The Route
You can follow us across the Atlantic by following this link (we are boat number 53):
Stats
- Route: La Gomera (Canary Islands) to Antiuga (W. Indies).
- Distance: 2,935 miles (2,552 nautical miles).
- Record (4 man): 36 days 59 minutes.
- First Raced: 1997.
- Start Date: 9th December 2009 (weather permitting).
The Columbus Route
Contrary to popular opinion, most academics have understood the Earth to be spherical since the 4th Century B.C.E. In fact, Erastathones – think of him as a sort of Greek Stephen Fry – postulated the Earth’s circumference to within 1 percent of its actual size in the 2nd Century B.C.E.
The race follows the same course as first taken by Columbus in his inadvertent discovery of ‘The New World’ in 1492: from La Gomera to Antigua, a distance of 2,935 miles. Columbus managed to fund his odyssey through convincing the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile that a far quicker and more economically convenient route to the Orient existed west across the ocean, rather than east across land (if only we could fox our P.M. with the promise of some dormant and unspoilt oilfield somewhere south of the Azores, perhaps fundraising wouldn’t be so daunting). His gross underestimation of the Earth’s circumference can be attributed to a simple mathematical error. He calculated the Earth to have a circumference of 25,255 km, roughly 40 percent smaller than its actual size, 40,075 km, as established by Erastathones nearly 2000 years prior; confirmed of course today through a combination of Google Maps and ‘QI’! This error was in part due to Columbus’ use of the Italian mile, 1,238 meters, when interpreting his maps, rather than the conventional Arabic mile: 1,830 meters. Fortunately we shall be equipped with GPS navigation, so our little rowing adventure isn’t likely to offer us the opportunity of happening upon and colonising some unsuspecting continent.
Columbus departed on August 3rd 1492, and sighted land 70 days later on October 12th. With any luck we hope to complete the voyage in 50 days or fewer.
