Solo: Lost at Sea

This documentary chronicles Andrew’s journey Solo: Lost at sea by incorporating video footage which survived in his camera’s memory stick and including interviews eith his teammates during his expeditions. Andrew made his second attempt at crossing the Tasman Sea on 11th January, 2007 after failing the first time in December 2006 due to his inability in keeping warm inside the cockpit.

The film starts with the distress call that Andrew made on February 9 and the search for his body ended on 12 February after his partly flooded kayak was found on 10th February 30 nautical miles from jis destination Milford sound.

The sleeping arrangements at sea involved deploying a sea anchor, squeezing the body down into the kayak and sealing the hatch with a bulbous fiberglass capsule fitted with an air-only ventilator which, with its self-righting capabilities, made it possible to ride out the most severe storm conditions that are inevitable in that part of the ocean. Unfortunately, when the capsule was pivoted to its stowing position behind the cockpit, it made it impossible to kayak roll due to being filled with water like a bucket. Therefore, whenever he capsized, he had to swim out of the kayak, push it upright and perform full self-rescue.

When his kayak was recovered, only this capsule was missing. It was presumed to have been torn off by a freak wave. One of its pivot arms had already been damaged. Veteran sailor Jonathan Borgais, who was directing the expedition by providing weather predictions, explained: “From the beginning, my biggest concern was the approach to New Zealand.

And this part of New Zealand is notoriously dangerous. On a good day you can get rogue waves: a two or three meter set that can come out of nowhere. Not big, but powerful. That’s very dangerous. I have no doubt that a wave got him.”

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