The '09-'10 Adventure Series:
Experience daring adventures without even leaving your seat!
Each month, October through April, features a different speaker with topics ranging from documenting glacial melting in India and riding America's longest mountain bike route, to swimming with piranhas and sailing around the world. Learn about these experiences from individuals who took risks to pursue an adventure or a personal goal.
 | RIDING AMERICA'S LONGEST MOUNTAIN BIKE ROUTE |
SWIMMING WITH PIRANHAS AT FEEDING TIME
with Richard Conniff
Tuesday, December 15
in the River Room at Seamen's Inne
Award-winning nature writer Richard Conniff sits down with African wild dogs and lets them sniff his neck to test the idea that they are vicious man-eaters. He sticks his hand in a fire ant mound. He flings chicken carcasses into piranha-infested waters to clock how quickly they disappear before diving in himself. Wherever these ill-advised journeys take him, Richard reveals littleknown truths about various exotic species of animals and debunking myths about others.
ALASKA, MY HOME
with Jack Dalton
Thursday, January 21
in the River Room at Seamen's Inne
Jack Dalton is a professional storyteller, writer and teacher who was born in Bethel in 1972, and five days later he was flown to Anchorage to meet his new, adoptive family. Years later Jack went back to Hooper Bay, considered an at-risk community, to find his birth mother and discovered the roots of what he was meant to be -- a storyteller, like his grandfather. Jack shares how he has carried on his grandfather's tradition of passing on stories from one generation to the next, teaching moral and cultural details about the Yup'ik culture.
ON THIN ICE
with Thom Pollard
Thursday, February 18
in the River Room at Seamen's Inne
Seventy-five percent of the world's fresh water is stored in glaciers, but scientists predict that climate change will cause some of the world's largest glaciers to melt completely by the year 2030. Thom Pollard trekked with Conrad Anker and David Brancaccio to the Gangotri Glacier of the Himalayan Mountains in northern India to document its rapid retreat. The glacier is the source of the holy Ganges River. Religious pilgrims travel from near and far to bathe in its pristine, albeit icy, waters. Thom's presentation will play never-before-seen clips of the expedition, which met with mystics and yogis, scientists and pilgrims alike.
IF YOU'RE EVER IN THE AMAZON...
with Bob and Ami Green
Thursday, March 18
in the River Room at Seamen's Inne
Blue-water sailors, Bob and Ami Green, returned to sea in 2005 after a three-year hiatus caused by the loss of their yacht, Scallywag. The Greens left Rhode Island on Scallywag II bound for the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Three years later, the couple sailed home on the roads less traveled. With stops in Cape Verde, Senegal and the sensual land of Brazil, they ended their voyage with a thousand-mile cruise in the coffee-colored waters of the Amazon River -- a glorious cacophony of sights, music, sounds and stories.
RACING AROUND THE WORLD, NON-STOP AND ALONE
with Rich Wilson
Thursday, April 15
in the River Room at Seamen's Inne
The 60' sailboats of the Vendee Globe depart every four years from Les Sabled'Olonne, France, and race 28,000 miles around the world. Thirty racers were on the starting line in November 2008, including Rich Wilson from Marblehead, MA, the only U.S. entry. Nineteen skippers dropped out along the way, but Rich finished the grueling race 9th of 11 finishers after four months at sea. The race's senior skipper at age 58, Rich's finish is a testament to his excellent seamanship skills, deep determination, careful planning and prudent execution.