Ralph Brown and his brother Robert Brown are taking the boat that you see above (picture and info from a post at Wired) and tooling themselves across the Atlantic.
They sound crazy:
“Robert usually sleeps while I drive and vice versa,” Ralph Brown told Wired.com via satellite phone as he approached New York. “We’ve been averaging about 16 knots and ran into a storm a few days ago with about six foot waves and 25 mph winds. Other than that nothing major to report. But at some point, we hope to run into a lot worse weather so we can really put this baby to the test.”
…
That’s risky to say the least, considering a 15-foot wave (a mere ripple in the open sea) could easily swamp the 21-foot Intruder.
“To be honest, we’re not really concerned about the weather,” Brown said. “We don’t really care. Here comes the rain now. Or maybe it’s just fog. I don’t know.”
Should the vessel capsize, a buoyant roof will keep it from flipping over. Brown says the hull is buoyant enough to keep from sinking as well.
“I have full confidence in my boat,” Brown said. “I’ve also been eating a lot of cereal and fruit cocktail. Those two things have all the nutrients you need for when something goes wrong at sea.”
See? Crazy. And yet, I can’t help but think of things like the Kon-Tiki. People have been crossing oceans with rickety boats for thousands of years — that’s how we got places. And yes, it’s dangerous, and yes, things could go awry. But I wonder what the chances are, really. Eight in 10 that they’ll make it? For some people, those might be pretty acceptable odds.
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