Tori Holmes, a 21-year-old from Alberta, and Paul Gleeson, a 29-year-old from Limerick, Ireland, met in Australia when Holmes answered an ad to drive the support vehicle for Gleeson's 5,000-kilometre cycling trek across that country. During their first adventure together, Paul fell hard: both off his bike and for the woman driving the car.
It soon became clear that crossing a continent together was simply not enough. Acting on self-assured determination and an ever-growing sense of adventure, Paul and Tori embraced the dream of rowing a tiny boat across the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean in the 2005/06 Trans-Atlantic Race. Of course, neither of the young adventurers knew how to row.
In November 2005, after months of training, Paul and Tori left the Canary Islands to row 4,800 kilometres across the Atlantic. They completed their epic journey in February, after 86 days of huge seas, violent storms, terrifying capsizes, unbearable thirst, bizarre hallucinations and sleep deprivation. Along the way, however, during one of the darkest moments in the race, inspiration came in the form of an unseen, yet completely perceptible, presence. Old seafaring lore has several theories as to what this might have been, but both adventurers are keeping their minds open on it.
To hear the entire story please join us for this rather unusual presentation.
All meetings take place at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, 3475 Ripon Road, Victoria.
April 20: Doors and no-host bar open at 1900 (7:00pm); meetings start at 1930 (7:30pm)
Cost: $3 BCA members; $10 non-members
http://www.bluewatercruising.org/
