I joined Earthrace back in 2008, at the time this amazing boat called "Earthrace" was in dry dock in Sagunto, Valencia Spain. Where some 30+ volunteers were refitting the boat, getting it ready for a world record speed attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
I was brought on-board to make a documentary about this amazing voyage, to make video blogs and to upload them via satellite link up at ever stop along the way.
I was brought on-board to make a documentary about this amazing voyage, to make video blogs and to upload them via satellite link up at ever stop along the way.
The rules to break the world record set by the UIM were to only refuel in dock, the crew had to stay the same all the way round and the boat had to pass through the Panama and the Suez Canal. This meant that you could choose any route you wanted to help you achieve your goal. So our journey starting from Valencia, took us through the Gibraltar Strait to Azores, then to Puerto Rico, Panama Canal, Manzillo Mexico, San Diego USA, Hawaii USA, Majuro Marshall Islands, Koror Palau, Singapore, Cochin India, Salalah Oman, Suez Canal Egypt and back to Valencia hopefully!
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Earthrace had attempted this record the previous year but had quite a few problems, one sadly was when at night near Guatemala they accidentally ran over a fishing boat in the middle of the night, the fishing boat was out at sea without any lights. Unfortunately there were 3 people on-board the fishing vessel, 2 were injured and one guy was lost at sea. After being released from Guatemalan prison with no charge 10 days later they tried to carry on their attempt but were plagued by other problem and had to abandon the race.
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The Earthrace route
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Captain Pete Bethune
Pete Bethune the captain and creator of Earthrace began his vision to build the boat following his work in the oil industry. After seeing first hand how little fossil fuels we have left on the planet he turned his focus to promoting renewable fuels. He could not think of a better way than to beat a world record with a powerboat run only using 100% bio diesel. Pete and his family gave up everything to put into building Earthrace which took him 14 months and $3 million.
On the 27th April 2008 after the start being delayed by 2 months due to the boat not being finished we finally left Sagunto, Spain, for a second attempt at the record. So during this voyage I would be living in sweaty confined living quarters with Captain Pete Bethune from New Zealand, Navigator Adam Carlson from Sweden and Mark Russel Engineer also from the UK. We had a ground crew following around the world sorting out the logistics and bio fuel for when we arrived in port. This consisted of Adrian Erangey Operations Manager, Fiona Clark CEO and Celestino de Freitas engineer.
Driving Earthrace
Earthrace had 6 "hot beds" in which only 4 were ever usable, "hot beds" meaning a one in one out system, never that appealing to get into someone else's sweaty bed. Every day each crew member would have to drive the boat for 6 hours a day while another member would be on watch. Driving the boat was fine for most of the time, going some days with out seeing another vessel but when the auto steering went down it made for quite an interesting journey keeping Earthrace in a straight line.
Sleeping in the galley
We also had periods of high seas and found it impossible to sleep, sometimes the only semi calm place would be in the center of the boat which happened to be the galley. In the middle of the Atlantic during a period of slamming, the boats hatch for the bio fuel broke open and we had a foots worth of bio fuel sloshing round the living quarters. However this didn't stop us powering through the waves until we arrived at the Panama Canal where we were forced to stop, this was due to a work to rule strike. Frustratingly this put us back 3 days, but this did mean I got to have a well deserved shower as Earthrace's shower consisted of jumping in the sea and sometimes having to do this on the run. Whilst we was waiting in Panama Mark our engineer had a nasty fall and nearly severed half his foot off. Luckily for him the delay meant that he could rejoin the crew just in time to leave, which he was determined to do, but this did mean his duties had to be spread out between the 3 of us as he was pretty much crippled.
Mangled port prop
Apart from a few engine troubles we were making good time and were slightly ahead of the previous record which was set by Cable and Wireless in July 1998 at 74 days, 20 hours, 58 minutes. We were also visiting some amazing places like the Marshall islands, an island only as big as it's largest palm tree and Palau with all it's pristine coral reefs. On the way out after a lovely welcome from all the local people in Palau we hit something very hard that bent our port drive shaft and snapped one and a half blades off the prop. It could of been game over! With no local resources to mend the boat we had to make our way to Singapore on just one engine.
Shipyard in Singapore
The trip to Singapore took us across the most treacherous seas for floating debris, lots of large logs and infested pirated waters it made for a scary ride. Flying by the seat of our pants we managed to get to Singapore, where it was straight on to the next mission to find some sponsorship to get the boat out of the water and all fixed up. We begged on the radio and pimped out space on Earthrace for logos for money. Ground crew pulled it out the bag and within a day of arriving we were pulled out the water by a shipping company and the repairs had started.
Earthrace going under
With in 3 days we were back in the water and on our way to the Indian Ocean. Due to the fact we were delayed at the start by 2 months we hit the Indian Ocean in the middle of the monsoon winds. Earthrace already holds the world record for the amount of wave to cross over the hull, it is designed to have as much as 7 meters of waves over the top of it, so this makes for a pretty rough ride.
On the way to India I don't think we slept properly for at least 8 days and to add insult to injury we all started to become infected with Prickly heat, a horrible skin rash that feels like needles getting stabbed into you every time you moved your body. At this point the temperature inside the boat was unbearable. Earthrace's air hatches could not be opened or a wave would fill up the boat, the small inside was turning rancid. All in all I would say this was the hardest part of the race and everyone was on a short fuse.
On the way to India I don't think we slept properly for at least 8 days and to add insult to injury we all started to become infected with Prickly heat, a horrible skin rash that feels like needles getting stabbed into you every time you moved your body. At this point the temperature inside the boat was unbearable. Earthrace's air hatches could not be opened or a wave would fill up the boat, the small inside was turning rancid. All in all I would say this was the hardest part of the race and everyone was on a short fuse.
Editing the video blogs on-board
We finally got over the worst of the weather and started to see the light at the end of the Suez Canal. With just the Mediterranean to go our thoughts started to steer towards the record and it was looking good. By the time we were entering Spanish waters we was nearly 2 weeks ahead of the previous record, an absolute feat after all the trauma we had just been through. A quick clean up of the boat as people would want to come on board when we arrived and the place looked and smelt like sumo wrestlers jock strap! Then finally we power over the finish line in a time of 60 days 23 hours and 49mins beating the world record by almost 2 weeks. It was by far one of the hardest thing I think I will ever do and at the time I said to myself I would never do it again, but if another trip turned up like this I imagine I would find it hard to turn down. I will miss you Earthrace.
Pete Bethune is doing some amazing missions to support our marine ecosystem, please support him www.earthraceconservation.org
You can watch the Earthrace documentary at the bottom of this page.
All photo's on this page are courtesy of ©Peter Faretra & ©Adam Carlson official Earthrace Photographers
The World Record breaking crew
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Earthrace later joined Sea Shepperd and was sunk to the bottom of the Southern Ocean by the Japanese Whalers
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