A marathon is an individual feat; this Improvathon is a touching celebration of teamwork, an ego-free voyage into exhaustion and the unknown.
Far from promising a trouble-free voyage, he has begun by making giant waves.
"What limited brainpower I have was devoted to deciding which warning to give and when," said Pinsent, who beyond occasional bouts of flag-waving and megaphone-shouting enjoyed a relatively stress-free maiden voyage.
And yet, from the point of view of the individual traveler, a risk-free flight has never existed; nor has a risk-free car trip; nor a risk-free ocean liner voyage; nor a risk-free bike ride.
According to Gazprom, the waters of the Barents and Kara seas were mostly ice-free during the voyage from Nov. 9 through the 18th, but the carrier encountered young ice roughly an inch thick during the leg from the Vilkitsky Strait to the Bering Strait.
After eight days drifting off Christmas Island, the captain of the Norwegian cargo ship, Arne Rinnan, is free to continue his voyage to Singapore.
Away: the Northern Lights are notoriously capricious, but this offer from Hurtigruten should take the edge off a "no-show": if you don't see the Aurora Borealis it'll give you a six- or seven-day voyage for free (excluding flights) the following winter.
These two allow Michael to ascribe some of his most eloquent thoughts to a collective "we," who "dove like needles" into a pool and roamed "like freed mercury" during the voyage.
This seems now, as it did to many people then, a preposterous plan, as if the slave trade could somehow be undone by this reverse voyage, settling freed slaves just a stone's throw from British slave-trading forts.
If you plan on going abroad, download free apps such as SkyScanner, Voyages SNCF and InterRailing EU, which enable you to book flights and train tickets and provide timetables.
Friday at 10 30 a.m. and 7 30 p.m.; Saturday at noon and 4 and 7 30 p.m.; Sunday at 12 30, 3 30 and 6 30 p.m.; 149th Street and Exterior Street, Mott Haven, the Bronx, (800) 745-3000, ticketmaster.com; universoulcircus.com; $16 to $32; free for under 1. 'A Voyage Through Jewish History' (Friday, Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday) This journey involves not just miles, but years.
