Two Epic Voyages End Around Washington

This week, two epic voyages will come to an end near Washington, D.C.  On Tuesday, Space Shuttle Discovery will fly up the Potomac River on the back of a 747, en route to Dulles International Airport, and the Udvar-Hazy Center Air and Space Museum.  Prime viewing starts at 10 a.m. along the banks of the Potomac from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, through to the National Mall.  Discovery will afterwards land at Dulles and be on display at Udvar-Hazy.  Details on the best sites to watch the flight are here.

Also ending this week is the epic voyage of the St. Brendan.  She is a 27 foot sailboat (yes, that is a “2”)captained by Matt Rutherford.  Rutherford will have accomplished what no sailor has done before – circumnavigated the Americas, solo, nonstop, from Annapolis, to Greenland, through the Northwest Passage, Alaska, the Pacific, the Horn, the Atlantic and back home.  St. Brenden is set to pull into the Sailing Hall of Fame in Annapolis this weekend.  Rutherford is doing it for charity to benefit CRAB, the Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating charity to help the disabled sail.

The journeys of Rutherford on St. Brendan and the Space Shuttle Discovery are likely to be known a century from now, and beyond.  They can be counted among the truly epic journeys in the history of daring exploration.