CONQUERER OF EVEREST TO SAIL WORLD : WHITTAKER FAMILY WILL KEEP TABS VIA INTERNET DURING JOURNEY.Byline: James L. Eng Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Jim Whittaker James Whittaker, also known as Jim Whittaker (born in Seattle, Washington on February 10, 1929 [1]) was the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest. He summited on May 1, 1963 with three other people. has spent much of his life exploring the world from atop its highest peaks. For the next two or three years, he'll look at it from sea level. Whittaker, the first American First American may refer to:
They were to have left Thursday, weather permitting, from Port Townsend, a harbor town about 40 miles northwest of Seattle. They'll pass through the Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca is the principal outlet for the Georgia Strait and Puget Sound, connecting both to the Pacific Ocean. It provides part of the International Boundary between the United States and Canada. and sail down the Pacific Coast on the first leg. ``The children are 11 and 13. It's a good excuse to get them out of junior high school,'' the 67-year-old Whittaker quipped in a telephone interview Monday. But Whittaker hopes to convey some more serious messages: ``One is that the world is a beautiful place and people are beautiful all over the world, and that life is wonderful and we should enjoy it and partake of it as much of it as we can and preserve as much as we can.'' Whittaker recently sold his self-built, 6,000-square-foot Port Townsend log home overlooking the strait in preparation for the voyage at sea. The family is leaving behind three storage units of ``goods that we've accumulated over the years and didn't know what to do with it.'' The trip has no timetable, but Whittaker figures the family will be away two to three years. Whittaker etched a place in mountaineering history when he became the first American to set foot atop 29,028-foot Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, in 1963. The feat landed him on the covers of Life and National Geographic magazines and made him a national hero. He scaled K2, the world's second-highest peak at 28,250 feet, in 1972. Six years ago, he led a group of U.S., Soviet and Chinese climbers back to the summit of Everest in an international ``peace climb.'' Though Whittaker is known for his mountaineering prowess, he's no stranger to sailing. ``I've sailed Victoria (British Columbia British Columbia, province (2001 pop. 3,907,738), 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada. Geography ) to Maui a couple of times. That's 2,400 miles one way. I've sailed as a boy in Puget Sound Puget Sound (py  `jĕt), arm of the Pacific Ocean, NW Wash., connected with the Pacific by Juan de Fuca Strait, entered through the Admiralty Inlet and extending in two arms c. . I was born in Seattle so I like nature and the sea and the mountains and the planet,'' he said. ``We know a little bit of the mountains. We can learn a little bit about the sea. We're going to find out that the world is round and wet.'' The trip will take the Whittakers down the California coast to the Sea of Cortez and Mexico for the winter, then out to the South Pacific for the summer. From there, it will be on to New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. and Australia, followed by the Bay of India, Africa, the Suez and Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Odessa, Norway and Sweden, then back down the Atlantic seaboard and the Panama Canal Panama Canal, waterway across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic (by way of the Caribbean Sea) and Pacific oceans, built by the United States (1904–14) on territory leased from the republic of Panama. and up the Pacific Coast back to Port Townsend. There will be plenty of port calls along the way, along with time off for some climbing, hiking, skiing and visits with friends. ``Most of the places we visit we will not have been before, at least by sea,'' Whittaker said. Whittaker, his wife, Dianne Roberts, 48, and their sons, Joss, 13, and Leif, 11, will take turns at the helm and standing watch. Each son will have his own stateroom state·room n. A private cabin or compartment with sleeping accommodations on a ship or train. stateroom Noun 1. a private room on a ship 2. . The family will keep in touch with relatives, friends and well-wishers and report back to schoolchildren schoolchildren school npl → écoliers mpl; (at secondary school) → collégiens mpl; lycéens mpl schoolchildren school on their journey via the Internet (the e-mail address See Internet address. e-mail address - electronic mail address will be: impossible(at)mountanalogue.com) and a satellite telephone hookup hookup, n in the Trager method of therapy, the practitioner enters into a meditative state along with the patient, which allows him or her to work more intuitively and to feel subtle changes in the patient's movement and tissue texture. . The boys will be home-schooled during the journey. ``I think it's going to be fun and scary in some places, like when we have to stay up at dark at night and watch out for freighters and everything,'' Leif said. ``I think it's going to be a real good experience,'' added Joss. Like mountaineering, sailing requires a lot of rope. Unlike climbing, you can sail with the wind and take base camp with you. ``There are hazards here but nothing like the dangers I've been exposed to in climbing,' Whittaker said. ``But in every aspect of what we're doing - both in the mountains and at sea - we'll be listening to nature and what she is telling us because we are only frail human beings.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Jim Whittaker, right, stands with his son Lief, 11,his wife, Dianne Roberts, and his son Joss, 13, in front of their boat, the Impossible. Associated Press |
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