. Maybe other people have a different understanding of buoyancy.
If you really wanted to, you could build a barrel where you would drown inside before the barrel ever sank. That's physics.
Most mariners prefer to spend their time sailing though. You are not a passive entity in an nearly unsinkable vessel. The physics therefore get a little more complicated. You actually have to do things.
Floating across the Atlantic writing a book sounds fun but the exercise is more of a hobby than an adventure. Savin might as well be driftwood the USCG decided to pick up when it got too close to shore.
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"Three wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl.
If the bowl had been stronger,
My tale had been longer."
Old Mother Goose Rhyme. "Gotham" you remember signifies NOT New York City but a legendary city populated by fools.
Gosh, how would ANYONE make a connection with New York City? I'm still scratching my head, New York Times.
(Sorry for the sarcasm. Don't know what got into me.)
But Mr. Savin's "barrel." My goodness! Considering the tiny dimensions, the thing looks quite habitable. So congratulations, Monsieur, on a successful trip.
I cannot believe you'd not be glad to see some human faces again--hear some human voices. But yes--we do sometimes crave a moment of solitude. Though three or four MONTHS--gosh, I don't know.
I read an account (years back) from a guy that'd SAILED across the Atlantic. Your BARREL, sir, is (to my recollection) perfectly unique.
This man spoke of misconceptions we have of that great ocean. Solitary? Oh no. Huge tankers endlessly ply those waters. Like you, he dreaded not being SEEN by some ocean-going behemoth and being sailed over. That would have finished him off.
As it would you. So it goes. But I'm glad it didn't.
I gather you read through the Bible. Congratulations! Something from the Psalms is buzzing in my head:
"They that go down to the sea in ships--that do business in the great waters."
Sounds like someone I just read about.
Sounds like you.
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I wish the NYT had asked how much the trip cost. Then readers could better assess whether to take the same or a similar trip.
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This guy … the star of a soon-to-come documentary, no doubt … can be said to be "quirky" -- really, really, really, really quirky.
Cf., the "Free Solo" guy: "Insane" -- really, really, really, really insane.
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It’s illegal to dump messages in a bottle and shove them over board in the Atlantic.
I just did t on my QM2 crossing two weeks ago.
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It all sounds like something I could have fun doing except for the part about running into giant ships and reefs. That alone would probably stop me from making the trip. I do wish you had asked him about rolling since I was curious about that.
Thanks for the article!
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I can't imagine a scarier thing to do. I am prone to sea sickness and i probaly would have ended it all a day into it. I understand the why for him but OMG it sounds like a torture chamber to me.
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A real barrel of fun ??!
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Did he tether himself to the barrel when he went "over the side?" That's a long swim back to home.....
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i would have asked him about storms he encountered. If the photo of the barrel is accurate, in big seas wouldn't the barrel roll over? It looks like it has a small keel but still in towering waves I would think it would roll over a lot. If that was the case how would you deal with issues of equilibrium or motion sickness. Obviously you could strap yourself down but the sensation of rolling over would, for me at least, be unsettling, though thankfully my time on the ocean has been much less challenging. My best to you for such an amazing journey.
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Very pleased to see a successful mission completed. Looking forward to hearing more from this intrepid adventurer. Santé!
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Fascinating. If this were the heady days during The Great Depression, when Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh stunned the world, there would have been overwhelming masses to greet him.
However, those days are long gone. Instead, it's a story in The New York Times. Besides, Earhart's disappearance, and the mystery surrounding it are what caused her to be much more famous.
Please know I do not mean to take anything away from her terrific accomplishments feats; especially how much she did for women.
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@Easy Goer. Earheart was a fool and should not be glamorized. Great adventurers prepare well and are models of worthy achievements.
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@DoGood
I agree that she was very ill prepared. Basically, from being used as a "tool" by George Putnam, This noted, during the Great Depression, people needed "Heroes".
I disagree with your assertion she should not be "glamorized". Look at the film "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967). It not only "glamorized" horrible people, it was (to quote IMDB) "one of the first, if not the first, that really showed violence the way it would be in real life. People bleed when they get shot and they die in gruesome fashions.
I believe Earhart was brave, in spite of the fact she had an alcoholic navigator; (due to the better one refusing to go with her at the last minute).
Regardless, her publicity allowed her to do much for women's rights. She showed how much inequality there was for women: specifically, women who did the same exact job as men, but were paid much less. This is still true today, 80 years on.
Because of her androgynous looks, she appealed to tens of millions of both men and women, and the rightly. Even though she died for the reasons you gave, that in itself is what made her legend much more than if she had "retired", which is what she actually wanted to do.
Putnam kept pushing her to do all kinds of things she hated. Feelings aside, she was his "cash cow"; so his priority was to make more money. She wanted to have a family, which, due to her age, was becoming something more improbable each day.
We wouldn't even be writing about her if she had "not disappeared".
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While I would never set myself adrift on the sea in any vessel, let alone a makeshift "barrel," I find the underlying quest for solitude and reflection highly admirable. Perhaps I'll take to a treehouse for a while.
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Fascinating and exciting! Assuming his book is about his trip, that's one I look forward to reading. I've never been on an ocean, and can barely imagine what it would feel like in such a small vessel. So many questions...
4
The French people are unique in their romance with adventure, however quirky or extreme it may be. Vive La France!
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The never ending search for adventure. One of the better hallmarks of the human race. Kudos!
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I think it would be a good idea to put Trump, Pelosi, Nadler and Cummings in Mr. Savin's barrel for a few months voyage at sea. I'm sure it would do them and us good!
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Quite a trip. Would have been interested in whether he ever experienced mal de mer.
Seems rather pointless to me.
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@Andrew
Exquisitely put.
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@Bill
How dare you. Don't you know that true freedom is to have other people pay for you to do something pointless?
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@Bill C'mon, everything is pointless. So at least this guy's pointless is interesting and different.
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Well done, and I understand. True freedom.
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Fascinating! It's one thing to travel alone on a sailboat but quite another to leave yourself solely dependent on wind and ocean currents and with no ability to avoid ships or reefs. I will definitely be on the lookout for his book when it comes out this summer.
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I'm glad he enjoyed the voyage; I think few others would. His blog, incidentally, mentions that he is also a triathloner, and climbed Mont Blanc four years ago when he was still in his late sixties.
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