Guest entry from Andy Byatt and Family
- 28 Nov 07, 05:20 PM
Natural history film maker Andy Byatt took the ambitious step last year to travel around the world with his family aboard L’Aventura a Catamaran. Along the way he is recording his experiences and when he comes back we hope to feature these tales of wildlife and high seas in a radio programme, in the meantime he managed to get to an internet connection and just about get past the ±«Óătv email firewall/limit shenanigans to send us a blog entry or two, facinating stuff, they set off almost a year ago, over to Andy!
Remember Rutger Hauers classic scene in when, as a dying replicant in his final moments, he recalls the highlights of an extraordinary life with his adversary Harrison Ford? He says something to the effect “You can’t imagine the things I’ve seen, starships burning off Orion…” As he utters his last words you glimpse a brilliant universe far beyond the scope of normal human life.
Well, some of the wonderful marine life here on our planet seems equally otherworldly and equally beyond the reach of normal life. I remember striped scything past me in Mexico, flash light fish twinkling in the dark of a New Caledonian night, gray whales gorging in fresh ice leads in the constant day of the arctic night. With moments like these, I realise just how extraordinarily fortunate I’ve been to have travelled and dived widely during my film making career.
Not only have I been able to experience some remarkable oceanic wildlife, I’ve also been able to craft films to share those moments with people all over the planet. And it’s my aim to keep making those films so we understand just how precious the ocean is and work harder to safeguard it for future generations.
This is a driving mission to have but it has a flaw – no matter what I have done, my family has always stayed at home, in the seemingly endlessly grey town of Bristol in Western England. It is a pleasant place to live but blessed with extraordinary marine life it is not. After every adventure the sense of guilt when I return home to my family grows – I want them to experience the same wonders and I want my children to be inspired by the magic of the ocean at an early age, just as I was. If they should choose to work with it in the future so much the better but the choice will be theirs.
Alongside all this, I have held a dream for more than twenty years – to sail and dive the world on a yacht.
But no matter how often I thought about going blue water cruising, about the freedom, the excitement, the danger and about how it should be the very thing for me… I never quite made it happen. There was always an excuse – too expensive, time’s not right, won’t help my career, will be too lonely…
Well now all that is about to change. Spurred by a sense of now or never, I’m taking the family sailing. We are together to find our own extraordinary moments on the sea. For the first time my wife and children will live the diving adventures first hand, rather than hear about what amazing thing I just saw.
For my wife, Sue, it is a long awaited escape from the drudge of keeping the home fires burning and more importantly a chance to rediscover her own diving skills – she is a superb diver but hasn’t done one single dive since Iona was born. She is also an inspirational artist and sculptor with a deep love of marine life – and she is looking to new experiences to inform new styles
My daughter Iona is 13 - the age when freedom from the family first starts to call, yet she will be cooped up with the rest of us on a fancy catamaran, heading for the tropics. She has had to leave good school friends, drama classes, shopping malls and her favourite pet rats behind. Of all of us, Iona, has had to give up the most and a safe life she was happy with. She is excited but fears the unknown, so will her strong artistic talents be inspired by the extraordinary marine life we are to see – and will her patience and increasingly independent spirit cope with 24/7 annoying family?
Keir is 11 and he has just discovered a love for fishing. Since that is the very same way that I first developed my passion for life underwater – I am very happy for him to explore his hunting instincts. In the process he will have his first true job because in the days and months ahead – he is the family food supplier.
Along the way we hoping to work with scientists tagging leatherback turtles off Puerto Rico and to see Sperm whales off Dominica. We will film and photograph and paint everywhere we go and my hope is that our progress can start to inspire a younger generation to the magic and uniqueness of the ocean planet.
Comments Post your comment