Expedition Leader at home on the Sea

What a great feeling, climbing aboard Sea Dragon again after just over 2 months of revitalizing time back home in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Surfing, Sailing, Running, Mountain biking and kicking my 6ft bag to bits. Yachtmaster Offshore exams passed, First Aid, VHF and Medical all under my belt, I am charged and ready to take over my new position on Sea Dragon as First Mate/Engineer/Diver/Expedition Leader/Chef/Multi-use tool really. This is what I enjoy, a new challenge, and the responsibility to help make this mission/expedition that is Pangaea Explorations function. Each piece is and will be integral for success, Ron, Portia & Atlas Ritter have given us all an opportunity to participate with the mighty Sea Dragon as an awesome safe, secure operations base to raise awareness in the world about plastic residues in the oceans as well as participate in some awesome kickass maritime and terrestrial adventures, our imagination and drive are the only limits, you choose.

At Lisbon airport waiting for my flight to the Azores Islands I saw a young man with a familiar face off the Pan Explore website, new crewmember Tommy Duncan. Pangaea Explorations is about combining experience and knowledge with youth, so introducing myself to Tommy he was surprised some strange guy with a weird accent knew his name, but quickly we were chatting about what we were up for on this latest voyage from the Azores to Brazil via Cape Verde; What a trip!!!!!. Tommy not having ever sailed before was a bit nervous which is normal for a 19 yr old straight out of San Jose, California, especially after I told him about the huge swell, storm condition weather report. After a quick flight through a cornucopia of violent cloud formations, waiting for us at Horta Airport/Faial was Stephen Amato another 19 yr old Californian, Tommy’s friend and a familiar face for me as well as we had crossed the Atlantic aboard Sea Dragon in November together. Since then Steve had crossed the Atlantic again in Mid winter from Bermuda with the 5 Gyres Expedition led by Dr Markus Ericksen, shared a cabin with Dutch Artists and an awesome group of positive adventurers, braved 60+ knot winds, massive seas, filled the deckhand role with experienced Challenge Skipper Clive Cosby safely at the helm, grown a beard and transformed into a more mature salty dog type of character, only some strong experiences in the sea can do this so quickly. I was amazed at the transformation from the boy with dreams of saving the planet that I had met last October in Lanzarote/Canary Islands where I worked on the Sea Dragon, to the hairy young man with a clearer view of reality in Horta in temporary charge of the vessel that I saw now.

Waiting aboard were Elton Joseph: an affable young man from the Bahamas in charge of running the science lab and Mike Atallah/Film maker who had been aboard since Bermuda documenting the 5 Gyres voyage .

Actually stepping on Sea Dragon was a mixed feeling of being back in New Zealand going to my Mums house and having a home cooked meal or catching up with an exotic lover from the past. I have been on Sea Dragon in various ports now and it never ceases to amaze me the reactions of people to the vessel, what is she? What a seriously cooool fast looking boat! What are you doing? Wow! What’s she like to sail? It blows people away. I did the same when I first came aboard, then here I am. Thanks.

From her 100 ft raked back mast, the long sleek lines to the perfectly tuned deck and layout, oversize everything, no fuss, no fluffy extras, no hair dryers, Sea Dragon means business and is ready to go, ready to go anywhere in the world at any time with full Category 0 British Coast Guard Rating, that’s my job, keep her well oiled and ready for action.

Horta more than lived up to the weather report stormy, wet, huge waves and hurricane force winds. Captain Ian “Bushy” Buchele, our new Captain with an arms length of race experience on these same boats had delayed his arrival by five days, he knew something was up. Just enough time for me to whip the boat and crew into shape. First job; take the boys for a run in the rain to see what we had. Everyone was keen which is what counts, the boys had already been too long in port and it was time to leave, so we just got on with it. While the boys cleaned, preened, shined, sorted out the galley and stores I got on with the workings of Sea Dragon, fixing bits and pieces, changing oil, filters, basic maintenance, prevention is the best form of cure and in port it is a lot easier than in a bucking sea to do anything.

We found solace from the rain and wind in Club Naval de Horta (Jorge’s Bar): fast internet, good cheap food, friendly service and Peters Bar the famous watering hole of 100s of transatlantic boats.

Bushy was next to arrive and as fulfilled our expectations, he was all business, no bullshit, straight to work, another reshuffle of the whole boat, rig check, steering check, safety gear and briefs, no doubts in anyone’s minds that what we were going into from here on in was going to be serious and above all safety is number 1. A safe boat is a good boat. Bushy had us all on our toes, 3 days later a bit of a gap in the weather, decision made, take fuel on, last stores and next minute, drop the mooring lines, see ya later Mike (he was off to Rotterdam to film the next part of his work with Dutch artist Maarten Van de Eynde as Mike filmed us raising the mainsail inside the harbor walls anticipation was high, we were itching to get out there amongst it, the weather report was good but with strong winds and swell expected we knew we were going to get a kicking once we got out into the open ocean.
The watches were sorted as such:

A; Bushy, Steve
B; Dale, Elton & Tommy

3hours on, 3 hours off during night shift and 4 hours during the day.
We started off with lumpy seas 25 knots or so of wind, nice sailing, nothing Sea Dragon can’t handle, first night watch for Tom, first sailing, a bit of a spew and off to his bunk, best way to learn. Elton up on his feet yelling “This is what I’m talking about “The big Bahamian all of a sudden transformed into a man possessed .The Island boy enjoys being out on the ocean even if he does have an amazing capacity to fall asleep with waves breaking on his head.

Our boat speed was a constant 8-10 knots touching 15.7 knots with gusts of 48 knots, we pass a couple of days with rain, big swell, changing winds and with a weather report of heavy weather coming we put in 3 reefs and put the storm jib up, prepare for the worst, sailing a bit underpowered we put the engine on, we needed to charge the batteries anyway. Tom is wondering why he came, definitely a bit green around the gills on a diet of water and saltines but hey it’s character building and that’s what he’s here for anyway. Best way to put a few hairs on your chest. The expected weather slams us; Bushy had it all under control, good man to call the shots. Tom, Elton and I brave out a watch with constant 30+ knots of wind with gusts accelerating the boat with every blast. Totally exhilarating! Elton’s screaming with joy again, I love to play my harmonica to the wild wind and Tom’s hanging on like a sea-bot (he likes to draw robots). Then the rain hits and hits, 2hours of torrential rain & wind.
To finish off the tail end of the storm the rain suddenly stops, I’m on deck by myself and witness the most amazing lightning show I’ve ever seen: massive w’s slashing across one side of the boat and a separate bank of lightning spewing into the sea directly in front of us lighting up the whole sky with violently angry clouds. We charged forward and both banks of lightning and thunder passed on either side of us and in the space of half an hour the clouds lifted, the stars came out, the full moon poked it’s head out and there was only a slight charge still left in the clouds barreling off into the distance for Steve and Bushy to enjoy on their change of watch.
And then………………….


What never ceases to amaze me about ocean voyaging is that conditions change constantly. One minute you’re being thrown around and next the winds gone motors on and it’s time to do on -the- road maintenance. Everyone gets into the routine of watches and chores, we all share duties of cooking, cleaning and catching up on the sleep missed during heavy weather. Fishing lines go out, a constant lookout is maintained and expectation is high for the wind to come, after all this is a sailing vessel and everybody’s hungry for more.

Our Bahamian brother Elton is self designated fisherman; he seems to have a bit of a bloodlust in his eyes, a man of many surprises who would eat a whole cow if we had one on board, man the guy can eat, should be a linebacker. First fish is caught which The Boys manage to butcher instead of fillet, blood & guts everywhere, we have a bit of a learning curve here, nothing like youthful exuberance. The fish is to eat but not to forget to take liver samples to later send to Miami to analyze, every bit of information is important, the water analyzing meters are constantly running and data being sent back to the States. If more boats had this simple equipment on board we could understand our oceans so much better, knowledge is awareness.

We take advantage of motoring and have great day fishing. We finish off with an amazing fight with a striped tuna, in Spanish: UN lisado. An ocean warrior. The freezers full so the lines go away.

This is a day of calma chica (dead calm) love that saying ,so we stop the boat put the spinnaker pole up, rig a swing and go for a swim with 5000 metres of water under us, beautiful. Next act enter stage left a good size pair of whales come up to Sea Dragon for a look, one and all were amazed, who needs discovery channel or you tube when you’ve got it all on the doorstep so to speak.

Let’s get back to Tommy our new ex green crewmember.

In the last days since leaving the good ol’ US of A he has:

Been able to drink beer in a bar being the legal age limit in the Azores Islands in the middle of the Atlantic.

Vomited in the Atlantic Ocean

Helmed a 72ft open ocean racing yacht in 30 knot winds and 12 ft seas

Seen Dolphins in the wild

Witnessed thunder & Lightning

Seen the Green Flash at sunset (yes it does exist)

Seen florescence flowing down the side of the boat at night (magical)

Swam in the middle of the ocean with 5000metres of water below

Seen Whales lazily swimming by

Cleaned the heads (toilet)

Caught fish

Get woken up at 3 am and made to sit outside to look at the stars and full moon (and for boats)

Tidy his bunk (I’d like to see his bedroom at home)

Witnessed plastic floating by in the middle of nowhere.

What, plastic in the middle of nowhere: true, bloody amazing, but true. Bushy and myself, the most experienced aboard are amazed at the plastic in the ocean after doing our first plastic trawl. When we were swimming plastic is constantly floating past, you just don’t realize until you stop and look. Cruising at 7 knots you just don’t see it.

We are now 28 hours out from Mindelo, Sao Vicente in the Cape Verde, the wind is picking up and soon the Donkey will be put to bed (engine off) and we can sail into our new port of call which just happened to be where Jacques Cousteau did most of his initial diving and testing with Calypso and his groundbreaking bathyscaphe immersions. We will be conducting interviews with local divers, authorities, conservation groups, conduct beach transects, dive, prep the Sea Dragon for the next long leg of 2800 miles to Ilha Grande; a utopian paradise, free of cars, 80 miles or so south of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the land of sun, health and samba.

Expectations are high for a cold beer (dry boat when sailing) in Mindelo. Just as I’m writing the wind has picked up, it’s 5 am, time for action.

It’s now an hour and a half later Steve, Tommy and myself have poled out the jib, the main is right out with a preventer on and we are running wing and wing @ 8 knots, Mindelo is now an E.T.A of 25 hours. Tommy has proved a quick learner and gets the idea of what to pull when. The boys have got their heads down, change of watch. Capn’ Bushy and Elton are in charge now, so it’s time to turn in.

To be continued………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….