by Captain Bart de Zwart The South African Wild Coast runs along a rugged coastline of untouched shores and shipwrecks and is one of the most dangerous places of water in the world. Not only are there frequent storms, coming from the South-West, there is also a 4-knots current going against it. This sweeps up the waves…
Life is all about unexpected events but life onboard Discovery exceeded our imagination, taking us on the craziest journeys we couldn’t have even dreamt of. Our final step off Discovery marks the end of an epic adventure and turned out to be yet another story to tell…
As the announcement of The Cabrinha Quest loomed, Pete Cabrinha asked me to write up the expedition’s mission statement. On the surface, operating a five year kitesurfing expedition should be a pretty easy mission. But chasing the horizon, bagging some waves and moving on is a hollow quest and after doing pretty much just that for the last thirteen years, seeing what we’ve seen out there- well this time, the mission goes a lot deeper. And it’s one we’re taking very seriously.
Jody gets another cover and a 17 page spread of her work around the world!
Latest feature of 30 degrees magazine showcases our insane paragliding discovery in 2010 off the coast of Mozambique.
I asked her to do this because I knew I wouldn’t have the words to describe, to explain, to illustrate what the expedition has meant to us, or to those who have joined along the way. Of course photos are only a slice of the picture, a fabulous collage pieced together somewhat magically and very haphazardly as we slowly worked our way around the world. There’s been a plentiful supply of blood, pain, laughter, disappointments, discoveries, and of course moments that are too special to ever try to represent with words.
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A curse and blessing of our times is the speed at which we can move about the planet. I often think it must be terribly hard for our guests to negotiate the distances and logistics required to get to the boat, then get their mind in a place where they can actually really BE on the boat rather than thinking about work, children, pets, bills and all the distractions and nuances of daily life. Then suddenly just as they are getting into the groove, just as those layers of “home” are wearing off and the need to fire up the blackberry or Iphone are beginning to fade they find themselves at the airport and it all comes rushing back in, like a spinning tempest.
National Geographic Adventure Magazine features a paragliding photo taken by Jody MacDonald of our Dune Discovery last year off the coast of Mozambique. Epic find and a very special way to remember such an amazing few days of flying.
Discovery does not hold a lot of fuel. Our range, which is greatly influenced by current, wind and seas, is about 900 miles in perfect conditions, well short of the distance on a standard ocean passage. Our forecast as we left Cape Verde for the 1200 mile trip north showed almost no wind at all. Simple math meant we’d either have to get some wind, or we’d be doing some sitting around in the middle of the ocean. But no wind does have its benefits. For one, Jody actually gets to enjoy being at sea. Usually the passages for her are synonymous with suffering and I too admit that as the years have gone by my indifference to seasickness seems to be wearing off.