Big names rally to keep Blake's dream on the water

By CATHERINE MASTERS

After struggling with the loss of its leader, blakexpeditions is getting help from some big names to keep going.

They include advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi UK, the United Nations Environment Programme and the BBC.

Blakexpeditions was to be Sir Peter Blake's vehicle to help save the environment.

Its first mission since the captain's murder in the Amazon almost a year ago is likely to include helping move a unique species of dolphin threatened by pollution in China's Yangtze River in China.

The route under consideration would take the blakexpeditions vessel Seamaster to the coral reefs of Cuba, to the Galapagos Islands, the Yangtze River, Thailand and Australia, said Sir Peter's blakexpeditions' business partner, Alan Sefton.

By mid to late 2004 the boat may visit New Zealand for a refit before returning to the Antarctic to retrace Sir Peter's 2001 expedition to 70 degrees south in George VI Sound, then to the North West Passage to assess the growing effects of global warming on the Arctic ice.

Alternatively, Seamaster might travel to the North West Passage first then sail to the Pacific and the Yangtze.

Fronting documentaries from the voyages will be Donal MacIntyre, a BBC reporter.

MacIntyre told the Herald that support to keep Sir Peter's dream alive had been incredible.

Scientific organisations around the world were interested, as were key figures in Saatchi & Saatchi, the International SeaKeepers Society, UNEP and the film industry

* A BBC tribute to Sir Peter, fronted by Donal MacIntyre, is in the final stages of production.

In it crew members returned to the Amazon early this year.

Mr Sefton had viewed the final cut and said it was a "very powerful" piece of work. As yet there is no to-air date, but it may be screened first in New Zealand before being distributed internationally.

And a documentary featuring Sir Peter and the Seamaster on the Amazon before he died is due to air in Britain in January.

It will be broadcast around the world, including in New Zealand, but no dates are scheduled.

Herald feature: Peter Blake, 1948-2001