From the very moment the Blue Planet Odyssey was launched at the end of 2012, what has always stood out are the reasons sailors have given for wanting to take part in this event. Topping the list have been a real concern for the environment and a desire to give something back to the remote communities we sail to – which just goes to show that sailors have understood very well the ethos which underpins this unique event.
Southern Route
2016-2017 |
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
| JOYFUL Jeff & Anne Posner |
MAGGIE Rob & Carol Harvey |
NO REGRETS Bill Hickson, Tim Liveright & Zeke Holland |
||||||||
2015-2016 |
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
| BLUE WIND James Bellini |
CHAPTER TWO Pat & Janet Hayes |
COCONUT WOMAN Justin Smith & Meredith Dunning |
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
| DRINA Michael Thurston |
HERON REACH Jerry Schuster & Ginny Malmquist |
LIBBY Terry & Dena Singh |
||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||
| RANSOM Tim & Ceci King |
TAHAWUS Norm Harlow & Klaudia Zayonc |
|||||||||
Northern Route
2015 |
||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||
| ARCTIC MONKEY Lou, Zetty & the Morgan family |
AVENTURA Jimmy Cornell |
|||||||||
2014 |
||||||||||
|
|
 |
||||||||
| AVENTURA Jimmy Cornell |
DRINA Michael Thurston |
SUILVEN John & Linda Andrews |
||||||||
James Bellini S/V Blue Wind
The main reasons for joining the Blue Planet Odyssey are related to fulfill a big dream I have since I started to sail, which is to complete a circumnavigation trip knowing different places, cultures and specially the most paradisiacal sites in the world.
We actually had decided to do that, starting our journey last year, before hearing about the Blue Planet Odyssey. However our boat was not ready in time and we had to postpone the dream for one more year.
In fact this delay came in good time because in the mean time we heard about the Blue Planet Odyssey and immediately identified with its causes. We are very worried about climate changes and its effects in the oceans, as we consider the sea as our main sanctuary.
So, the opportunity to be part of a plan, at least to do something to help future research and maybe finding a way to revert such a dark predicted future for our “way of life” really has encouraged us to go ahead and join the Blue Planet Odyssey.
Blog (in Portuguese): veleirobluewind.blogspot.com
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/veleirobluewind
Also on board: Ruy Rodrigues & Marcelo Lopes
Pat, Janet & Josh Hayes S/V Chapter Two
Janet, Josh (20) and I are excited about the combination of adventure and the opportunity to participate in the Blue Planet Odyssey initiative.
The challenges of sailing a circumnavigation as novice sailors will certainly be an adventure along with the opportunity to raise awareness of the rising tide levels throughout the world.
Also, our group is looking forward to helping with the science experiments and supporting the education of the next generation which we consider our obligation.
We are looking forward to meeting the other sailors involved in the Blue Planet Odyssey journey.
Blog: www.sailblogs.com/member/chaptertwosailing
Justin Smith and Meredith Dunning S/V Coconut Woman
Justin Smith and Meredith Dunning have over 20,000 miles on the water between them, and have been living aboard together for 3 years.
They are sailing aboard their new Baba 40, Coconut Woman, and were recently married in October 2014.
The reasons that brought us to the Blue Planet Odyssey are the same reasons that brought us together in the first place: sailing, education, and helping out in any way we can.
We are particularly excited to play an active role in raising awareness of our changing oceans via interaction with people from around the world, and we look forward to creating a legacy we can be proud of for both our present and future families.
Meredith has partnered with San Jacinto Elementary, Texas & Sokolowski Elementary, Massachusset, USA
Blog: www.coconutwoman.org
Jerry Schuster and Ginny Malmquist S/V Heron Reach
When they first heard about the Blue Planet Odyssey, Jerry Schuster and Ginny Malmquist thought, “How nice for those people!”, but as Ginny prepared for retirement from her career as a counselor, she realized it was now or never.
After buying their first boat, Heron Reach, a 1987 J40, a little over a year ago. Jerry who has always been a build it/fix it person doing everything from R & D on the Apache helicopter to now running the greenest car mechanic’s shop in Washington State completed a complete refurbishment and after 15 months of hard work Heron Reach is fully seaworthy.
We have actively worked to raise awareness about climate change in our community of Bellingham, WA and have been active in our local Transition Movement. Our log home sits on 20 forested acres, 10 miles from the Canadian border and 18 miles from the Salish Sea (aka, Puget Sound).
We will miss being so connected to the land, but we’re looking forward to a completely different and wonderous world on the sea.
Blog: heronreachodyssey.blogspot.com
Jeff and Anne Posner S/V Joyful
Photo: Jan Irons
After years of sailing on the Baltic, Mediterranean, North Sea, Caribbean, and the Atlantic, Jeff and Anne Posner planned to begin their retirement years living on their boat Joyful, a Wauquiez 40, while cruising in various parts of the world.
Our goals were to do good works for others, contribute to scientific endeavors, and support the education of the youth at home and abroad as we cruised. Accordingly, we were absolutely delighted to hear that the Blue Planet Odyssey’s goals are an ideal match with ours.
What sealed our decision to participate in the Blue Planet Odyssey was that Jimmy Cornell was orchestrating the rally. We are looking forward to contributing to the goals of the Blue Planet Odyssey in all ways possible and making lifelong friends of fellow participants and peoples from the countries along the route.
Jeff and Anne have partnered with Round Hill Elementary School and the Good Shepherd.
Blog: missionjoyful.com
Terry and Dena Singh S/V Libby
Terry and Dena Singh‘s Amel Super Maramu Libby is their third cruising sailboat and they have already logged many miles sailing down the west coast of North America and Mexico before returning to their homeport San Diego.
They have wrapped up work and everything else that goes with the transition from North American culture into the cruising world.
We are lining up 1-2 schools now for the education portion of our commitment and are so excited to see what this endeavor will bring to the lives of so many children all over the world. On the side, we are also studying how to produce a documentary of this trip as we are deeply into photography and both of us come from the video technology industry (a.k.a. cable television). This kind of project is a culmination of our lives and careers.
We are looking forward to everything the Odyssey has in store for each of us, especially creating new friendships with everyone involved in the Blue Planet Odyssey.
Dena has partnered with Wildcat Mountain Elementary School, Colorado, USA
Blogs: www.svlibby.com – www.sailblogs.com/member/svlibby27/
Rob and Carol Harvey S/V Maggie
Rob and Carol Harvey are sailing on Maggie, a Passport 470. They started sailing eleven years ago after they both retired.
Sailing was to be both an adventure and an opportunity for continual learning, as well as an opportunity to see some of the world’s great sailing locations. A circumnavigation, however, was only a distant dream. The Blue Planet Odyssey sounded like the perfect opportunity to sail safely in a well organized and planned event with like-minded sailors, including one of the world’s foremost sailing authorities on circumnavigations.
At the same time it would allow us to be more than just tourists. Everyone should be concerned with changing climate conditions and the effect that these are having on many countries in the world and we welcome the opportunity to raise awareness of this issue.
Rob and Carol have partnered with Sam Sherratt Public School, Milton , Ontario
Blog: maggiessailingadventures.blogspot.com
Also on board: Bob Shanks – blog: bobsbpo.blogspot.ca
Bill Hickson, Tim Liveright and Zeke Holland S/V No Regrets
Bill Hickson, Tim Liveright and Zeke Holland formed a boat partnership to purchase No Regrets and plan to merge their combined 75 years of sailing experience into honing the yacht to the sharpest edge possible.
A magical bit of synchrony brought us together and culminated in our registering for the Blue Planet Odyssey. Remarkable were the facts that we had never met, that we lived in different parts of the US, had a fascination for the same catamaran model (the Chris White designed Atlantic 42), had circumnavigation on our bucket lists and… were looking for partners to share these nautical interests.
I guess we could say the Blue Planet Odyssey was the glue, the icing on the cake that made our partnership finally happen. Our additional life long commitment to progressive social and environmental causes has found the perfect compliment to our sailing passion. We are almost beside ourselves knowing that we will have the opportunity of contributing to such a worthwhile mission, which may just shake a few folks loose from their complacent non-activist moorings. In this respect we have begun to draft plans for alerting our communities of the Blue Planet Odyssey and our involvement.
– Zeke has partnered with Lewiston Middle School, Maine, USA.
– Tim has set up links with 2 school in Liberty, Pennsylvania: North Penn Liberty High School & Liberty Elementary School
Blog: www.zekethesailor.net
Tim and Ceci King S/V Ransom
Tim and Ceci King will be sailing Ransom, their 39 year old Hinckley 49’along the Southern Route starting from Norfolk, Virginia and ending up who knows where?
This is the opportunity of a lifetime that many sailors will never have a chance at. Aside from the adventure of it all, raising awareness for how disrespectfully we are treating our oceans (among other natural assets) is important to us. Mother Nature is not pleased. We can’t wait to get started.Thankfully, we have a year to get ourselves and Ransom ready.
P.S. As the Scottish are fond of saying, “Be happy while you are living, for you are a long time dead.”
Blog: ransombpo.blogspot.com
Also on board: Pip Muir & Robert Coles
Norm Harlow and Klaudia Zayonc S/V TAHAWUS
Norm, Claudia and their sons Miro and Martin take drifter buoys onboard TAHAWUS
Norm Harlow is sailing his Amel 54 with wife Klaudia Zayonc and their two sons Miro (11) and Martin (9). The family has been living in upstate New York for some years and are now looking forward to cruising in warmer climates.
“Sailing around the world has always been on my bucket list,’ says Norm, ‘and it is great to be able to expose the children to this experience. Also I hate bureaucracy so having someone else deal with the Canal formalities is wonderful.”
Blog: www.sailblogs.com/member/tahawus/
Lou, Zetty and the Morgan Family S/V ARCTIC MONKEY
We are so excited to be a part of the Blue Planet Odyssey! We are traveling the Northern Route, via Greenland, to hopefully, transit the Northwest Passage in 2015. We will have on board our three girls, Zoe (8), Leah (6) and Rosie, (3), as well as 2 extra crew.
Our boat, Arctic Monkey, is a Garcia Exploration 45- the same design as Jimmy’s Aventura IV.
Louie and I met whilst participating in the Millenium Odyssey in 1998-2000. We fell in love with long distance ocean sailing, (as well as each other!!) in particular sailing to Antarctica and remote islands. From that experience we always knew we wanted to sail to the Arctic and we also knew that we wanted to take our children sailing with us.
14 years and 3 adventurous little girls later, and we are going to realize that dream with the Blue Planet Odyssey. When we heard about it we realized this opportunity was, as Louie would say, “a no brainer”! It combines our passion for sailing with the opportunity to help raise awareness, in both our local area and globally, of climate change and its effect on the ocean.
It is also a wonderful opportunity for our children to see science and school work come to life and put to good work. Zoe, our eldest (8) has been spending a lot of her time learning about Arctic animals and their changing habitat and she is excited to be a Junior Blue Planet Ambassador. As with anything one does with children, we will need to be flexible with our plans, but the whole family (and extra crew) is excited to make an attempt!
Blog: usa51008.blogspot.com
Jimmy Cornell S/V AVENTURA
I have sailed to some of the remotest parts of the globe and have been privileged to encounter some of the most isolated communities.
More than anything else, for me the Blue Planet Odyssey will be payback time. I want to show my gratitude to those people all over the world who have welcomed me and countless sailors with warmth, friendship and generosity.
As this Odyssey calls at places where people’s lives are affected by climate change, we want them to know that cruising sailors care for them and empathise with their concerns.
Aventura, Jimmy Cornell’s new boat built for the challenges of the Blue Planet Odyssey is a Garcia Exploration 45, a boat designed to sail and live aboard both in high latitudes and tropical waters.
She is an aluminium yacht of 13.50 meters incorporating some unique features never seen in a yacht of this type before. Jimmy has already faced the challenges for the Northwest Passage in 2014 on Aventura.
Jimmy’s passion for the ocean and it’s relationship to the environment and its effects has lead to him building a strong relationship with UNESCO who fully support the aims of scientific and research projects undertaken by participants in the Odyssey Events.
Blog: Aventura’s Logs
Also on board: Dunbar Lewis
Michael Thurston S/V DRINA
Michael Thurston of Drina, who took part in the Atlantic Odyssey, met with Aventura in Dundas Harbour, Devon Island in the Artic in August 2014, where he was handed over the Blue Planet Odyssey baton from Jimmy Cornell.
Michael has continued with the aims of the Blue Planet Odyssey science program as he has continued his Northwest passage transit. He is currently in the South Pacific.
See also:
- The Blue Planet Odyssey continued presence in the Northwest Passage
- Blue Planet Odyssey mission in NW Passage continues successfully
- Blue Planet Odyssey yacht successfully completes a transit of the Northwest Passage
John and Linda Andrews S/V SUILVEN
John and Linda Andrews were among the very first to join, and got in touch wanting to sail the northern route before we had even officially launched the Blue Planet Odyssey.
UK based and sailing on Suilven, an Oyster 47, they are already experienced sailors, having most recently sailed the Beagle Channel and cruised extensively in the Caribbean, Atlantic and east coast of South America.
They took part in the North West Passage in summer 2014, unfortunately they had to make a decision mid-August with Aventura to abandon the transit, due to the central section ot the Northwest Passage remaining blocked by ice.
Suilven is named after a remote Scottish mountain (also known as Sula Bheinn).
Blog: blog.mailasail.com/suilven
