Team Adventure seeks teacher crew for voyage to Bahamas
by Keith Taylor 15 Mar 2001 16:28 GMT
Skipper Cam Lewis is looking for two school teachers to crew aboard the 110-foot catamaran Team Adventure on "The Route of Discovery" transatlantic passage, retracing the course Christopher
Columbus took on his voyage to the Americas.
The search for two qualified teachers to communicate daily from the big catamaran with students on both sides of the Atlantic is being conducted by Monster.com, the world's leading global online careers site and the major sponsor of Team Adventure. To view the job listing, go to www.monster.co.uk and use the search words "schoolteachers ahoy." The closing date for applications is Monday, March 19.
WBUR Radio's web site in Boston is planning a pilot program with a school in Chelsea, Massachusetts, while National Geographic TV and Boating Today will each cover the voyage and for television specials. The British web site Now.com will also cover the crossing.
Team Adventure is still competing in The Race of the Millennium, in third place. She was 2,600 miles from the finish line in Marseille today. After finishing next week, and following a brief refit, the mega-catamaran will sail to Cadiz, Spain. From Cadiz she will set out on the 3,885-mile
transatlantic voyage to San Salvador Island on the southeastern extremes of the Bahamas where Columbus first landed.
The modern tradition of the "Route of Discovery" was established in 1984 with a sailing race from Spain to San Salvador. Columbus and his three ships, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, had departed Spain in 1492 from Porto. Like Columbus and the other sailors who followed him, Team Adventure
will sail via the Canary Islands.
The Finnish Swan 651 monohull sloop Fazer Finland won the first race over the "Route of Discovery" course in 1984. Twelve years ago the 75-foot catamaran Jet Services V set a record of 12 days 12 hours for the east to west passage. Last year, Club Med, a sister-ship of Team Adventure's and the
winner of The Race, logged a new record of 10 days 14 hours during her qualifying voyage for The Race.
Skipper Cam Lewis is not looking for any sailing records on this voyage, but he and his crew will be concentrating on Columbus' records. The big cat, with its broad trampoline decks, and its extensive satellite communications equipment, will be a platform for documenting and communicating via streaming video, photos and text, the sights and sounds of a modern ocean passage. Using extensive records from Columbus' voyage, the crew and the guest teachers will look for similarities and changes over the intervening 500 years.
"Using all these modern communications tools we are able to make history, geography, mathematics and physics exciting and interesting," Lewis said. "In today's world, using adventure is a great way to motivate, interest and engage students, thereby teaching fundamental skills."
One member of the crew will be a writer who, along with the teachers, will chronicle the day's events, both then and now. All of this information will be posted on the Team Adventure website and students will be asked to answer questions, plot positions, and develop interactive chat-sessions with the boat.
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