THIS is the last haunting self- portrait of Andrew McAuley, a man and his kayak, alone. All around, a vast seascape of emptiness. The green-grey Tasman Sea heaving, the horizon a cruel circle. For 30 days and nights, wherever the Australian adventurer turned his salt-rimmed eyes, he understood his aloneness.
Paddling by day, drifting at night when he slept in a protective cocoon (illustrated below), McAuley, 39, crossed 1500 kilometres of ocean. On Friday, February 9, he was within 30 nautical miles or 54 kilometres of the South Island of New Zealand, close enough to take photos of high mountains.
Some time the next day, he expected to make landfall and achieve a long-held ambition to become the first man to take a kayak across the Tasman Sea. At 7.15pm, the New Zealand Coastguard picked up an almost indecipherable distress signal from a vessel that identified itself as Kayak 1. There were two clear words: “help” and “sinking”. Then silence.
The following evening, his upturned seven-metre kayak was seen from the air. It was recovered but McAuley’s body has never been found, and it is believed he drowned in 15-degree water when the kayak capsized while he was asleep.
Months later, in the wind and wet, Andrew McAuley’s family and friends stood silently as he told them a final tale about the most “full-on” adventure he’d ever had. A tape recovered from McAuley’s kayak after it was found floating empty in the Tasman Sea earlier this month was played at his memorial service in Sydney.
In it, McAuley wonders if he’s “bitten off more than I can chew”, after capsizing in 30 knot winds and huge swells and bailing 100 litres of water from his kayak. His wife, Vicki, told about 500 mourners at the open-air service overlooking the ocean off Sydney’s South Head that some people might find the recording upsetting.
“But to me it demonstrates the real essence of you, it demonstrates what a truly amazing man you are,” she said. The McAuley’s three-year-old son, Finlay, sat up on his mum’s lap as his adventurer father joked and sang while reflecting on the hardships of his ill-fated voyage.
The recording was believed to have been made in the final days of the 39-year-old’s bid to become the first person to kayak from Australia to New Zealand.
“I’ve learned the meaning of the word ‘extreme’, this really is extreme,” he said. “It’s full-on man, it’s fuckin’ full-on. It’s an excellent adventure – provided I make it. “It’s something that’s really out there – it’s more full-on than anything that I ever imagined. “It’s just wild, but it’s a true, true stunning adventure.
“I just hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew.” McAuley went on to say he hoped he would reach New Zealand “really soon”. “Right now I just want it to be over, to be truthfully honest.” he said.
“When it’s all over I’ll look back and I’ll be stoked, I’l be stoked, stoked, stoked that I did it. “I’m looking forward to finishing because it’s hard, it’s hard going, but it’s kinda fun at the same time. “I was quoted in an article the other day as an ‘extreme kayaker’… I guess this makes me extreme, if liking this stuff makes me extreme, maybe I am. “I just like it, it’s, I dunno, better than liking soap operas or something.”
Andrew slept beneath a special constructed dome as illustrated in the picture below:
During the service, McAuley’s father, Peter, brother Michael, sister Juliet and members of the sea kayaking and mountaineering communities recalled a man who lived for adventure. McAuley twice won Australian Geographic adventurer awards. Last year, he paddled 850 kilometres to the Antarctic rim. He paddled across Bass Strait three times and the Gulf of Carpentaria once. He climbed in the Himalayas, Patagonia, Europe and New Zealand.
You can read more about this inspirational adventurer by visiting his website: www.andrewmcauley.com
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A true adventurer. My thoughts go out to his family and friends.
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