editor’s note


How far would you go?


An Audacious Adventure


>> AS SOON AS ANDREW MCAULEY began his attempt to paddle from Tasma- nia to New Zealand, his story jumped off the Internet and into my life on the oppo- site side of the world. Too quickly I found myself editing a story about a tragedy (see “Lost at Sea,” page 40). Andrew’s tale be- came the subject of many conversations with my partner and a gauge by which we measure our own values of security and family and how much we would put on the line for adventure. We are left with Andrew’s recovered kay-


ak, his photos, videos and sound record- ings. One recording is his tired voice speak- ing out of the eye of a storm. There is no tone of regret, just the stark realization of the challenge he’s committed to, out on the edge and not knowing on which side he’s going to fall. At one point he says, “It’s an excellent, excellent, excellent adventure— provided I make it.” Andrew left his wife, Vicki, a stay-at-home


mom raising their three-year-old son, to at- tempt the most audacious of kayak exploits: traversing an ocean alone. He almost made it across the Tasman Sea. But he didn’t make it home. With hindsight there’s a temptation to


come down on one side or the other. Either he was a hero, or he was an irresponsible


6 | | ADVENTURE KAYAK early summer 2007


father. He was brave, or he was selfish. He was meticulous, or he was careless. Some have been quick to judge. “Andrew McAu- ley must qualify for a Darwin Award,” wrote one blogger. There are those who have said worse and those who think they could have done a better job of being Andrew than An- drew himself, as if that wasn’t absurd. The man was who he was. He was the


type who, as I learned watching his movie about kayaking the Antarctic Peninsula, cel- ebrated the end of a gruelling kayak trip in icy waters by stripping down to his under- wear, climbing up the mast of a yacht, kick- ing away at some ice to get a clear launch and leaping into the near-frozen ocean, while his friends looked on wearing down parkas and drinking scotch. There are always a few people like that


among us, and some of the spirit to take those risks lives in each of us to varying degrees. The journey to become a kayaker begins when you stand on the shore and dream of going farther. The greatest things we do begin with dreams like that. We are lucky to have those people who live life to the max. They give integrity and gravity to our dreams. They show that the wildest dreams can be lived, that they have won- derful power—and that they also have con- sequences. —Tim Shuff


PHOTO: BILL STEVENSON/AURORA PHOTOS


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