The Graptoliteers
Martyn Pickup
Former oil & gas explorer and now full-time Skipper of Graptolite. So far so good.
Dan Bendig, Ohio, USA
crewed: Hamble to Camarinas, Spain.
Another oil & gas explorer. Dan can be relied on to bring more enthusiasm to a problem than is really required.
Julian Swarbrick, W Sussex, England
crewed: Hamble to Falmouth. Dodecanese Islands
Worn-out but possibly the most stoical person in England. Manager for a company that blows air into buildings. See below..
Ian Jack, Germany
crewed: Hamble to Figueira da Foz, Portugal
Former Guardsman and world travelling adventurer. Has a business that sucks air out of buildings, apparently.
Lori Evans, Devon, England
crewed: Figueira da Foz to St Lucia
Former dealer in antiquities now solicitor and lecturer and trainee sea gypsy.
Tom Pickup, Surrey, England
crewed: Cascais to Faro, Portugal, St Lucia to St Vincent Grenadines, Cairns to Darwin Australia, Turkey
Four tours of duty for Tom aboard Grapto since departure.
Ian Crabtree, Lancashire, England
crewed: Las Palmas to St Lucia & St Vincent
Nuclear Power Engineer. The disgraceful selection of T-shirt in Ian's last photograph is thought to be to discouraging serious sponsorship. So here is a safer one. Photo air-brushed to make him look pretty, obviously.
Liz Crabtree, Lancashire, England
crewed: Las Palmas to St Lucia & St Vincent
Vet and fortunately underemployed Ships Medic. after three weeks at sea was transformed from looking pale and consumptive to being a bronzed goddess.
Colin Laidlaw, Kilt-owning Scotsman but now Llanelli, Wales
crewed: from St Lucia to Cairns, Phuket, Thailand
Colin turned out to not be a loose cannon after all and we came through some scrapes (Aruba, Panama etc) where lesser mortals might have given up and gone home. After missing out most of southeast Asia Colin came back for a trip to the Maldives.
Shinichi (Shin) Terasawa, Nagano, Japan
crewed: from Cristobal, Panama to Galapagos.
A Samurai of sailing. He's got the hairstyle anyway. Shin crewed on a Japanese catamaran on the ARC and now making his way home across the Pacific.
Dixon Cole, Virginia, USA
crewed: Panama Canal transit.
A Yacht Club Manager given a ride to Panama City at the end of three-weeks of crewing on other boats. Talks at a volume that is safest outdoors.
Stig Pedersen, Denmark and USA
crewed: Panama Canal transit.
A retired Optometrist living the dream on on the Caribbean side of Panama. Fancied seeing the Canal for the first time from the deck of somebody else's boat.
Heiki Richter, Berlin, Germany
crewed: from Galapagos to Darwin, Cyprus to Italy
A former lawyer and long-term resident of Grapto having made the trip all the way across the Pacific. There is rarely a dull moment when Heiki is around and she lets nobody leave any site unseen or activity untried without a struggle.
Belinda Jones, Brecon, Wales
crewed: Tahiti and Society Islands, Fiji
Brought onboard for holidays, primarily to stop Colin going AWOL and back home. 'Pretty Belinda' being here saved Colin a huge amount of money on the phone calls he made to her to give the impression he was really still around and not having a good time in the Pacific.
Jean Collins, Cairns, Australia
crewed: from Tahiti to Tonga
A retired Social Worker from Queensland. Jean claims to be Australian but is originally from Indiana, USA. Maybe it was a navigation error.
Duncan Pickup, Warnbro, Western Australia
crewed: from Cairns to Thursday Island
Long-time estranged sibling of the skipper and marine engineer. Had to remain below deck fixing things for much of this trip but he's used to that from the Navy.
Kwok Leung (Leon) Lee, British Columbia, Canada
crewed: from Darwin to Bali, Thailand
Computer Technician and experimental Cantonese chef on a backpacking World Tour. Did Darwin to Bali and then then returned for Thailand to Sri Lanka.
Eduard (Eddie) Dietz, Westerstede, Germany
crewed: from Darwin to Bali
Social Worker and sometime backpacking itinerant Pearl Fisherman
Zack Ferbrache, Guernsey, Channel Islands
crewed: from Darwin to Bali
Party Animal and Pearl Fisherman going with the backpacking flow.
Aurelien Ferre, Britany, France
crewed: from Bali to Singapore
Physiotherapist touring from Bejing to La Reunion
Fanny Jossen, Geneva, Switzerland
crewed: from Bali to Singapore
Physiotherapist touring from Bejing to La Reunion
Bonnie Pinzel, New York, USA
crewed: from Bali to Thailand
Laywer and global hitchiker. Another lawyer. What am I doing?
Jacqui Clemson, Surrey, England
crewed: UK and Maldives
Grapto Shorebase and long-time acomplice in crimes and misdemeanors involving the partaking of strong drink
Mike Barker, Surrey, England
crewed: UK and Maldives
Tango-ing spouse of Jacqui and fount of all yachting knowledge.
Tim Relton, Sheffield, England
crewed: from Maldives to Aden, Yemen
Tim is an old University friend and fellow Newcastle Brown Ale survivor. We did some reckless and death-defying rock-climbing together in the Himalayas over 30 years ago when we were young and indestructible. Since then he has been missing, presumed dead and only recently discovered by anthropologists to be living in Yorkshire.
Steve Rowlands, Liverpool, England
crewed: from Maldives to Cyprus
If you are going to be stuck for months battling headwinds in the Red Sea then there is nothing better to have around than Steve's scouse humour, skills in the galley and unflapability.
Sarah Clokie, Kingston-upon-Thames, England
crewed: Dodecanese Islands, Greece.
Another University friend although this time the University of Surrey when I was much older and wiser. Sarah plays the ukelele and is a keen solar-eclipse watcher. And obviously is as mad as a box of frogs.
Brian Wernham, London, England
crewed: Dodecanese Islands, Greece.
Another ukelele player. Has fetishes about kitchen paper towels and porridge but he's mostly harmless.
John Chew, Lancashire, England
crewed: Dodecanese Islands, Greece.
John is another very old friend going back almost 40 years. Who could have expected these pimply youths to both become Captains (of Industry, and my case, of a tatty boat)
Last Update 23/03/2011
