I thought i had seen many people faring outside the beaten track, with a bold attitude and amazing exploits. Well I hadn't come across Lucy Gilliam yet...
"Dr Lucy Gilliam is a Founder and Director of New Dawn Traders, a partnership of Artists, Scientists, and Chefs re-imagining global trade by sail while promoting the concept of ‘slow food’. Lucy is a Microbial Ecologist & Soil Scientist, having previously worked as a researcher at Rothamsted Research and as a science advisor for Defra. Lucy is passionate about food & cooking, biodiversity & nature, sailing & the sea, activism & storytelling for a greener cleaner planet, which combines in New Dawn Traders perfectly."
She is always at sea. Popping up on our social media streams from the most diverse locations, Lucy keeps us posted with her live journal.
" am passionate about inspiring people to take action to improve their environmental footprint. I’m also a real foodie and I love to invent new dishes, cooking for friends and family. I grew up in the countryside on a small holding and have lived for years on boats. Living with a close connection to open space, water and the sky is very important to me. I believe that diversity of food is key to both our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of our beautiful home, our one and only planet earth".
Here's the last message she sent me, in the new year:
I'm collaborating with oceans conservation expert Emily Penn and her company Pangea explorations to do an all women's crossing of the Atlantic on the scientific research yacht Sea Dragon. We are assembling a kick ass crew of 10 women and we will be participating the the UNESCO annual Atlantic Odessey race from the Canary Islands to Martinique in the Caribbean. As we race we will be sampling for ocean plastics. We hope to create an exciting conversation space to discuss women's health, pollution, plastics, and the products we consume. We are collaborating with breast cancer charity, Coppafeal to in particular raise awareness of escalating breast cancer rates in young women.
Evidence points to a number of endocrine disrupting chemicals that could be the cause. While there are no clear answers we would like to raise awareness and challenge behaviours."
You can join this crew from November 14 to December 5, 2014
Depart: Lanzarote, Canary Islands Arrive: Martinique, Caribbean Length: 22 days Focus: Atlantic Crossing studying ocean toxins (all female team)
For further information see the PanExplore Project here, an all girls transatlantic expedition.If you can't join the crew but want to support this project, you can provide them with PR, launch events, website design and real time media connections, live from the boat.
Connect with Lucy on her Social Media channels:
Linkedin: uk.linkedin.com/in/lucygilliam
Twitter: @LucyGilliam