Sir Peter Blake

It now appears that the great New Zealand yachtsman died trying to defend his crew.

By way of tribute to the great man we would like to publish part of Peter Blake's last log on his company website www.blakexpeditions.com where he explains his motivation for the most recent mission - to protect our environment - as well as the means to get there, a philosophy he so successfully applied to his yacht racing campaigns.

"The environmental messages that we from time to time become quite energetic over, apply all over the planet, not just the Amazon.

The quality of water and the quality of life in all its infinite forms are critical parts of the overall ongoing health of this planet of ours, not just here in the Amazon, but everywhere.

With nearly 50% of all of the peoples of the world now living in towns or cities, we wanted to begin the process of bringing back the appreciation of nature that may be missing from many daily lives: - wake / car-bus-train / office-factory-school-supermarket / car-bus-train / home / television / bed.

We want to restart people caring for the environment as it must be cared for.

And at the same time we want to do this through adventure, through participation, through education and thru enjoyment.

The 2 X 1 hour television documentaries about our 3 months in Antarctica are now finished and about to be shown in many countries.  If you received our Antarctic Logs, or have gone back in time on our web site, we hope you will feel that you were also part of it.

Right now our film crew is with other members of blakexpeditions, descending from a mountain climb in the Venezuelan jungle-this to form the second part of our series on the Amazon - part adventure, part educational, part environmental, but also fun.

We work closely with the United Nations Environment Programme: their messages are our massages, but formed and transmitted in our own way.

We work closely with Omega - the Swiss timing company who are instrumental to our being able to operate. And the Omega people also firmly believe in what we all want to achieve, even if the top of the environmental awareness mountain that we are endeavouring to climb is out of sight through the clouds right now.

We have support from many companies and individuals - we can never thank you enough. It is great to know that you also care.

To win, you have to believe you can do it.

You have to be passionate about it

You have to really "want" the result - even if this means years of work.

The hardest part of any big project is to begin.

We have begun - we are underway - we have a passion.

We want to make a difference.

We hope that you and as many of your friends as possible will join us.

All the best from the blakexpeditions team onboard Seamaster and in Venezuela.

Kind regards

Peter