René Seindal

This guy just went up and down a short stretch of lagoon canal behind the Vignole, training in a little corner sheltered from the winds of the day.

The circumnavigation of Sicily won’t be this time. Progress has been much too slow, and the time I have will not allow us to recover the delay. We’ve done about 125km in a week, and we’ve only just made it to the north side of the island.

Another purpose of the journey, for me, was to see some of my Sicilian friends, mostly in the area of Palermo and Trapani, but the progress we’ve been doing until now, and the weather forecast for the coming days, make it unlikely that we’ll even make it to Palermo in time to see my friends there.

In the end it seems the better choice to stop here, and take the train to see my friends and a bit of Palermo and surroundings.

One embarks on a journey for a reason, but continuing the journey in kayak will not bring the experience I was looking for. In that case plans should be changed.

Il periplo della Sicilia non si fa questa volta. Il progresso è stato troppo lento, e il tempo disponibile non permette di ricuperare. In una settimana abbiamo fatto sui 125km, e siamo appena arrivati sulla costa nord dell’isola.

Un altro scopo del viaggio, per me, era di rivedere tanti amici siciliani, soprattutto nel palermitano e nel trapanese, ma con la velocità fino ad ora, e il tempo previsto per i prossimi giorni, non è nemmeno tanto probabile che arriveremo a Palermo in tempo per poter vedere i miei amici in zona.

A fin dei conto mi risulta meglio fermarsi qui, ed andare in treno a trovare gli amici e vedere un po’ di Palermo e dintorni.

Un viaggio si fa per delle ragioni, ma continuando questo viaggio in kayak non mi consente più di ottenere quella esperienza che cercavo. In quel caso i piani si cambiano.

I’ve just heard from Justine than she and Berry have arrived safely in Fertilia, thus finishing their circumnavigation of Sardinia.

Not clever finishing on May 1st. May 1st is a holiday in Italy and everything is closed

Congratulations to Justine and Berry. Sardinia is such a fantastic place, and I can’t wait until I hear more of their adventures.

We’re getting ready for the symposium dinner tonight here in Port de la Selva in Catalonia. The trip down here by motorcycle went well, but took a bit longer than planned. We’ve really enjoyed the first two days of the symposium, even if the water is a bit cold for pleasant rolling.

Now, off for dinner in the big tent.

The armistice which became the end to the Great War, the first world war, took effect at 11:11 o’clock on November 11,  1918, exact 90 years ago today.

It was the most horrible war the world had ever seen, with carnage on an industrial scale, taking tens of millions of lifes over a period of less than five years. After the war the cry of “No more war!” was heard on all sides.

No more war! and what have we got?

(photo from a visit to Verdun when I was a child)

Somebody with too much time and money has ordered a survey of how people in the Scandinavian countries would have voted in the US presidential elections. Unsurprisingly, Obama would win overwhelming victories around.

In Denmark 79% of 1428 persons surveyed would vote for Obama, with only 4.3% for McCain and 16.6% undecided.

In Sweden 75.7% of 943 persons are for Obama, with 4.9% for McCain and 19.4% undecided.

Finland is more indifferent, with 58.7% of 1052 persons for Obama, 7.4% for McCain and 33.8% undecided.

I write “unsurprisingly” because in a Nordic political context the US has two right wing parties and no left, so only the extreme right wing here would pick McCain. I guess that’s why many americans considers the Scandinavian countries socialist or even communist, even though we’re neither.

Obama giver baghjul til McCain i Norden – Valg i USA.

The WWF has just released a report – the Living Planet Report 2008 – about the ecological footprint for various countries around the world. The population of Denmark has the fourth largest ecological footprint per capita, mostly due to our very high CO2 emissions and an excessive consumption of meat, which requires much land to produce.

The only counties with a higher pro capita ecological footprint are the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America and Kuwait.

Each Dane requires 8 hectares of farmland to sustain our life style, while an Italian only requires 5 hectares, which is still well over twice the world average.

Jacob Sterling, a spokesperson for the Danish section of the WWF, says:

- We’re a nation of meat eaters, and it makes us the country in Europe with the highest consumption of beef and next highest of pork, measured pro capita. The production of food for cattle and swine takes up large areas of arable land all over the world. It is completely unacceptable that our consumption puts such a level of stress on the planet.

Here’s the description of “ecological footprint” from the report:

The Ecological Footprint measures humanity’s
demand on the biosphere in terms of the
area of biologically productive land and sea
required to provide the resources we use and
to absorb our waste.

…

A country’s footprint is the sum of all the
cropland, grazing land, forest and fishing
grounds required to produce the food, fibre
and timber it consumes, to absorb the wastes
emitted when it uses energy, and to provide
space for its infrastructure. Since people
consume resources and ecological services
from all over the world, their footprint sums
these areas, regardless of where they are
located on the planet.

Il tempo è migliorato dopo una notte con raffiche a 60 nodi, grandine e pioggia ora c’è il sole ma il bollettino parla di vento sui 35 nodi nel canale e mare agitato, a malincuore ma Michele e Massimigliano, anche su consiglio/richiesta della capitaneria di porto di Genova, rinunciano alla traversata. In ogni caso saranno domani pomeriggio a Genova per la conferenza stampa di domani pomeriggio.

Nel frattempo si mangia e discute…

The weather has bettered after a night with gusts of 60 knots, hail and rain. Now the sun is shining, but the forecast is talking about 35 knots in the channel, and rough seas. With a heavy heart Michele and Massimigliano, also at the request of the Port Authorities of Genoa, renounces on the journey. In any case they will be at Genoa tomorrow afternoon for a press conference.

In the mean time we eat and talk …