Jasmine
Jasmine will turn 10 during the adventure. She loves swimming, climbing, running, arts and crafts and making new friends. She is the funniest member of the family and regularly has everyone in stiches with her hilarious impressions and crazy dance moves. Her special skill is free diving and she was the inventor of the “underwater lizard” style of swimming. She loves nature and is most looking forward to seeing the giant tortoises in the Galapagos and swimming with seals.
Hugo
Hugo will turn 12 during the adventure. He loves driving the dingy, surfing and SUP’ing, reading and most of all, playing computer games (a skill he hopes to put to good use when flying the drone). He loves playing sport especially cricket and Australian Rules Football and is keen to keep training for both when we get to a suitable beach. His special skill is fishing and in the Whitsundays he caught a fantastic Spangled Emperor which we ate for dinner. He is most looking forward to becoming captain of the dingy called Dung Beetle.
Charlotte (aka Lottie)
Lottie is taking a year off from her role as General Manager for a major Australian supermarket. She has always had a thirst for adventure and travel and sees this as a great opportunity for that and for spending quality time with her family (although time will tell how she feels about that after a year living with a few metres of each other!). Lottie grew up in the UK and moved to Australia in 2005 where she met her husband Alex. Her special skill is being the glue that holds the family together and making everyone laugh and feel loved. She also has a remarkable talent for spotting marine life and is most looking forward to seeing animals in their natural environment, particularly whales, dolphins and turtles, not being in rough conditions at sea, learning to relax and meeting the locals in the various countries we visit.
Alex
Alex is taking a year off from his job as a Consulting Engineer to be the skipper of the good ship Kilauea and in charge of keeping out of storms, avoiding sailing into land and other ships and fixing things while swearing like a pirate. Born in Portsmouth, UK, a city steeped in maritime history, he came to Australia in 2005 where he met his wife Charlotte. He has sailed all his life cruising and racing on yachts and then dinghies and then yachts again covering about 20,000 miles including a North Atlantic crossing which theoretically should make him competent to take on the skipper role although his wife regularly reminds him that he does, in fact, have less formal sailing qualifications than she does. Alex’s special skill is being the butt of the family jokes. He is most looking forward to the beauty and peace of sailing at night, exploring the Galapagos, competing in the Musket Cove regatta in Fiji and watching his family learn to sail and cruise. He is desperate to catch his first billfish having hooked and lost several in the past but never landed one.
Guest Crew – Tom
Tom is a vet, outdoorsman, sailor, cousin to Alex and all round top bloke and will be helping Alex deliver Kilauea from Panama to Florida and then later joining our family again with partner Ceara for the Panama-Galapagos-Marquesas legs.
Sailing Kilauea 