Fantastic Voyage

MACHINES ARE FASTER AND THE WORLD A LOT SMALLer than when Jules Verne wrote Around the World in 80 Days more than a century ago. But it was not until last week that the challenge set down in 1873 by Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg -- to circle the globe in 80 days -- was conquered on the high seas. Aboard the 86-ft. sail-powered catamaran Commodore Explorer, French adventurer Bruno Peyron and his crew of four sailed triumphantly into France's Pouliguen harbor, 79 days and 6 hours after embarking from Brittany, smashing the existing circumnavigation record (109 days). It wasn't easy. En route, Commodore struck a pod of whales off Brazil, cracking a hull, and nearly lost two crewmen in a mid-Atlantic gale. Ultimately, Peyron prevailed through wit and guile, not technology. Fogg would have approved.