Circumnavigating the world has been one of those ageless competitions that draws the extreme adventurer.  Most recently, the race to travel around the world has taken the Balloon as the vehicle of choice.  After numerous others tried and failed, the Breitling Orbiter 3 has locked down a firm place in the history books, becoming the first manned balloon to complete the trek successfully.   

    On March 21st, 1999 the mighty balloon touched down in Egypt after flying for 19 days, 21 hours and 55 minutes.  One of their most aggressive competitors was the ICO Global team who failed in their bid to capture the title after loosing the jet stream winds they needed to complete the journey.  They eventually set the balloon down at sea near Hawaii, failing to reach their goal, but proving themselves to be deserving of our respect.

   Another particularly interesting circumnavigation was recently completed by Fabrice Gropaiz of France.  Fabrice circled the globe on inline skates, starting and ending his journey in San Francisco, California.  His diary makes for some incredible reading.

      Those with a taste for the open ocean can participate in the Around Alone race.  This is a race, taking place every four years, pitting single sailors against each other as they race to sail around the world.  The race typically takes nine months to complete and covers some 27,000 miles of open ocean.  At the time of this writing, this race is still underway. 

     Starting this coming August, a young woman named Polly Letofsky will begin her quest to become the first woman to walk around the world.  Her World Walk for Breast Cancer is expected to cover some 18,000 miles and span 4 years.  During her walk, Polly hopes to raise money and awareness of the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund, a fund setup to focus on breast cancer research and education.

     Another planned 'round the world trip is set to begin in 2002.   This one will be done in a "web-wired" 46 foot motor boat.  This trip is planned to take 2 years, and the Internet Circumnavigation Education Expedition will be using the power and interacitivity of the Internet to keep school kids involved.   Ain't the web turning out to be an awesome tool for getting kids involved in bigger things than gangs and drugs?

     A recent successful global circumnavigation was done by the crew of the sailboat "Out of Bounds".   These folks covered some 30,000 miles in 3 years, aboard a 46 foot sailboat.   This site is very nicely done, and we definitely think it's a story worth checking out.

     Not every attempt to circle the globe is successful, which is of course the reason that the attempts are so significant.   One fairly recent attempt that we found was the attempt to break the current record for powered boating around the globe.  The current record is 83 days, and that record was set in 1960 by the US nuclear submarine Triton.  In 1998, the Revolution98 project set out to attempt to break that record.  Unfortunately, a hidden uncharted reef off the coast of Nicaragua ended the attempt early, but the story is still a compelling one.