Captioning the adventures

Retracing Chinese visits to America pre-Columbus

2009 Visiting the Xu Fu's Park in Shingu, Wakayama, Japan. The then 98 year old man in the wheelchair is Mr. Okuno, an authority on Xu Fu, who Tim Severin met with 1993
2009 Visiting the major of Shingu, Wakayama, Japan to discuss a re-enactment of Xu Fu's voyage from China to Japan (and on to America?)
2009 Visiting Xu Fu's grave, Shingu, Wakayama, Japan
2009 Last of four coins that Xu Fu supposingly brought to Shingu, Wakayama, Japan
2009 Caretaker of Xu Fu's grave and remaining coin
2009 Old mates Li Jinhua and Christian well positioned to contemplate Xu Fu's historical voyage, Quanzhou, China
2009 Quanzhou Maritime Museum's possible design for Xu Fu's vessel
2018 Display Case 21, The Americas, British Museum
2018 Greenwich Maritime Museum, London
2018 Needham Research Institute, Cambridge
2018 California Museum, Sacramento, USA. Any Chinese colony in America could over time have been absorbed into the Native American culture and then further decimated along with the Native Americans without a trace
2018 Looking for pre-Columbus Chinese junk, supposingly sunk in the Sacramento River at Glenn. It was a hoax
2018 Prickely pear, California, one of the foods reported by Hui Shen in the Liangshu
2018 Looking for Chinese pottery pieces at Bodega Bay, California. They exist, but post date Columbus
2018 Chinese Pottery Pieces at Drakes Bay, California, post-date Columbus
2019 Finding my ancestor's letters at the Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France, Paris
2019 Napoleon Bonaparte's scandalous Chinese dictionary, which Christian's ancestor Pierre had a role to play in
2019 Evan Bouton, French researcher, and Christian enjoying a time-out
2019 Evan Bouton, French researcher, and Christian at the Académie des Sciences, Paris, looking for Joseph de Guignes 1761 essay on Fusang
2019 In Yuegang with Sun Haibin, Jin Pei and Li Jinhua visiting a potential boat builder for ancient vessel
2019 Inspecting possible ship designs at boatbuilder's home in Yuegang
2019 Maritime Historian, Professor Li in his office, Tamkang University, Taiwan
2019 Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan
2019 Painting of Junk at Macao Maritime Museum
2020 Reproduction of Tang Dynasty ship. British Museum, London
2020 Extract from Kaempfer's History of Japan, British Library, London
2020 Joseph Needham's four box files pertaining to pre-Columbus contact between Asia and America, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge
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Row Round Denmark for Clean Seas

A conflux of currents south of Møn
Lars hard at work
Test rowers
In rough weather across the Great belt
Lars being Zen or maybe he's been at sea for too long?
The day after we finished, Anni Grøndal and Pawel finished rowing round Denmark in sea kayaks. Pawel was terminally ill from cancer, and sadly passed away shortly afterwards
Waiting out the weather inside a cramped cabin
Launching Yantu 2 into Rudbøl Sø the day before the row we start the row
Lars introducing Yantu 2 to test rowers
Another beautiful evening
Levende Havs Kutter Anton and open water swimmers in Hjelm Dyb protesting the dumping of sludge from Aarhus harbour
Broken down plastic trash stuck in the pier in Grenaa harbour, probably the dirtiest harbour in Denmark
Havfaldsdag on Læsø, Vesterøhavn
Kim Østfeldt-Witt, chairman of Rudbjerg Forenede Boldklub, from still going ahead with a local beach clean up. He collected 5kg of trash from Albuen beach to support our project.
Drying out our gear in Hanstholm
Poseidon Lars with his trident having finished rowing round Denmark
Together with EnBW we cleaned up Klintholm beach west of the harbour. It was by far the cleanest beach we have come acoss and, despite being 11 people, we only manged to collect 3kg of trash in 2 hours. If only every beach could be like that…
Leaving Odden Havn (Jens Juncker)
55°N at Strøby Ladeplads. Alessandro and Henriette Cataldo collected 38kg of trash from a local beach to support our row.
Kronborg (Hamlet's castle) to starboard! Christian on the oars heading home
A typical on-shore sleeping setup
Test rowers. The oldest test rower was 93 years old (not pictured here...)
Together with Nordic Ocean Watch we colleced 10.5kg of trash in 2 hours at Svanemøllestranden. 0.6kg of this were cigarette buds, which people mindlessly discard on the beach.
At anchor by Skagen waiting for the head wind to die down
Presentation at Grenaa Roklub
Henry Stoklund and Kjeld speedo swimming in Hjelm Dyb
Beautiful sunset
Together with our chosen charity, Os Om Havet, 20 scuba divers supported by 19 trash collectors on SUBS and kayaks, removed 352kg of trash from the bottom of the Helsingør harbour in a few hours.
After starting in really bad weather we were treated to this amazing sight when the weather cleared up
Together with Greenaa Roklub we were 9 people who within 1 1/2 hours removed 153kg of trash from inbetween the bolders on just 7(w)x3(h)m of the pier and the pier is severel hundred meteres long 🙁
Finished! Border stone 1, Kollund, 1 Aug 2022 @ 15:05. Lars, Christian, and mascot Pawel, become the firt to row round Denmark in a rowing boat (hpblume)
Together with Havaffaldenthusiasterne and Team Læsø we removed 60kg of trash and 1 ghost net from Bløden Hale, Læsø.
Dinner talk Aabenraa Roklub
Together with 30 people from Esbjerg Roklub and Total Energies we collected around 80kg of trash from Hjerting beach. Kim from Ren Strand Fanø then went through the various types of trash and told us their origins and environmental impact.
Thy kyst cleanup – 6 volunteers from "Strandet" picked up 97kg of trash from the Hanstholm South Harbour to support our row.
As soon as we passed Vidå Sluse we moored to wait for high tide. The lock closed immediately behind us. Had we misssed it, we would have had to wait for the next tide (hpblume)
Luckily tidal differences are not that great in Denmark. The rowlock got stuck under beams on the pier as the tide rose. Udbyhøj
Ren Strand Fanø, Esbjerg Roklub, Total Energies at Esbjerg Strand
Michael from Vesterø Deli serving Lobster bisque
Leaving the old Højer Sluse towards Vidå sluse (phblume)
In Sønderborg, the presentation was held with participants seated on Concept IIs
A beautiful evening
And they are off! Already about 1m into the row - only 1,295km to go (hpblume)
After finishing in Kollund rowers from Kollund Roklub rowed Yantu 2 back to the club (hpblume)
The folks at Højer Bådklub gave us expert advise about how to navigate the trickly tidal waters between Rømø and Sylt (hpblume)
Chance meeting out at sea with expert kayaker, Till Blume
We achieved lasting fame by immortalising ourselves on the wall in the rhum bar in Klintholm
Yantu 2 and another famous vessel, the Danish Queen's HDMY Dannebrog
Meeting with Graasten Ro- og Kajakklub out at sea on the last day
BBQ at DSR. Lone Haulund looked after us expertly and cooked up a mean bbq
Almost royalty... Posing in front of the royal yacht, HDMY Dannebrog, in Sønderborg
Probably the dirtiest pier in Denmark, Greenaa Harbour
Lars and Tom from Visit Læsø recovering a ghost net
Trash sorting with Os Om Havet in Hensingør
More oarsmen test rowing Yantu 2
Start! Border stone 242, Rusbøl sø. 18 August 2022 @ 8.18
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Reverse Viking row for Mental Health

Thumbs up from Will, Afghan Veteran
The Team; Chris, Christian, Brucey, Will, and Nutty
The Rensburger fire brigade hoisted us out of the lower Eider, drove us through town, and put us in the Upper Eider. Great guys!
Sunset over the Baltic
Stop at UWC Denmark administrator Kidd Erhardt's home
Somewhere in the North Sea off the coast of Holland
Setting out on the Upper Eider River
Rowing on the Kieler Kanal
Plain sailing, sorry rowing, on the Eider River
Nutty enjoying his rations
Nutty contemplating life, or posing as our figure head. Hmmm
Lunch stop on the Eider River
Lock on the Eider River
HJ Colston, the co-founder of Engage with China, which Christian supports as Adventure Ambassador, seeing the team off
Entering Scheveningen in Holland. Had to negotiate witht he harbour master as non-motorised vessels are not allowed - and we had no motor
Crossing the Great Belt, Denmark
Christian on the oars
Chris Martin and Christian getting on the oars at Lowestoft, England, for the start of the row
Celebrations in Lowestoft prior to leaving
CCTV shot of Yantu 2 rowing into the Kiel-Holtenå lock, about to enter the Baltic Sea
Brucey working the ropes at the lock, Eider River
Brucey entertaining the crew with tall anecdotes
Bridge over the Kieler Kanal
Big ships on the Kieler Kanal
Big ship on the Kieler Kanal
Beautiful sunset
Arrival in Rendsburg at the end of the Lower Eider
Approaching the Kiel-Holtenau lock
A light house ship on the wrong river. Beautiful, nevertheless
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Swim-Run-Swim to get a Lifeboat

Start of GR10, Hendaye
Up, up and away!
A fair way down
View from the office
A tricky part of the route
Fellow hikers
Company, finally!
That probably leads somewhere ...?
Having a rest
Shin splint theraphy
Incentive to run faster
Laundry day
Traffic jam
Pic du Canigou (2784m)
More views from the office
At the end of the rainbow...
Run, Forrest, run!
The trail goes on and on...
Finished! Banyuls sur Mer
Final dip after having worn out three pairs of shoes
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Cruising China’s coast and Yangtze River

At anchor in Hong Kong waiting for favorable winds
Clearing Customs and Immigration
Christian hoisting the yellow quarantine flag to indicate that there is no disease on board
Life on board. We were not allowed to sail without a pilot on board
Luggage and camera equipment for the voyage
Mooring in Xiamen
Troels Kløvedal (left) and Christian visiting the tombstone of Christian's relative who died in Macao in 1776
Troels Kløvedal and Else Marie's weddding at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club
Troels Kløvedal (left) with HRH Prince Joachim of Denmark, who paid a visit on board Nordkaperen in Hong Kong
Another improvised mooring
Another day in the office
Approaching Xiamen
Christian trying to bring HRH Prince Joachim and the Ambassador safely ashore
China does not have the best marinas, but they managed
Passing Bocca Tigris (虎門) on the way to Guangzhou
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Sino-Viking Trans-Atlantic Rowing Joint Venture

Our boat Yantu was built in China in modest conditions. It was the first ocean rowing boat to be built in China
The China launch. The winch got stuck, but apart from that everything went fine
Our first row together in our new boat
Volunteers at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club who kitted out the boat and helped make our race entry possible
Safety training in Hong Kong
Tenerife - Packing food late into the night
The water maker. Can't live with it and can't live without it...
Sun Haibin shows off his culinary skills in their well equipped kitchen
Serious local Spanish competition!
Packing our grab bag the night before the race start
The hatch which eventually broke mid ocean due to faulty hinges leaving us pretty exposed
Sun Haibin was proud to represent China
Race day. All set to go!
Race start in Tenerife. Everyone headed West and we rowed South. Plan the row and row the plan...
Sun Haibin rowing
Picture from inside the cabin out on Christian rowing
Waves were big at times...
Sun Haibin rowing in big waves
They saw wales a number of times
More rowing...
Not all pain. Also beautiful sunsets
They almost got run down by a skip in the middle of the night
Repairing seat, trying to prevent the pain
Sun Haibin cut his clothes to prevent chafing
Wear and tear mid ocean. Nothing compared to the state of their butts...
Sun Haibin rowing in a rainstorm
Barbados on the horizon. Sun Haibin's smile says it all
Arrival in Barbados in 8th position. When they stepped onto the jetty they fell over, because they were not used to stand on solid ground
They made it!
Savouring a whole different level of comfort after 56 days at sea on a camping mattress
Living it up in Barbados after two months of freeze dried food
All objectives achieved. The Chinese writing between Christian and Sun Haibin reads "Together we achieve more"
A hero's welcome back at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club
English Book Launch in Hong Kong
HRH Crown Prince Frederik, who is the Protector for United World Colleges in Denmark, visited their stand at the Copenhagen Boat Show
Selling raffel tickets at the Copenhagen Boat Show in support of United World Colleges
After the row Christian visited UWC Atlantic and met with the two Chinese students they had sponsored; Zhou Jin (left) and Wang Hui. Brilliant guys!
On return to China the Chinese media went crazy. Here Christian and Sun Haibin are guests on CCTV 5's exclusive prime time "Five Rings Night Show" (五环夜话)
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