Decompression and Prep to Fly

After more than 7000 miles of open ocean racing in Leg 2 of the Velux 5 Ocean race around the world, it has taken a few days to decompress. The racing from South Africa to New Zealand was unpredictable and weird. Although I expected fierce Southern Ocean winds and seas, they were all coming from the wrong direction and it was not what I expected. I will expand on this later, but there are some very odd and unpredictable things happening in our oceans.


Never to leave you without entertainment, we have found Wellington, New Zealand to be a great place to explore. Team Lazarus has entered the Bird Man competition which involves a challenge of sending one man off the wharf to see how long and high he can fly. Being a pilot myself, the challenge brings in all kinds of history and principles of long ago. Please enjoy this first little glimpse of the Birdman prep…

We chose the lightest member of the team and spent the last 12 hours sourcing helium and the largest balloons available in Wellington. Our brave competitor is John Hicks, who is otherwise known as daily teacher and caregiver to my children Tate and Wyatt. He is from Charleston, South Carolina and never expected to be participating in the Velux race, much less being sent in a lawn chair off the coast of New Zealand with 2000 balloons overhead. We hope his mother will forgive us, but he is well protected and will look good diving off the pierhead. The Birdman is a competition to find the craziest and most creative costume to jump off the Taranaki Street Wharf in Wellington, New Zealand. Learn more about the adventure at http://www.birdman.org.nz/. More news tomorrow as we try our best to get a member of Le Pingouin to fly!

Cheers,

Brad