Yes that's right folks Team NORSA member and chair of the NORSA Western Region, Michael, has gotten federal funding for what promises to be a new level of NORSAdom. He will be cruising across the Drake Passage not only for recreation, but also for making great leaps in the understanding of Narwhal - Giant Squid behavioral interactions.
Narwhals are known for their unicorn-like tusks and for that reason can be dangerous to interact with, but for the most part they are friendly creatures of the sea. Giant Squid on the other hand are fierce creatures that will leave no food source left alone. Michael and crew will be putting their lives on the line while attempting to study both creatures in close proximity. It's all in the name of science!
The mighty vessel that will support this duty is the National Science Foundation's LM Gould as illustrated above.
Well here's the real story. Michael is not going to be heroically fending off Narwhals and giant Squid at the same time! Rather he'll be working on better understanding of the Southern Ocean interaction with the atmosphere. As any armchair sailor knows the Drake Passage is an unforgiving stretch of water and the task at hand will not be easy. As cool as battling ocean creatures would be the pictures and stories that will come out of this voyage will be worthy of NORSAs time and interest. So with that being said stay tuned to clockworko.blogspot.com and teamnorsa.blogspot.com for updates on how the journey unfolds.
Thumbs up!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
NORSA goes Federal...and International?
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The West Coast!
Congrats to NORSA member Mike Rhodes, who this past weekend, reached Portland, Oregon in his trans-American cycling adventure!
Mike and two friends left from various points on the east coast (Richmond, VA and Raleigh, NC) on May 27th and thus began an epic journey across the Appalachian Mountains, through America's heartland, over the Rockies, and into history.
Mike is actually the second NORSA member to have completed a cross-country cycling trip, the first being NORSA veteran Manuel Dominguez who completed an easterly route in the summer of 2004.
Monday, April 14, 2008
NORSA Cyclists Make It to Virgilina!!
NORSA had attempted the trip back in December but was hampered by 40 degree temperatures and cold rain. The cyclists made it only halfway to Virgilina and turned back at the town of Stem, NC. Virgilina remained in their sights, however, and April 13th proved to be the day when the weather and everyone's schedules cooperated. 
The team left from Ryan Boyle's house in North Raleigh at 8:00 AM (Alan and Adam had spent the night before partying with the NC State Sailing Club for it's annual Commodore's Gala semi-formal). Following a route mapped out by Mike and Tim, the cyclists swiftly covered the first 25 miles of familiar territory past Creedmore and Stem. Just before reaching Stem, they were pursued by the first of many packs of dogs. A group of three dogs charged into the road as the team rode by a property, putting the cyclists into an all-out sprint which left the dogs behind but resulted in the first of two flat tires for Adam.
Adam patched his tire and the team continued on through some of the most beautiful countryside North Carolina has to offer. Horse farms, pine plantations, and traditional farmland provided scenery under a beautiful sun and 60' temperatures as they worked their way north. Then, a little after 12:00 PM, the cyclists left the State of North Carolina and entered the Commonwealth of Virginia!
After lunch at an exceedingly 'local' pub/restaurant/bar, the cyclists made a lap through town, and headed south. Following a different and partially bootlegged route back, they pedaled their way across rolling hills, through the town of Oxford, and back to Ryan's house. Legs and rear-ends burned with pain, but in a good way.
Virgilina was a success. The only disappointment from the trip was for Alan and Adam, who experienced a painful revelation of exactly how far the Louisville Ironman will be.
See Tim's photos and videos here! See Alan's photos here!
Check out Tim's GPS tracker. 5300+ feet of climbing ... not too shabby.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
On-On!
Tuesday night (January 22nd), Team NORSA members Adam, Julie Brockman, Alan Stewart, Mike Rhodes, and newcomer Don Lenfeste drove to Chapel Hill to join up with Sir Walter's Hash House Harriers http://www.swh3.com/ to do a 'hash run.' None in the NORSA crew had any experience and the only background came from reading various websites, but we did know it involved running, drinking, and a bit of a team scavanger hunt.
Without giving away too much, the night featured wades through waste deep water, sprints through dark forest, and an all-important beer break (in addition to the beverages consumed before and after the event).
Hashing is an event in its own category, and if running, adventure, and a laid back attitude are your cup of tea, check out your local Hash House Harriers, or join the NORSA crew for their next hash (a now regular event for many members).
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Team NORSA Cycling Attempts 1st Stage of the BBBT - The Virgilina Twelvety
[Courtesy of Alan Stewart and sailnaway.blogspot.com]
For the last 3 weeks or so, Adam, Mike and Alan had planned a ride from Raleigh North to Virgilina, VA. Virgilina is a very small and unique town in that half of it is in NC and half in VA a total of about 120miles round trip and the plan was to complete the whole ride in one day leaving early in the morning. Tim was also exited about it and joined the group as did Adam's friend Steve who drove down from DC for the weekend. Team NORSA was on the road again.
We rolled out from Base Camp (Mike and Alan's apartment) at 7:36am Sat. morning bundled up for the low 40 degree temperatures and 100% overcast skies that greeted us. The forecast for the day was low 40s all day with increasing chance of rain after about 1pm in Raleigh and 100% chance in the evening. Being an optimistic bunch we just decided that we would probably be ok. We took flashy bike lights along since we figured that we would not make it back before dark. We were off.
From left: Adam, Steve, Mike, Tim (Alan w/ camera). It was cold but we were making good progress and having fun. Averaging about 15mph and with purpose we were exited to be on an adventure and awaited what challenges might lie ahead of us. Dun dun dun (...thats foreshadowing).
Adam had one flat tire at the bottom of a hill just before we got to Falls Lake which is exceptionally low due to the severe drought in and around Raleigh. We waited up for him and all was well. We made it to a gas station for a bathroom break in Stem, NC about 32miles out when the rain started. Mike noticed the drizzle at first and then bigger drizzle quickly followed. A check on time revealed that we would definitely not be making it home before and dark and while we are a rough and tough bunch, even we were not prepared to ride home in the dark...in the rain...in the freezing cold. No thanks. We voted, and with more weather on its way decided to return to base camp. It would be lunch in Raleigh at IHOP for this chilled crew
But not before photo proof of our progress as the Stem Town Hall Police Department building served as a backdrop. With a renewed energy we headed back to Raleigh. About a quarter of the way back we outran the drizzle storm that was moving west south west and the roads were dry again but it was definitely a little colder.
We made it home around 12:30 after riding a solid 65miles. Feeling good about our accomplishment and now fully realizing how much the temperature had dropped as the darker clouds filled in faster than expected we enjoyed a satisfying IHOP lunch and good conversation. Team NORSA has unofficially vowed to attempt the ride again in the near future. If you're interested in coming along just let us know.
Monday, October 8, 2007
NORSA Adventure Racing Team Debuts at the 2007 Gold Nugget!
This past weekend, members of the NORSA Adventure Racing Team (Mike Rhodes, Alan Stewart, Tim Josey, and Adam) competed in the "Dirty Dozen" category of the 2007 Gold Nugget Adventure Race. Taking place in and around the Uhwarrie National Forest in south-central North Carolina, this 12 hour race was a combination of mountain biking, trail-running, bushwacking, canoeing, orienteering, and a high ropes course.
"We arrived Friday late afternoon and set up camp at Morrow Mountain State before heading down to God's Country Outfitters to check in with the race director. There were many other racers there, including a two man team and from Erie, Pennsylvania who remarked that "we wanted to get in one more before we went to nationals." They apparently do many 24 hour races and made themselves out to be quite the hotshots (despite the fact that they were staying in a hotel friday night). Our other favorite quote was... "You guys have altimeters on your watches right?" We must have asked each other about 100 times during the race.."TIM! whats the altimeter reading? I think we're almost there!" They were nice guys though; fun to talk to.
We were up at 6am and after the pre-briefing, with a blow of the horn at 7:00 AM, it was a mad dash to the top of Morrow Mt. to get our maps and passports. The trail was composed of very steep switchbacks for about 3 miles and NORSA's biking experience showed through as we were the first ones to the top. We felt good biking in close formation and passing other teams with ease (and maybe pushing a little hard so early on). We joked later that the newbies were saying "holy shit," while the old guys were calling us "newbies."
We plotted our points, headed back down to the get the boats, crossed the river, and got to the transition area without incident. Our first stop was check point (CP) 2 where we completed the special challenge: a high ropes course. The course was pretty easy but waiting in line for 15 minutes to get on the stupid thing was hard. We were all feeling really good.
Next, we were off on our bikes. We hit all the waypoints designed for the bike (near a bike or jeep trail) over the course of six hours of HARD riding over extreme grades and rocks with brief moments of jogging through woods to a CP. We had to backtrack once after getting a little exited on a downhill run and blowing by a CP worth 40 points. We finally finished the bike course with about 5:30 hrs remaining. We got in the boats again and went for the canoe points.
We decided (for some reason) that we could hit the canoe CP's faster by landing and running through the woods instead of paddling. We landed and started running. We were off by about a 1/2 mile on the first point. It took us a while to figure it out but we eventually got it (it was hanging off a limb over the water, imagine that). The second one took us pretty far off course but we found it (well Adam did) by literally he just stumbling upon it walking toward the river. 
The return to the boats took us onto to a road where we jogged for a while before taking a creek bed back to the canoes (a pretty major detour). By this time we were down to 1hr and we needed to get back to base camp.
We got some mad props for our "never quit" attitude and found out that the hot shots from PA didn't get any of the "O" points which we thought was kind of weird. When we finished they had already showered so they must have thrown in the towel hours ago (not very NORSA'esque). 
Pizza, Subways and gatorade awaited us at the finish line (a welcome sight) and we ate ... a lot ... while we talked to Altimeter guy and his partner comparing routes and. The awards followed immediately afterward and though we didn't get top 3 we were still really happy with our day's accomplishments. There was a raffle of sorts as well. Tim scored a $30 floor pump, Mike got trail guide for Uwharrie forest, Adam got a bottle of electrolyte powder and I got another event T-shirt.We slept well that night and woke up around 8am. We left the campground at 9:30 and made it back to Raleigh by noon. Great trip; awesome adventure. Another one for the NORSA record books."