Everglades USA Exped – Day 1

November 13th, Blog by Dan Cullum, 19, New Zealand

For many of the Young Explorers on board, it was our first time seeing and being on board Pangaea. We arrived late last night at Bahia Mar Yachting Club in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and as we walked along the dock and saw the words ‘Pangaea’ written on the bow of a large boat at the end of the dock, we knew the expedition had begun.

Scrubbing the decks and removing rust from the railings were the agenda for this morning, followed by a boat safety talk from Mike, and then a sailing configuration session, taught by Tristan. All the Young Explorers are a little nervous and excited about our first sail tomorrow morning, we have all been told that a lot is expected of us and that we should be able to work all the equipment we learnt about today when Mike asks us.

We also learnt that a few days ago Pangaea had lost her anchor in Port Everglades and that we were going to spend the afternoon retrieving it. The GPS location had been recorded and once we were at the location, six of the Mike Horn Team went diving looking for the anchor. The Young Explorers were all watching from the boat, keeping an eye out for the divers and where they may appear. It took about 4 tries of the team to locate and retrieve the anchor which took the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening.

After seeing all the diving being done today, the Young Explorers are looking forward to the diving that we will experience on this trip, and all the beautiful things that we will see.

Leaving tomorrow morning, the harbour, the safety of the port; this is it, the moment we’ve all been waiting for!