Sea Gypsies: The Far Side of the World

The vessel is Infinity, a 120 ft hand-built gypsy boat, crewed by a band of miscreants. The journey, an 8,000 mile pacific crossing, from New Zealand to Patagonia, with a stop in Antarctica. Unlike all the other boats heading to Antarctica though, Infinity is no well-financed, ice-reinforced super yacht, crewed by well-paid professional sailors, with carefully thought out agendas. Infinity lives in the moment and sails on a whim, without permission or insurance of any kind. What can to be found in abundance onboard, is blood, sweat, enthusiasm, disdain for authority and an ample supply of alcohol, a mad voyage of reckless adventure just for the thrill of it. Along the way the crew will battle a force 12 hurricane of ice in the Ross Sea, assist the radical environmental group Sea Shepherd in their fight with Japanese whalers, tear every sail they have and unwittingly go further south than any other sailing vessel in 2014. Underlying the dramatic sailing adventure, is the quest for awe and sense of wonder with the raw power of the natural world. It plays out as a witness to the voyage, following a few of the crew on their daily routine from charting their course down to the tiny details of maintaining the boat. The story touches on environmental activism themes, a rapidly diminishing ecosystem and raw adventure, not reserved for the elite.