Pangaea Project with Mike Horn

3:30am: “GRAB THE HOOK!” Mike Horn yells at Tristan. The mizzen sail on the back mast is jammed. The wind is blowing at 40+ mph and we can’t steer. We’ve got to get a hook in that sail and pull it down. We’re surfing down the face of waves, only narrowly keeping the boat pointed in the right direction so we don’t blow over in the nearly 4 meter breaking seas.

Frankly speaking, getting to know Mike Horn and sailing down the coast of China in a 105 foot all-terrain-sailboat with Mike, his crew of two–Tristan and Jacek–and my manager Jerard has already has made me feel more alive in just a handful of days than I have felt in a few years.

10 more photos and additional reports from the road…[click ‘continue reading’]

Middle of the night. Gear is breaking. Tristan stays calm.

Wind blowing at 40+mph and Mike is suspended over water working on the sail.

Mike at full speed.

My creative approach: Artistically speaking, I’m having trouble putting the camera down. These guys–Mike in particular, but Tristan and Jacek as well–are the real deal. There’s no slowing down to get the shot. It’s one speed all the time. And that speed is full speed ahead.

At the helm of the Pangaea.

Mike Horn. Explorer.

Miscellaneous things that make me go hmmmmm:

1. We’ve been out at sea doing 11 knots for several days straight en route from Shanghai toward Hong Kong and I have yet to see another boat that’s not a Chinese fishing boat or a 500 foot cargo boat. I asked Mike why. “It’s not a good idea for sailboats to be in these parts this time of year.”

2. This boat is from the future. It’s a masterpiece. It’s loaded with technology this guy sailed across the Atlantic in a 28 foot trimaran through a hurricane in 19 days solo, with little more than an GPS). The Pangaea is comfortable, but not overly so. It can ram through floating ice in the Antarctic, and is capable of a full beaching on it’s specially designed skids. It’s got redundant systems galore. It has a retractable hull. In some ways, it’s sort of like the boat equivalent of a Range Rover on steroids I’d say. It’s pretty comfortable, but what it’s capable of isn’t really revealed until you’re in action and then it can go anywhere.

Our captain analyzes the gale force winds on the technology.

3. Lastly, although I’m here to create images and video I’ve come to know that the more important reason I’m on this boat is to be inspired by one of the most remarkable people on the planet: Mike Horn. I’ll got into more detail later, but he’s sailing this boat around the world for the 3rd time in two years and taking aboard hundreds of students from around the world…educating them about the planet through experience-based curricula and enabling them to return to their home country armed with stories that might change the way the next generation looks at the world. It’s mind-blowing how inspirational all of this is to me. If you get a second, check out his Pangaea project online here. It is–and he is–simply remarkable.

Panerai Luminor 1950 Submersible Depth Gauge for the Pangaea expedition.

Jacek the engineer.

Dinner.

Mike has lost the tips of some fingers to a life lived without limits.