By all means celebrate the fact that that Banque Populaire just circumnavigated the globe non-stop in the Jules Verne Trophy record time of 45 Days, 13 Hours, 42 Minutes. Banque Pop is a spectacular, monster tri that measures in at 131-feet and is the fastest oceangoing sailboat ever built. Her professional crew, ably skippered by the supremely talented Loick Peyron, sailed smart and fast and deserves full credit for taking almost three days off the old record.

At first it sounds pretty outrageous: last month, Dennis Howard, a nearly blind sailor who set out on a voyage from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on a small but hardy Flicka 20, ran into some bad weather. The gooseneck broke, the boom hit him in the head, and more bad weather was on the way. He called a friend and told of his troubles. The friend called the Coast Guard, which sent a cutter. The Coast Guard arrived on scene and boarded to assess the situation. Howard declared he was fine and wanted to continue his voyage.

I’ve always admired Roz Savage. Bored to death as a management consultant, at the age of 33 the British adventurer pulled the plug on her conventional life and went to sea—in a rowing boat. She started with the Atlantic, in 2005, and then kept rowing.

Scott Cassell is a former special forces diver, a very tough guy who spends a lot of his time underwater. I met Cassell back in 2005, when I went diving with him among the rapacious Humboldt Squid in the Sea Of Cortez, and wrote a story about it.

So I was glad to hear that he has once again answered the call, this time to fight for the health of the oceans.