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The New South Wales canoe club have set up a trust fund for Andrew McAuley’s family, following his tragic disappearance less than 100km short of his 1,500km solo crossing to New Zealand. If you would like to donate something to help his wife Vicky, and 3 year old son Finlay then the details are below.

I will be donating a percentage of sales from “This is the Sea 3” to the fund, partly because this DVD contains the story of Andrew’s recent 800km journey down the Antarctic peninsula, which he filmed. For every DVD sold I’ll give US$1.50 to Andrew’s family.

With sad timing, this documentary of Andrew’s Antarctic expedition won “best paddling adventure travel story” at it’s world premiere at the Reel Film Festival in Canada last Saturday. The film “Epics in Ice – An Antarctic Kayaking Odyssey” is a fantastic story, where Andrew’s love of exploration and wild places really shows through. The film festival is now on tour across Canada in over 30 different venues. The organisers, Rapid Media, have said they’ll tell people how they can donate at each event.

Here are the details,

Andrew McAuley Support Fund
To make a donation, please electronically transfer funds to:

Account name: Andrew McAuley
Bank: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
BSB: 062505
Account: 10184059
SWIFT: CTBAAU2S (for international transfers)

If you find a wire transfer too cumbersome, you can go to the NSW Sea Kayak Club’s web site and make an online donation using your credit card:

http://www.nswseakayaker.asn.au/

I’ve just had one of the best days surfing I’ve ever had in North Wales.
Clean head-high lines of surf rolled onto the north coast of the Llyn Peninsula all afternoon. We put in at the pretty harbour of Trevor, a place we usually drive past on the way to the ‘proper surf’ at Hells Mouth. Today, most people avoided the pounding unpredicatble walls of white at Hells Mouth and there were cars with roofracks parked all along the road on the north coast of the Llyn. The sun even shone for most of the afternoon and everyone had big grins as we crawled off the water as the sun set. Trevor is usually flat but it’s a great spot when it works, with clean steep lefthanders peeling for a few hundred metres. We started off trying to surf outside the harbour but I got caught in the already broken water on my first attempt and struggled to get off the pounding surf as I was driven towards some nasty sharp rocks. We thought better of it, and moved to a slighly smaller, friendlier, and excellent break in the bay. At this spot, you can take a fantastic clean ride in then paddle back out in flat water and set up for another go.

Despite the fun, I’ve had a shadow hanging over me today as I constantly kept thinking about Andrew McAuley and his family on the other side of the world. I found out last night, UK time, that he might be in trouble so close to the end of his solo kayak journey from Tasmania to New Zealand. I so admire Andrew for living his dreams, for setting himself goals, and methodically and sensibly working towards them. From the few emails I had from Andrew, I have been really impressed with the logical and rational approach he has to challenges – and the guts that he has. It made me feel alive just to read his trip updates every day – which has been the first thing I’ve done every morning for 4 weeks. So Andrew, as I was catching those waves today, feeling the adrenaline surge through my body, I was thinking of you & Vicky, sending you my best wishes and hopes & thinking of how the sea that we love can be so giving and so taking, how it can bring joy on one side of the world and despair on the other. It’s not fair but it’s that unpreditable, untamable beauty that draws us to the ocean.

I hope more than anything right now that you are OK. If it’s possible to send warmth and energy mentally then you’ve been getting plenty of help from all over the world. It must be daylight again in NZ now. My best wishes are with you and the rescue teams.

Ok, here is the world’s first glimpse of ‘This is the Sea 3’. You’re probably not reading this anymore and have clicked the link (!)…. but just incase someone sticks it out then I’ll explain that it shows a few shots from every chapter in the DVD, except for the 40min documentary about Antarctica. You can probably work out which chapter things come from by reading the accompanying text. Just to keep you coming back, I’ll add a separate preview clip of ‘Epics in Ice – An Antarctic Kayak Odyssey’ in about a weeks time. Thank you very much to Derrick Mayoleth who has been slaving away at his computer to put the video on the site ( and about a million other things!!).

In related news, ‘This is the Sea 3’ is already on sale on my website, and on a few other sites. In the next few days, I’ll be introducing a ‘special offer’ on the shopping pages. Buy any 2 DVDs and save, or buy any 3 DVDs and save even more! I will also be contacting shops and distributors this week to make sure that they stock up on the new DVD prior to the launch on 10th March. Feel free to hassle your local shop to stock some – they can email me for details.

If you are based in the UK, then I’ll be showing the UK premiere of ‘This is the Sea 3’ at the Outdoor Show in Birmingham on 17th and 18th March. Well, strictly speaking I’ll be showing some of it because it’s over 2 hours long andmy slots are only 45mins long!! All my DVDs will be on sale and if you are too tight to buy anything ;-)then “The North Face” are making some posters that will be FREE.

Blogger won’t let me post a picture.. I’ll try again later!

Well, phew…. ‘This is the Sea 3’ has flown out of my computer. The editing is over at last!!! I’ll post the master tapes off today and in about 3 weeks time the finished DVDs will arrive ( maybe slightly longer in the States because I have to post a master DVD over there). So now Derrick and I are madly finalising the back cover, and near the top of my long list of things to do is editing a promotional clip which I’ll put on the website in the next few days. For now here’s a photo of a demanding visitor we got to the house today. There I am with my eyes glued to the TV checking the master tapes for any drop-out or glitches and there’s a loud bang on the window. The pheasant who seems to be resident in the garden had decided we had been neglecting feeding him so he came to the glass door to say ‘hey, whatever you’re doing isn’t THAT important. I need some food!’ Alun opened the door and he came right into the house!

I know I don’t often write about general happenings in the seakayaking world, but if you’re not aware of Andrew McAuley’s expedition to kayak from Tasmania to New Zealand then you should check out his website and read the daily reports that his wife has been writing. It’s amazing what he is doing, in little more than a standard kayak. I’m proud to have one of Andrew’s other adventures featured in ‘This is the Sea 3’ – an amazing 800km journey that he made down the Antarctic peninsula with Laurie Geogheon, and Stu Trueman. He got back from that trip last February… he doesn’t sit still for long!! See his blog here