She set out on a tough-guy quest. At the age of 32, Lisa Blair, two degrees behind her in Education and Visual Arts, and more than 50 thousand miles ground in ten years of sailing (she started her skippering adventure in 2006), set off the day before yesterday from Albany, Australia, to break the record for circumnavigating Antarctica solo without stopover or assistance, aboard the Open 50 Climate Action Now (designed in 2003 by Robert Hick initially for the Double Handed Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race).
IT’S NOT GOING TO BE EASY
Lisa Blair is the third person ever (and the first woman) to attempt this extremely difficult navigation among icebergs, sudden circumpolar currents, whales at the water’s edge, fog, and literal polar cold: a treacherous 16,500-mile journey awaits her.
A RACE OPPONENT
The record to beat belongs to Russia’s Fedor Filippovich Konyukhov (102 days and 56 minutes always remaining between the 45th and 60th parallels south). The Russian super-explorer (born in 1951, he has climbed Everest twice and reached the North Pole three times, the South Pole once, and circumnavigated the globe four times under sail, in addition to having crossed the Atlantic in a canoe) had succeeded in an 82-foot boat.
