Aventura crew
Top row: Nick, Nikki, Jimmy and Marianne,
Bottom row: Nera, Doina, Emily and Jean-Luc
I’m giving our esteemed captain Jimmy a rest from Log writing today so
that I can introduce you to the rest of Aventura’s crew. We have just
finished our first week onboard, with a short trip from Nuuk up to
Aassiat under our belts. There are eight of us onboard, so who are we?
Jimmy needs no introduction. There’s myself, Doina, Jimmy’s daughter,
and my own daughter Nera. Completing our family is Marianne
Aschenbrenner, my cousin. She’s a TV editor from Munich and is filming a
documentary on the Blue Planet Odyssey, starting with the Northwest Passage.
Together we make up the A watch. There are three watches, on for four
hour slots during the day and three hours at night, and we’ve a rota to
share out cleaning and dish-washing duties also.
Watch B is Nick Carter and Nikki Woodroffe. They already have experience
of high latitude sailing having sailed round Cape Horn and led a sailing
trip to east Greenland in 2012 with seven English ex-servicemen and
amputees. Nick has been on Aventura since she left Cherbourg and is
Jimmy’s right hand man, which means as lowly crew members we get a rich
combination of salty English sea dog, just enough military discipline to
whip us civilians into shape, and Jimmy’s wealth of experience and
unfailing commonsense to keep us on track. We’ll be heading off into
dangerous waters soon, and it is nice to have confidence in the guys in
charge.
Watch C hosts a wealth of international talent. Jean–Luc Gourmelen,
well-known French sailing journalist who is writing about the trip and
especially the performance of the new Aventura, adds a dash of Gallic
spice to the mix. Also on Watch C is Emily Penn, and I’ll find it hard
to sum up her achievements in a few words. She’s been working with me to
develop our Blue Planet Odyssey education program, in between her busy
schedule as Royal Geographical Society speaker of the year and Program
Director of Pangaea Explorations. Emily has brought along a trawl from
the 5 Gyres Institute to trawl for plastics in the Arctic Ocean as part
of a global reasearch program.
An odd mix, you’ll agree, and as this voyage proceeds I’m sure you’ll be
hearing more from Jimmy Cornell Sailing Circus.
Doina Cornell
