It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll

It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll

Monaco 2015

ACDC, is Australian, and so am I, I heard them perform in Adelaide, in an enclosed concert hall, and I couldn’t hear properly for days after.

But those hard rock guys and I have a few things in common, and the same with the song.

When you want something so bad, when you dream, formulate and plan for success the road to the top is dam long, and hard.

I could never have thought, that when I first started going to Antarctica in 2003 and seeing this unbelievably pristine continent, that it’s poorly surveyed and charted coasts would be the reason why I am now here in Monaco in 2015, with my boat, and with a plan.

We proved, though we were told that it’s impossible to use a sailing yacht to conduct official hydrography using latest technology multi beam sonar. We were told that we are just playing a game, and that hydrography can only be done by official offices, normally the navy. We were told that post production and certification takes years, and on all of these cases we proved the critics wrong.

Yes we learnt a lot, but to every success there is lessons to be learnt, mistakes that were made, and improvements realised, but the underlying fact is there is a very real and proven story of success here, and that ships are already using new charts of Antarctica.

Now after two years of work, the continuation and a much bolder project of oceanographic and hydrographic endeavour sits on the table, it has been presented far and wide, to governments, technology companies, science institutes, marine manufacturers and benevolent foundations. There is a massive amount of support for this new project called “Fathom” a 3 year, potentially twin circumnavigation of the globe in both hemispheres that will collect high quality 3 dimensional imagery and data of the sea floor which can be used for official chart production and marine science research.

Sounds like a good project. With the backing and support of many, with 70% of all the equipment, vessel and technology, there is only one part left to find, The Money !

Expeditions to the corners of the world, for discovery have for hundreds, if not thousands of years have faced exactly the same issues and problems that we do, everyone will tell you how important and valuable your project is. But few will open their wallets and pay the small price that comes with new discovery in this world, discovery that will be remembered for the next hundred, well possibly thousands of years.

Monaco, may not be the first place you would think one would go to find funding for a serious project, well the Monte Carlo casino would be a gamble, but the reality is that the Prince of Monaco and through his family history, the Grimaldi’s,  have for over 100 years been supporting oceanography and hydrography.

There is now on the table our project for their consideration, and just maybe, possibly, we can get the support to continue the discovery of this world that we all very much take for granted as being known.

Stephen