Three capes are not enough | Matteo Miceli | TEDxTrento

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

March, 13, 2015: after he rounded the three capes, sailing for 146 days through the Furious Fifties and Roaring Forties with his sailboat, two chickens and a little garden, Matteo Miceli founders 600 miles away from the Brazil coasts, forced to leave his twelve-foot Eco 40 in the middle of the Atlantic.

Claudio Ruatti: Guys, we're here together
to introduce this man

who became a friend right away,
we already have something in common.

We like the water, we like the wind,
the air, the good wine, the mountains.

That's all!

Matteo Miceli --

A simple sailor,
one who can't be stronger than the sea,

but who can only get along with it.

Let's watch the video.

(Video) Journalist, a new adventure
for the sailor Matteo Miceli.

The Roman yachtsman is going to sail
right across the world with his Eco 40.

Narrator: The Atlantic Crossing
World champion Matteo Miceli,

who was born in Ostia,
but is a citizen of the sea,

is ready for a new adventure
with his Eco 40,

a boat which can reach 28 knots,

built in six years by the sailor,
with the greatest environmental regard.

Matteo Miceli: This adventure will take me
right around the world from Rome to Rome,

without layovers
or any assistance, by myself.

It will take around 5-6 months.

I will leave from Rome,
come out of Gibraltar,

and head toward the South Pole.

I will circumnavigate it,

through the Furious Fifties
and Roaring Forties,

and I'll come back to Rome,
sailing across the Atlantic.

Cape Horn is behind my back, I passed it.

The sea's strength is unbelievable.

The distinctive trait of this passage
is that I wind my clock back of 24 hours,

so I live this day again.

Can you recognize me?

I'm not hanging upside down anymore,

I passed by never-land,
and I'm now going back home.

(Video ends)

(Applause)

Matteo Miceli: Great video, well done.

Claudio Ruatti: Thanks to the volunteers!

The merit is theirs.

Dear Matteo: I'm a little excited,

because you are someone
who would be called here

"a heart with legs"
because you are very spontaneous.

Let''s start from the Shackleton story.

It is a cult, as a metaphor,
for doing business, for team building,

to never give up,
to solve problems, and so on.

You could be a new model,

because of your project,
a 12-meter boat, named Eco 40,

six years of technical arrangements,
and quite a crazy idea:

to circumnavigate the globe alone

only you and your boat,
in an eco-friendly way.

MM: It has been a real challenge,
which lasted long,

without any resources,
right from the beginning.

The only resource was that of the team,

of those who foresaw this project,

and it worked, with great efforts.

Sailing around the world with no layovers,

in complete independence;

no water, no food, no energy,
except that produced by the boat.

It therefore, has been a great challenge,

a special adventure.

CR: Where did this idea come from?
Who inspired you?

Have you seen a film? Read a book?

MM: Shackleton has surely been
one of my first inspirations;

the resilience, will, strength to face
the sea with great respect;

he is undoubtedly a legend of mine,
a reference point back in those days.

But above all, the will grow step by step.

I've accomplished
so many other challenges.

We went through lots of experiences,

many shipwrecks too,
and that makes you dare.

CR: Often the sea is
a striking life metaphor, isn't it?

You go up, you go down, you sink,
and then find a beach.

MM: Sure.

CR: Yet, you decided
to become a true lone wolf,

to leave alone; what was
the drive behind doing that?

MM: It wasn't actually a need,
rather a development.

After I've tried in many voyages,

with the crew, building a team,
competing in regattas,

- that really makes you deal directly
with the energy, the nature,

so it is like challenging oneself.

It was a great trial,

which made me understand
that without a reliable team

you go nowhere.

CR: So you had real supporters.

I guess not only technical
but also psychological and moral ones.

I imagine your mother telling you,
"Hey, where are you going?"

MM: One day, we were doing a presentation,
and my dad raised his hand,

as he was about to ask something,

instead he said, "No, no, four bypasses."

As to say that he was not worried at all.

CR: Then, it comes the time
to realize the great amount of work;

after years of efforts, it's time to go.

What did you feel at that moment?

MM: You feel much, much...

You feel pretty everything, really!

At the departure day
you feel like a million bucks,

you have a lot of worries,

but there's also a lot of people
who supports you.

There were 200 boats, over 3.000 people,

who came in spite of little advertising,

just by word-of-mouth.

It was a great excitement
to slip moorings,

and this is a metaphor, too.

CR: Speaking about slipping,
has the idea of giving in

ever come to mind during the venture?

MM: A ton of problems have happened,

and the team on the land
was much more thoughtful than me.

They said, "Now the autopilot
is not working. Stop! Stop!"

Then, there was a trouble
with the bowsprit,

a pole which holds a sail to the bow,

while I was crossing the Atlantic.

Then the ship's wheels,

a chicken of mine died;

the fair haired.

CR: Maybe you didn't know,
but this man brought two hens with him

and attempted to farm
a vegetable garden during his...

MM: 146.
CR: 146 days of expedition.

MM: A true experience of self-sufficiency,

the energy was produced
only by solar panels,

windmills, and water turbines;
it really was zero impact.

The energy also supplied a freezer
for the fish I caught,

it produced clean water
from a desalination machine,

while the hens and the garden
compensated a little my diet.

CR: I imagine you were
also talking with them,

as it happened in "Cast Away"
with the ball,

"Tonight I'm inviting chickens,
I'll have a dinner with them."

MM: This in an animal
which really becomes like a pet;

most of you had dogs and cats.

Chickens are exceptional.

They even make an egg every day.

(Laughter)

Something not all animals do.

This story makes me smile,

but ancient sailors navigated
with a little garden

- a stern's part is still called
to this day that way -

and with animals,
because there were no freeze-dries,

there were no materials

or other means to store so much food.

CR: Talking of food,
what sideboard did you have?

An enormous pantry?

MM: Essentially, I brought with me

only food, water I produced
during the sailing,

and unfortunately,
due to my scarce fishing in the Atlantic,

and subsequent scarce supplies,

every time I caught a fish and put it
into the freezer, it lasted 10 days.

During my southern sailing
- which lasted two months -

from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn,

there were great winds, and big waves,

waves 15-meter high,
maybe even higher than the theater,

and fishing becomes difficult.

(Laughter)

CR: I think even floating
is a difficult thing!

MM: Yes, but the problem wasn't
that I couldn't hold the fishing rod,

you see, the sea temperature
was three degrees Celsius.

There were icebergs
and many threats, it is not easy,

so I relied upon some freeze-dried food,
which is now used

among alpinists and other adventurers
with much ease.

So, that was the emergency.

CR: Like K-rations.

MM: Exactly, K-rations.

CR: For those who still remember
of the military service.

But in all that, I suppose,
there was some fear, maybe.

MM: Of not making it?

CR: Yes, of really
not being able to make it,

and thinking, "Ow, I guess that..."

MM: Well, there was, in the end,
you saw the video, I foundered.

The ship didn't last.

In the south, I hit a large cable

left by another ship,

and the keel started to move,
it barely worked, until it got lost

and an immediate overturning took place.

At that point,
a series of procedures began,

which have been studied
by the team in detail,

precisely not to improvise a shipwreck.

Even for that there is great preparation.

Everything worked out well,

because, even today,

communication is extremely important
in case of a shipwreck.

Everything went just fine.

CR: Can we say that you have been a bit

a victim of the garbage in the high seas?

How did you find open waters?
Are they polluted?

Let's talk about climate,
now that we are facing this topic.

MM: I must say
that I departed delighted,

looking at the sea,
a joy of cleanliness.

Then in the Atlantic, I had
to climb on the top of the mast,

and there I saw a lot of floating waste,

which you're not able to see
at the sea level, if it's not passing by.

One day, in the middle of the Indian Ocean

- we are talking about the true South,

where icebergs pass by
and no ship navigates -

at sunrise, I found
a boat totally covered in tar.

This means that happens even in our seas,

which is the largest share of our planet,
and sadly we are eating from it.

CR: You've been a witness
of this aspect, too.

If I'm not mistaken, you told me
you were a mobile buoy.

MM: Yes, my university did a great job;

I was the reference point
for the Space Agency

- and I want to thank them again -

for every photo they took.

They were monitoring the icebergs

during my sailing,

and I was a reference point
for the satellite photographs,

which are not the pictures
you see on Google Earth;

those were X-ray photos,
or "radar" photos, you could say.

I was a landmark to them,

and it was a well-done job,

I was given specific instrumentation

so that I could be an oceanographic buoy
during all my sailing,

and this data is really
valuable for the research.

CR: In essence, you did
a kind of sea georeference.

MM: Exactly, which seldom it is done
by letting some buoys out in the sea.

CR: In the video we see
a very ironic side of you

which made everyone smile here.

We have seen you playing a double role,
that of an ogre and that of a calm Matteo.

You must know that he is very active,
also from a social standpoint, isn't it?

MM: I like to do activities

and sailing is really a wonderful means,

it the best
for all less fortunate children,

and for many people that are not lucky.

It is an instrument we use
exclusively for pleasure.

There is no desire of teaching,
no desire of saying,

"Here is how you set it,
fasten the mainsail...", as we say.

There is only the will to hand over
this paramount pleasure

given by the nature,
through the sailing itself.

CR: In the video you went live
and talk to people in an hospital,

have I got it right?

MM: Yes, at "Bambin Gesù" Hospital,
clown-therapy sessions are held,

but recently, for example,

we take the kids to sail,
together with their families,

when they finish
a very heavy chemotherapy cycle.

And that is really fulfilling.

CR: To be outdoor.

MM: It gives back some pleasure
to the family,

which unfortunately, is fixed
with the kid's real problems.

CR: So you take the whole family

to spend together some days.

I would say that this alone
deserves to be applauded.

(Applause)

CR: Let's get back to the shipwreck,

because that is not an easy thing,

not even from
the technical standpoint of a rescue.

You were lucky to be on the route
of other ships or similar.

MM: Yes, I would say that amid
the shipwreck I was really lucky,

because if I had sailed downward,
to the south of the Pole,

in the middle of ice cold,
everything would had been different.

There is no commercial ships
sailing around there.

It happened slightly above the Equator,

very close to commercial routes,

so a satellite radio reception system
instantly kicked in.

We started to communicate
with Rome's operational center,

then we communicated with a satellite,

then the radio, the VHF,

in order to talk with the ship
that was passing by,

and that came to rescue me.

CR: What did you think
when you understood that it was over?

MM: Poor chicken!

(Laughter)

CR: It is floating...

MM: There is not much to laugh
about, because...

CR: There is an emotional bond.

MM: Surely, yes!

It has been my first worry.

The ship rolls over,
and everything becomes dark,

so you immediately rescue it
and place it in a dry place,

then you go looking
for a container for it,

you come back, and is not there anymore,
so in the end it is sad.

CR: You didn't leave
only the chicken though,

you also abandoned
almost your entire equipment.

MM: In fact,

all the work done by the university,

all these data sheets;
we recovered them all,

together with the most part of clothing
that were lent to me;

most of the technical apparel wasn't mine,

so I said,

"Gosh, Al least let's take this home."

CR: I was thinking about swimsuits
and sun creams, but no...

MM: When they come to rescue you,
you have to abandon the ship, for sure;

you even have to move away from it,

because the boat does so much backwash,

that you have to distance yourself,

stay on a rubber boat
and be rescued from there.

It was certain I had to abandon the boat,

but I had the time
to place a tracker on it,

a localizer.

So we even managed to go
there and rescue it.

Bring it back home.

After so much struggle,

we got there after six days of sailing

- on a 1970s wooden fishing boat -

and that really was an adventure,
even more than going around the world's.

CR: I see you are explaining them,
"Look, I'll do the work, take a rest."

This has put back together
your challenge's mosaic;

to recover Eco 40,
bring it back home; is it still there?

MM: Yes, it is still there,
and we hope to put it back in order,

because the project is still
that of clean energy, self-sufficiency,

and involving the youth
is what makes me most enthusiastic about

in these last months on the mainland.

CR: And your excitement
hasn't stopped yet,

I know that year 2016
will be filled with many good news.

MM: Yes, we have a lot of ideas,

and I was pondering over them
already while I was sailing.

I have a strong desire
of doing much more not only sailing.

There is a northwest passage
in the middle of the ice.

It's true that a path opens
due to the melting, a passage forms

from Alaska to Canada, in August,

and we want to sail through it.

Not an easy thing
though an exciting and funny task.

CR: I must say it Matteo.

If this is not having the courage to dare,

I don't know how to describe
Matteo Miceli's challenge otherwise.

(Applause)

MM: Thanks!

CR: Thank you, Matteo!

MM: It has been a pleasure.

CR: Thank you!
MM: Thanks.