Join the highly talented New York Times Photographer Doug Mills as he shares behind the scenes stories and photos of travels abroad and in the U.S. with Presidents Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden, and at the Olympics.  He is known for capturing historic and memorable shots of our times.  Doug has won two Pulitzer Prizes, several White House News Photographers Association’s “Photographer of the Year”, and multiple White House Correspondents Association’s “Photo of the Year”. 

Join Captain Sean as he takes us on a journey from the wilds of the South Pacific to Central America and the Arctic. He will share stories and insights from my adventures, exploring how the challenges of leading untested crews through some of the world’s most remote areas can reveal hidden strengths and potential in ways that are as thrilling as they are unexpected.

He'll delve into the art of identifying and nurturing hidden talent, even when resources are scarce and the stakes are high, using an example from The Solomon Islands.

The talk will also highlight how extreme conditions of remote regions can turn obstacles into opportunities for growth and discovery. Whether navigating through the ice-bound channels of the Arctic or the volcanic landscapes of the Costa Rica, these adventures demonstrate that true leadership often emerges in the most unexpected places.

This talk will not only inspire your sense of adventure but also offer insights into the transformative power of exploring the unknown.

Captain Sean P. Meagher holds a United States Coast Guard Unlimited Tonnage All Oceans license for both sail and power and is an advanced ice pilot. He has commanded some of the world's most sophisticated and technologically advanced vessels. Sean has won numerous awards for exploration, conservation, and management, and speaks internationally on various topics at universities, corporations, and private institutions. He is a member of the Yacht Club d’Monaco’s Captain Club, The Saint Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco, and the New York Explorer’s Club. In addition to his professional achievements, Captain Sean has appeared on the popular television show "Below Deck" and hosts a successful YouTube show, "Dive In with Captain Sean," where he shares his vast knowledge and experiences from his maritime adventures.

Members Night! Two presentations as outlined below.

Rob will share what 40 years of solo canoeing in the arctic can teach you. He'll tell the story of how he petted a full grown white arctic wolf (How do you do that?), and more.

Robert Perkins is a storyteller. He has traveled in the Canadian Arctic north of Yellowknife for over forty years. He is a solo canoeist and an advocate for animal rights.

Links to previous work presented by PBS include:

Talking to Angels - https://youtu.be/n5UpDCXMLX8?feature=shared

Into the Great Solitude - https://youtu.be/Al2gkkmSWF4?feature=shared

The Race to Alaska is a 750-mile unsupported, motorless boat race from Port Townsend, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska. In 2019, Leigh Dorsey and Dameon Colbry completed the race in a bright yellow rowboat named Mursu. Since then, they have each, separately, completed the race by rowboat a second time. Leigh’s second trip was with her younger sister Clare Dorsey; Dameon chose to row solo his second time around. They credit the Maine Island Trail with preparing them for the many challenges of traveling long distances by rowboat, having completed an unsupported 260-mile thru-row of the Trail in 2018, along with many shorter escapes to their favorite of Maine’s wild islands. Join them as they share highlights, lessons, and photos from their long-distance row-camping adventures.

Browse through any book about birds and it is easy to assume that the basic details about species, such as where they are, what they look and sound like, and whether or not they are extinct, are all known. But in fact, even in today’s well-connected and well-documented world, some birds are mysteries. These avian mysteries are embodied in “lost” birds, species that we think are out there somewhere but that no one has been able to find or document in at least ten years. How can entire species of bird go missing like this? Why can’t anyone find them?

Join Dr. John C. Mittermeier, the director of the Search for Lost Birds at American Bird Conservancy, to learn about these lost birds, explore why they matter for conservation, and hear stories from the incredible global effort underway to find as many of them as possible before it is too late.

John has been fascinated by lost birds from the day he happened upon an illustration of a Makira Moorhen at age 15. This passion has led him around the world on searches for lost birds in places like Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Indonesia, and Madagascar. As the director of the Search for Lost Birds at American Bird Conservancy, he now leads a global initiative to identify lost birds and help to support local birdwatchers and citizen scientists around the world to find these species.

Jill VanTongeren, Associate Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences at Tufts, has performed field work at spectacular geologic locations across the world, including the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, the Central Mexican Volcanic Belt, the Oman ophiolite, and the Bushveld Complex in South Africa, working on magma emplacement and evolution in both the oceanic and the continental crust. She'll share photos and stories from her travels throughout the world, as well as some of the exciting science she's been a part of as a result. She'll also highlight her recent highly successful trip to Morocco that was sponsored by HTC's Permanent Fund.

Bill Barton and the intrepid crew of the 36-foot sloop, Tazzarin, voyaged from Massachusetts north along Nova Scotia and Newfoundland en route to the iceberg strewn coasts of Labrador and the Inuit lands of Nunatsiavut in Atlantic Canada. The 4,000 mile round trip passage took Bill back to places he visited in his youth, and highlighted the changes in the sea, lands and wildlife that bring challenges to the peoples of these remote regions on the isolated, dramatic and wild shores of the Northwest Atlantic.

From the quaint fishing outports of Newfoundland to Inuit communities far above the end of roads in North America, each day brought to heart the changes for Canadians whose cod fishery collapsed and the Inuit whose traditional ways are threatened by climate change.

Bill is a lifelong sailor with a strong interest in maritime history. He grew up on the North Shore, racing and also cruising the New England coast and the Canadian Maritimes with his parents. Sailing is the thread that has carried through his life, from doing a high school program on the 144-foot barkentine Regina Maris to sailing up the coasts of northern Labrador to the Caribbean and across the Atlantic. He has long been drawn to the more remote realms: the icy coasts of Canada’s north; a rare tropical cruise through Cuba’s seldom-visited Gardens of the Queen off that island’s south coast; and three voyages to Sable Island to investigate five centuries of shipwrecks on one of the North Atlantic’s most isolated islands, about which he's currently writing a book.

In addition to having served as head of several sailing-related organizations on the North Shore (including past Commodore of the Manchester Yacht Club and Chairman of the Cruising Club of America's Centennial Newport to Bermuda Race in 2006), he is a National Fellow of the Explorers Club in recognition of his years of adventurous exploration under sail and on land and his commitment to sharing his voyages, research, writings and stories. Today, most of Bill’s sailing takes place aboard his Sabre 362, a 36-foot sloop.

From five years in counterintelligence in the Army to rowing 3000 miles across the Atlantic inowing in 34 days, 15 hours, and 39 minutes aboard an 8-man rowboat, the Titan, Bryan became the fastest American to row across the Atlantic.

It was part of a mission to promote a Veteran program at local Boston program, Community Rowing, Inc.

Come meet Bryan and listen to his amazing story to push through tough circumstances and end up with a record.

If asked to put a dot on a map at a place furthest from civilisation, you'd be hard-pressed to find somewhere more remote than the South Sandwich Islands. As part of a National Geographic-funded research project, Dr. Emma Nicholson (Liu) and her team launched an expedition to study the volcanic activity at Mt Michael, Saunders Island. They needed to make a first ascent of this glaciated active volcano to ground-truth satellite images that suggest a lava lake has existed within the crater for several decades, then collect samples of volcanic gas and lava that will help them reconstruct how magma moves beneath the surface. This talk will follow their journey, looking behind the scenes at what it takes to put together an expedition of this scale, the trials and tribulations of life in the field, and the challenges of balancing science and survival in one of the harshest environments on Earth. It will also touch on several other recent expeditions, including those to Papua New Guinea and Tanzania, and the very different challenges that they present.

Emma Nicholson is a volcanologist at University College London, combining scientific research with ambitious field expeditions to study volcanoes and their role in shaping the planet while fulfilling her own passion to explore the Earth's wild places. She is driven by a curiosity to learn more about the processes happening deep beneath our feet that drive volcanic eruptions, and by a commitment to reduce the societal and environmental risks posed by geohazards. Her research has led her to explore understudied volcanoes in remote parts of the world; from the deep jungles of Papua New Guinea to the wind-swept volcanic islands of the Southern Ocean.

Located in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, Aksum was the center of an ancient African civilization that arose ca. 300-100 BC. Aksum became an important state in the Horn of Africa that had trading connections with the Roman world through its port at Adulis on the Red Sea. In the 4th century Aksum became one of the earliest Christian kingdoms, and the most sacred belief of Ethiopian Christians is that the Ark of the Covenant resides in a chapel in Aksum.

This talk focuses on the impressive monuments at Aksum and its environment, as well as on Kathryn's excavations at Aksum – including finds in a rock-cut tomb of a wine jar from Roman Gaul (southern France), and a large palace(?) dating to the earliest emergence of this state.
 
Kathryn is Professor Emerita of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Boston University. She received the Chairman’s Award for Exploration of the National Geographic Society in 1998, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has published over 90 articles and 10 books, including Seafaring Expeditions to Punt in the Middle Kingdom (2018), which was the subject of a talk she gave to the Harvard Travellers Club in 2010. Taking a year off from graduate school in 1974-75, Bard traveled overland from Cairo to Capetown, and lived in Ethiopia for 5 months that year – her  first experience in this remarkable country.

Picture yourself dressed in caribou and dog fur clothing, sitting astride a 16-foot qomatiq (sled) pulled by a team of Inuit dogs, heading out across the sea ice.  The journey takes you through deep fiords and up on the rolling tundra, where caribou graze.  You have the rare opportunity to steer the sled and drive a dog team for hours, and then catch much needed evening rest in your sleeping bag, on a bed of caribou skins on the same qomatiq, now inside your tent on Frobisher Bay.

Discover more about this week-long dog sledding prep and adventure; the history of Iqualuit, Canada’s most northern city; and why you might consider adding a similar trip to your travel dreams.

Cynthia is President Emeritus of American Public Television, the largest syndicator of content to public television stations nationwide.
She is Co-Vice Chair of the Harvard Travelers Club; Chair of Strawbery Bank Museum; a Trustee of The Music Hall of Portsmouth, Ogunquit Museum of Art, and Public Media Venture Group; on the Board of Advisors for the Appalachian Mountain Club; and serves as a Governor for the York Harbor Reading Room.  Her favorite travel adventures include tracking mountain gorillas in Rwanda, hiking the Andes where she met her husband, and the focus of this presentation – dogsledding in Frobisher Bay.

Behzad will speak about Ladakh and give a context of regional history of the Great Silk Road. He will focus on culture, geography, what it’s like today, and most importantly, he will weave in the conservation challenges they face in their snow leopard expeditions across high Asia.

Behzad is an entrepreneur, photographer, and conservationist with a deep-rooted passion for exploration and sustainability. As the founder and CEO of Voygr Expeditions and The Tiger Safari Co., he leads expeditions that traverse the Silk Route, the Himalayas, and the Indian subcontinent, focusing on ecosystem regeneration and community empowerment. As a photographer he specializes in capturing the breathtaking landscapes and diverse cultures of North India and Central Asia. His photographs have appeared in illustrious publications including Vogue, Architectural Digest, Condé Nast Traveler, and more.

Behzad specializes in the tracking of the elusive snow leopard across Asia's most formidable mountain ranges, including the Trans-Himalayas, Karakorum, Pamirs, Tien Shan, and Altai.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Polly Letofsky left her home in Colorado and headed west across 4 continents and over 14,000 miles—by foot—to become the first woman to walk around the world.
 
As an awareness campaign for breast cancer, strangers welcomed her into their homes. But it was never an easy road. Polly struggled with earthquakes, muggings, languages, even religious riots. The ultimate challenge came in the middle of Polly’s journey when September 11 flung us all into a crossroads in world history and she found herself navigating a vastly changing world.
 
Polly will share her story with humor and honest reflection, the good times and the hardships in her spirited presentation.

Architectural historian Curt DiCamillo  will guide us on a tour to some of the best country houses in Yorkshire, including Castle Howard, famous as the starring player in the two filmed versions of Brideshead Revisited; Sledmere House, a jewel-like Neoclassical masterpiece still in the ownership of its original family; Newby Hall, a glorious Robert Adam house with a core very likely by Christopher Wren; and the mysterious Wentworth Woodhouse, which boasts the longest façade—over 600 feet—of any house in Britain. Travel to Yorkshire’s great houses without leaving home!