About / Bio

[ego] Hello there. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and I’m interested independent small business, meaningful living, decentralisation, freedom, non-corporatism, transparency, community oriented economies, creativity, solo sailing, the ocean, risk, and wildness. As of today, I have over 25,000 kilometres of water under my keel – these distances were gathered through crossings of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A 94minute feature-length film has been produced, along with some press on this voyage.

I am the co-founder of Arktisma Pty Ltd, an umbrella company holding the web hosting brand Serversaurus, online bicycle boutique Neverstop Pedalling and the co-working space Electron Workshop. I enjoy micro-philanthropy and am in the Melbourne chapter of the Awesome Foundation.

I hold a bachelor of fine arts from the Victorian College of the Arts, and have exhibited video, photography and installation pieces. I’ve been working with technology and the web professionally as a programmer since 1999.

Sailing from Europe to Australia

On the 17th of September, I departed from Monnikendam, Holland, after a passage from Southampton, England with friends sharing portions of the trip in August, 2007. I sailed north from Vlissingen through the Dutch canal system into Amsterdam, and further on to Monnikendam. After adding a windvane to Constellation, I turned back around, and headed south via the North Sea canal. I hit difficult conditions in the North Sea, and hopped back into the canals for a few days after passing Europort. In October of 2007, I crossed the Bay of Biscay, coast hopped to Lisbon, and sailed for ten days to the Canary Islands in January, 2008. On the 28th of April, 2008, I completed my singlehanded Atlantic crossing, from Gran Canaria in Spain, to Barbados, the Caribbean. After acquiring my US Visa in Barbados, I proceeded north, stopping at St Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe and Antigua. From Antigua I sailed non-stop to Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, where I spent three nights before anchoring at Coney Island, and proceeding through Manhattan and into Long Island Sound.

I spent nine months on Long Island, working on my boat, saving, and trying to figure out how to continue my voyage. Thanks to many great friends and companies such as the Brewer Yacht Yard in Greenport, I was able to fix my boat, and move her over land to California. This overland move was done intentionally, to avoid having to sail back down into the Caribbean and through the Panama canal. Financially it was a 50/50 difference in terms of cost – Either launch, sail to the Caribbean and pay canal transit fees, or haul Constellation overland, and get to experience inside America. I had planned to truck the vessel myself, however the logistics and cost were too hard & costly. I hired a moving company, and along with Jack Rath, who was making a documentary on the voyage, traveled by car across America.

In Berkeley, California, Constellation was relaunched, and pieced back together over a period of six weeks. After a short amount of sailing in San Francisco bay, and spending time with amazing new friends, I continued on to Hawaii. From Hawaii we sailed to Palmyra Atoll, onto Western Samoa, onto Tonga, and then nonstop to Coffs Harbour, in Australia. Hitting financial difficulties, and exhaustion, Constellation was sold, and delivered to Sydney to her new owner. The story is much, much longer than that… Check out the archives of this site to read the real story.

Having sold Constellation, I purchased a new sailing vessel in San Francisco (one of my most favourite cities in the world), in order to have a US/northern hemisphere base to visit and sail in. My new sailing boat is an Aries 32, built in 1984.