1,000 Days

There is a small contingent of hardcore offshore sailors always willing to endure the latest and greatest extreme sailing challenge...but 55-year-old Reid Stowe is breaking new ground by taking on a voyage with a commitment to stay out of sight of land for one thousand days. It's a challenge so extreme that he plans to use the results of the journey - should he survive - to prepare astronauts for the grueling trip to Mars...a space flight that would, given current technologies, take two to three years. The "1000 days at sea" project has its own blog...where you can get daily updates on Reid and his girlfriends most recent oceangoing deprivations. And if you want to go in-depth then have a look at the recent WIRED Magazine feature. It will make you mighty glad for an anchorage.

From the WIRED story...Stowe has made a number of long, grueling sails, including a trip to Antarctica in 1986. But if he succeeds in this mission, it will not only be the longest trip of his career, he'll also shatter the 1988 record world record for the longest continuous sail -- held by Australian Jon Sanders, who was at sea for 657 days.