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A Young Explorer from Monaco

2012-01-19 18:44

Alexander Minder, a student at the International School of Monaco, has been selected for the Young Explorers Program created by world famous adventure explorer and environmentalist Mike Horn.  If he successfully completes a ten-day training camp in the Swiss Alps, Alexander and eight other young explorers will join Mike on an exploratory voyage down the Amazon River to publicize ecological concerns there.  In this article, he tells us the story of how he was bitten by the exploring bug.

I was 11 years old the day the boat pulled into the Monaco Harbor and docked directly in front of my school. A sailboat, double-hulled and rugged, that looked somewhat out of place among the gleaming yachts and chic Rivas usually berthed in Monaco's maritime valet parking. It was as if someone had pulled up a 4x4 between the Lamborghinis in the Casino square.

The vessel? The 115–ft. Pangaea. The helmsman? Mike Horn: world-renowned adventurer, modern pioneer, and ambassador of mother earth.

Mike came to Monaco to launch his Young Explorers Program (YEP) in a principality dedicated to protecting the environment. I was a young sailor on the Monaco Yacht Club’s Optimist team, who thought the earth’s resources were as limitless as the seas I sailed.

I have to admit I didn’t know of Mike that day. But along with the rest of my class from the International School of Monaco, I went to visit the boat – one of the coolest I have ever seen. I went back later that afternoon with my family, and I met a man who picked me up in one arm and one of my brothers in the other. Mike Horn, who told me that the name Pangaea meant ‘one world’ and that ‘what we dream we can do!’  It was advice I took to heart and which has changed my life.


^{Alexander and his two brothers, Andrew and Anthony, meet Mike Horn in 2008}

I dreamed, from that very minute, of joining Mike Horn’s Young Explorers Program and travelling on an expedition with him to help save the planet. I started learning everything I could about this real life ‘superman’ I had the incredible opportunity to meet. I read his books and began following him on Facebook. It also inspired me to volunteer for Monacology, an organization under the patronage of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco - dedicated to increasing awareness and public education for the environment.  It is another wonderful channel through which I hope to communicate the YEP message of 'Explore, Learn & Act'.


^{The Pangaea at Port Hercule}

Over the past four years, I followed all the YEP expeditions, which circumnavigated the entire earth, with great interest and not a little bit of envy – always wondering if I could make it. I worried that due to my young age I might not get the opportunity. I wanted so badly to join the amazing people whose adventures I followed and whose leader I so admired. But as the YEP is intended for young adults between the ages of 15 and 20, I didn’t know if I would have the chance.

Fortunately, I turned 15 this past November, just in time to apply for the Amazon expedition – the eleveth out of the total twelve planned. To apply, I had to create a video and I decided to use my sailing experience, acquired over the past nine years at the Monaco Yacht Club. After all, Mike Horn came to Monaco to christen the amazing Pangaea – a great choice as Prince Albert and our principality are dedicated to protecting the environment. In fact, it was Mike Horn who led the Prince on his expedition to Antarctica in January 2009!


^{HSH Prince Albert and Mike Horn at the christening of Pangaea in May 2008}

Soon it is my turn. I leave for the Mike Horn selection camp in Chateau d’Oex, Switzerland on the 30th of January, the day after I get back from representing my school at the Model United Nations conference in The Hague. It's a busy month, as in between I need to find time to study for my exams and also get into shape for what is guaranteed to be an intensive training experience. Only half of the eighteen Young Explorers selected for the camp will make it to the Amazon aboard Pangaea. I dream of being one of them. As none other than Mike Horn himself told me: 'What we dream, we can do!'

Find out more

For further information, and a chance to apply yourself for the Young Explorers Program, please click on either of the links below:

Mike Horn and Pangaea
Young Explorers Programme

• travel, yachts