What’s Left Expedition

A Yacht Club de Monaco delegation joins Mike Horn in Greenland

Friday 15^th December 2023. On 3^rd May, Mike Horn embarked on a new adventure entitled What’s Left. Ahead lay four years of sailing to the remotest places on the planet to find out and report back on signs of climate change.

A delegation of members and staff from Yacht Club de Monaco joined him in Greenland for several days to live this extraordinary experience from the inside. A pristine white land covered in an ice sheet, Greenland is home to natural treasures that need to be protected. The team ventured into isolated regions, observing environmental variations notably in the fjords which were slow to freeze over. It was an opportunity to deepen their understanding of local ecosystems.

Closest to nature

He is one of the last still active explorers. Fourteen years after launching his first expedition to leave from Monaco, South African Mike Horn is unstoppable and has not yet had his fill of discoveries and new challenges. After 30 years of expeditions to all four corners of the world, he decided once again to speak up for the most remote regions, those that deserve attention.

The What’s Left expedition was conceived to revisit emblematic places that have marked his career, the goal being to take stock of the state of the planet, to be its spokesman and take the public along with him on this adventure. It was in this spirit that a delegation from Yacht Club de Monaco made the trip to join him. Early with its support for research to protect the planet, YCM is keen to encourage those who turn to sailing to minimise their environmental impact.

To find out where our place is in the world

Mike Horn’s boat Pangaea and her crew dropped anchor in the Arctic zone in Greenland. It was while sailing in the middle of fjords that the Club’s representatives and the explorer observed the nature surrounding them. When the dark polar night gave way to some light, the crew were able to disembark and take a few steps on the ice. In December the country takes on a special almost magical character, the aurora borealis flooding the landscape in an ode to inspiration.

“We have to reconnect with nature to fully understand what is really going on in the field. Here, we can see climate change and the speed of it.  Normally, we would be held in the ice but after nearly 250 nautical miles we have not encountered any. One of the glaciers we went to see has retreated more than a mile and a half. Even the locals are saying conditions have drastically changed. Fish and whales are migrating further north than ever before. All this is significant. This year, 270,000 billion tonnes of ice melted in Greenland,” explains the adventurer.

Given the delay in ice forming on the lakes and fjords, Daniel Pereira, captain of Yacht Club de Monaco’s flagship Tuiga has already announced his intention to leave in January aboard Pangaea to relive the experience of being imprisoned in the ice.

With Mike Horn as ambassador, Yacht Club de Monaco as a genuine player in the environmental transition continues to encourage all initiatives that are part of the collective ‘Monaco, Capital of Advanced Yachting’ approach.