Andrew McAuley

Andrew McAuley (1968 - presumed dead 2007) was an Australian adventurer. He is best known for his mountaineering and sea kayaking in remote parts of the world. He is presumed to have died following his disappearance at sea while attempting to kayak 1600 km across the Tasman Sea in February 2007.

Personal

McAuley was born in Goulburn, NSW in 1968. He was awarded Adventurer of the Year in 2005 by the Australian Geographic Society.

Sea kayaking

In 2003, he made the first non-stop kayak crossing of the Bass Strait. In 2004, he kayaked across the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 2006 he led an expedition in the Australian Antarctic Territory where they paddled over 800 km within the Antarctic Circle.

Crossing the Tasman Sea

In December 2006 Andrew's first attempt to cross the Tasman Sea in a standard one-man kayak was aborted after two days due to trouble keeping warm inside the cockpit.

Andrew's second attempt began on 11 January 2007 and ended on 12 February when the search for his missing body was called off following the recovery of his partly flooded kayak on 10 February just 30 nautical miles (56 km) short of his destination Milford Sound.

  Tasman Solo

The sleeping arrangements at sea involved deploying a sea anchor, squeezing his body down into the kayak and sealing the hatch with a bulbous fibreglass capsule (dubbed "Casper") fitted with an air-only ventilator which, with its self-righting capabilities, made it possible to ride out the most severe storm conditions that are inevitable in that part of the ocean.

Unfortunately, when the capsule was pivoted to its stowing position behind the cockpit, it made it impossible to kayak roll due to being filled with water like a bucket. Therefore, whenever he capsized, he had to swim out of the kayak, push it upright and perform full self-rescue.

When his kayak was recovered, only this capsule was missing. It was presumed to have been torn off by a freak wave. One of its pivot arms had already been damaged.

Veteran sailor Jonathan Borgais, who was directing the expedition by providing weather predictions, explained:

From the beginning, my biggest concern was the approach to New Zealand. And this part of New Zealand is notoriously dangerous. On a good day you can get rogue waves: a two or three metre set that can come out of nowhere. Not big, but powerful. That's very dangerous. I have no doubt that a wave got him.

The documentary of Andrew's journey Solo: Lost at sea incorporated video footage recovered from one surviving memory stick in his camera as well as interviews with people on his team during the expedition. It begins with the distress call he made on 9 February:

do you copy? this is kayak one. do you copy, over?
I've got an emergency situation
I'm in a kayak about 30 kilometres from Milford Sound
I need a rescue
my kayak's sinking
fell off into the sea
and I'm going down

Andrew's wife Vicki McAuley wrote a book, Solo, about Andrew and his final voyage.

In the same summer a specially constructed two person kayak crossed the Tasman Sea at a more northerly route (Crossing the Ditch). The competitive spirit may have played a part in Andrew's determination to make the journey when he did. A song has recently been written about Andrew's final journey by Australian composers Paul Jarman and Phil Voysey, entitled 'Towards Infinity.'

Mountain climbing

McAuley climbed many peaks in Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Patagonia. He preferred to find new routes and make exploratory climbs.

External links

• Andrew McAuley's website (archived)
• News report on coroner's conclusions
• Review of documentary
• (http://www.sthildas.qld.edu.au/index/PAUL%20JARMAN%20BIO%202007.pdf)