rachel on 2/10/2009 at 14:58

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Not only will the week-end be dominated by the previously mentioned Red Bull Air Race finals, it's been brought to my attention yesterday that Barcelona has a very special guest mooring tonight and tomorrow at Port Vell.

</i>Tara</i>.

<img src="http://www.freylia.net/250px-Tara_-_Brest_2008-3.jpg" title="Tara in Brest" alt="Tara in Brest" />

<i>Tara</i> is a schooner with an extraordinary history. She was purpose-built for polar expeditions as <i>Antarctica</i> in 1989 by Dr Jean-Louis Étienne, with a specially designed aluminum hull curved so that the ice packs don't crush it to smithereens like Shackleton's ill-fated <i>Endurance</i>.
Later, she was bought by Sir Peter Blake after he retired from racing for his exploration tours around the world, and renamed <i>Seamaster</i>. <i>Seamaster</i> was his mothership in his work for the United Nations Environment Programme, and it is onboard this ship that he was murdered by pirates in the Amazon in 2001, a tragic and pointless end for one of the most talented yachtsmen of our times.
It was then rebought and renamed <i>Tara</i> and put to service for <a href="http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/en/home-tara.php?id_page=1">Tara Expeditions</a> and spent over 500 days encased in the Artic ice, drifting with the pack to measure global warming. Today she's on a round-the-world trip set to take her pretty much everywhere, that will end in 2012.

This fantastic boat is here tonight and I'm so going to be there.

<small><a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(goélette)">More about Tara</a> on the French Wikipedia</small>

rachel on 2/10/2009 at 16:03

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Oh :erm: Nope, not yet hehe. (Funny, actually I never thought of it as a baby's name.)

Shug on 2/10/2009 at 16:17

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JE SUI SUR UN BATEAU

Ulukai on 2/10/2009 at 16:21

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And when she's 18 she'll be full of seamen am i rite

Queue on 2/10/2009 at 21:21

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As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.