Do Well While Doing Good

https://app.frame.io/presentations/83d47900-0c93-44ec-ab70-5be91ecc89e2

This past June I joined with the International Seakeepers Society in support of the Pipers Angels Foundation; "Paddle for a Cure" a Cystic Fibrosis charity. This was an 82-mile paddle from Bimini, Bahamas to Palm Beach, Florida. My sons and I lost their mother, my wife to complications from Cystic Fibrosis in 2018, so the cause has special meaning for us. But the purpose was greater than just the charity event. We partnered with Seabed 2030 to collect bathometric data of the ocean floor. While in Bimini Tony Gilbert and others with Seakeepers installed quite a few data loggers on most of the support vessels making the crossing. All was in-place to incorporate citizen science with the challenge of making the trip across the ocean.

My 33-ft/10m boat "Surface Interval" carried a professional film crew to document the event. The four minute video they produced is linked at the top of this article; certainly worth watching. We were all blessed with a perfect tropical weekend, clear skies and glassy-flat seas. There were just over 120 individual paddlers making the voyage, some of which were true professionals, many were amatures simply wanting to experience the event. Most went in 'teams' such as we did; "Team Seakeepers". All were on the island to support Piper's Angels and raise money and awareness for the insidious genetic disease Cystic Fibrosis.

Our Team Seakeepers supported our paddlers Jay Wade, Zane Wade, Adam Colborne and Dick Seidenspinner. These gentlemen were doing the 82-mile crossing as a relay, each taking an hour paddle before the next would take over. Tony Gilbert, Katie Sheahan, Alex Gilson, (my 13 y/o son) Tristan Thomas and myself provided escort support from Surface Interval. Jack Miller was our cameraman and conducted the interviews and filmed the entire event. While on Bimini we met with the other paddlers, enjoyed some fishing and diving and celebrated the event with the Piper's Angels group. What a brave young lady Piper truly is!

We departed Bimini at midnight June 26th, in the absolute black of night. The paddlers left the beach in groups, ours was the second wave to depart. Night vision was critical for all of our safety as we escorted our paddlers at the brisk pace of 4 to 5 knots! Off to the north we were watching beautiful heat lighting flash across the skies, but we never encountered a storm. It truly felt surreal navigating to specific waypoints as we escorted the paddlers, watching their cylume light-sticks glowing and the ripples from their paddleboard causing an incredible bioluminescence in the water while tracking other boats in the dark by their navigation lights. A slow procession of over 20 vessels were making the trip and spreading out over the ocean was truly an amazing sight.

Six hours into the voyage we experienced an amazing sunrise like no other I have seen in recent or distant memory. The water was like glass with hardly a ripple. The glow of the morning dawn started out as a subtle glow in the east which evolved into a stunning reflection of light off the clouds in the east. This also signaled the end to the coolest part of the trip. With hardly a Seabreeze and the sun moving higher into the sky, all of us were soon feeling the tropical heat! Off in the distance we could still see the navigation lights from some of the other support vessels. Most were lost to sight by this point.

Time slowed down. Tracking to our waypoints while making adjustments to accommodate the paddlers moving at up to 6 knots in the gulfstream. No land in sight for a while as we encouraged our team to hydrate and rest. Most of us had been up for over twenty-four hours by this point in time, knowing we likely had another eight to ten hours to go until landfall. Sleep was found when and wherever possible. We fired up the grill and cooked a lunch of burgers and dogs for the team which seemed like a true culinary luxury.

After a couple hours the high-rises of Fort Lauderdale Beach could be seen off in the distance to the west. Land was in-sight with hours yet to go. On the radio we were hearing of the progress of some of the other teams. We were actually in the middle of the pack! Landfall occurred around 5pm, just over 17-hours after our departure from Bimini. It was an inspiration to see the paddlers stroking in to the beach and running across the finish-line. For the support crew we simply felt satisfied that our efforts were rewarded with the satisfaction of a job well-done, while doing well. Speaking as a professional in the luxury yachting industry I would challenge all that has taken the time to read this article to consider how you may find an opportunity to give back, to support something greater than ourselves individually.

@https://www.pipersangels.org/ #seakeepers #RTYD #yachting #yachtmanagement #winning #yachtlife #jmsyahting