Tûranor PlanetSolar

I love reading in the mornings - it takes one places! Today, over a lovely cup of Yerba Matte, I traveled around-the-world journey with the Tûranor PlanetSolar and her crew. The Tûranor, literally named power of the sun based on J.R.R. Tolkien's elven language, is the largest solar powered catamaran in the world. The vessel is 102ft (31m) long, 49ft (15m) wide, 20ft (6.1m) tall, and covered in 0.13 acres (537 m^2) of solar pannels. The Tûranor weighs a mere 95 tons, due to a light carbon material used in its construction. Her maiden voyage was in March 2010 in Kiel, Germany. The world circuit started on September 27, 2010 at Monoco, and the vessel and her four person crew traveled westward, along the equator. The 584 day journey included a planned series of outreach events at major international cities (i.e., Miami, Cancun, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, etc.), and a unplanned encounter with pirates!



Tûranor PlanetSolar

A blog describing the journey and the captain's log is available online <http://www.planetsolar.org/>. I am slowly exploring both - Having grown-up on boats, I feel a little warm and fuzzy thinking about the constant push for sustainability both on land and at sea!