Rick Potvin's Flat Earth Cruise Challange

I'm getting "up there" in years and so I feel that I should, as a piano player, play piano on a cruise ship but only the kind of cruise ship that go around the perimeter of Antarctica at a high enough latitude that and with enough verification that we can prove 15 or 70,000 miles. I'm going to have to rely on a lot of other people for navigation, directions and financing but I can at least play the piano on the cruise. At first I was going to do this navigation from home as virtual but there seem to be some problems with that in terms of the information I can gather. I view myself as a latter day Phinneus Fogg of Jules Vernes' Around the World in 80 Days and indeed-- if Antarctica is an island at the bottom of a spinning sphere that revolves around a burning ball that's 93 million miles out, then it will indeed take us about 80 or 90 days to keep sailing east or west at about 75 degrees South latitude. If, on the other hand, the burning ball is configured 3000 miles above on a pancake Earth, then the trip should take about the same time Captain Cook took-- maybe a bit less-- a year or two. Authorities might not permit us to venture further south than the 60 south latitude line, in which case we'll use that as our guide. I'd like to do the tour by boat and by air-- possibly a blimp. I think I'd better pack a lunch though.

The question of Earth being flat or spherical is surprising irresolvable in any sort of easy way. When I started this virtual mission, I expected to be able to come to a quick conclusion one way or another. The fact that I have not and this-- combined with the online worlds' fascination with the topic-- makes this at least an interesting if not utilitarian pursuit. I mean-- with all the consumer level tours by travel agencies out there these days, one would think this matter would be easily resolved with a quick trip around Antarctica in the manner I described-- by some jet figher pilot or by a private ice breaker yaghter. But no. Where I ended up with this blog is the possibility of fake Antarctica research stations and rules and regulations against human activity that boggle the mind. The more I widen my search, the more byzantine the resistance to the resolution of the problem becomes.

TCM, Turner Classic Movies, is a channel I love to watch. Old movies are great. TCM runs cruises for their fans. Cruise ships are getting bigger all the time-- despite the faltering economies of the world. I don't understand it. My sister has worked cruise ships for years. Why are there no cruise blimps? There are a lot of pianos on cruise ships. I'd like to initiate the world's first Flat Earth Cruise by being a point of reference for anyone interested in doing whatever it takes to prove earth flat or spherical once and for all by bringing to the real physical world what I had at first thought was possibly by sitting at home and surfing the net with a bottle of beer.

See Flat Earth Cruise Challange in the index below for more updates later.
Around the World In 80 Days (1956) Official Trailer ...
Around the World in 80 Days (2004) Movie ...
Around the World in 80 days miniseries Part 1 - YouTube

 Phinneus Fogg and Rick Potvin