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business is conducted in Ecuador’Äôs
national language of Spanish.
’ÄúOfri [an Israeli/New Zealander
crew member taken on in Panama]
and I have discovered that between
the two of us, we can speak Span-
ish at a four-year-old level,’Äù quips
Trey. They quickly decided to hire
an agent, Irenˆ©, who could guide
them through the process’Äîso the
crew could settle in to pursue their
primary mission of adventure.
Life inan Eco-Paradise
’ÄúThe animals here are truly spec-
tacular,’Äù says Trey. ’ÄúWe’Äôve seen the
giant turtles, various exotic birds,
iguana, and more seals than we can
count. Sharks and stingrays swim
up to our boat in the harbor. But
the best way to really understand
the preponderance of wildlife is to
dive the waters off the island.’Äù
So on the second day after land-
ing, Trey and Ofri set off on their
first scuba-diving expedition.
Having found the cheapest avail-
able diving service, they ultimately
found themselves swimming alone
while the dive master returned
to the boat after he ran out of air.
The water was cold at 25 meters
beneath the surface, but the doz-
ens of sharks and sea turtles didn’Äôt
seem to mind’Äînor did the pair of
seals who swam alongside them
for half an hour.
WithAmy along, Trey and Ofri
went scuba-diving several more
times, coming face to face with
hundreds of tropical fish’Äúof every
shape and color,’Äù says Trey: black
with yellow tails, blue and white,
orange, green, and more. The
threesome also swammere feet
away fromhammerhead sharks,
whitetip reef sharks, and Galapagos
sharks.’ÄúWe’Äôve seen as many as ten
sharks at a time,’Äù says Trey. Once,
he swam over a rock shelf only to see
a whole group of sharks had been
hiding under it. Six of them swam
towards him, passing only an arm’Äôs
length below his position.
Ofri and Trey also went surfing
at Tortuga Bay. At the day’Äôs end, as
Trey stood up on his surf board for
the last wave of the day, he spotted
two seals playing in the surf only
five feet away. ’ÄúI can’Äôt tell you how
special it feels to connect with the
power and magic of nature in so
many ways at once,’Äù he says. A few
days later, however, a surfer at that
same spot received a very bad shark
bite. Trey went surfing once more
after that incident, but after seeing
a few fins, he elected to give it up.
Amy, along with a visiting
friend, visited the lava tubes cre-
ated by ancient volcanic activity on
the island and made friends with
one of the giant tortoises for which
the Galapagos are famous. Trey also
went biking up the island’Äôs central
volcanic mountain, reaching the
craters at the top’Äîand the spectac-
ular view that accompanied them.
After two weeks of fun, how-
ever, it was time for the crew to
prepare their floating home for
the next leg of their journey, the
Marquesas Islands. ’ÄúThis will be
the longest passage of our year at
sea,’Äù says Trey. ’ÄúThe 3,200 mile
passage could take as long as five
weeks.’Äù A boat at rest, however,
tends to want to stay at rest’Äîso
there were hundreds of details to
address and small malfunctions to
fix. It is those small problems that
can become very large problems
when the
Blue Moon
is a thousand
miles from land. ’ÄúIn addition,
we’Äôre doing our last laundry, buy-
ing groceries, propane, diesel fuel
and gasoline, cleaning the boat,
scraping off the seaweed, properly
stowing everything, and filling our
water tanks,’Äù says Trey.
Changing of the Guard
When the
Blue Moon
raised her
anchor once again, she found
herself with one crewman less’Äî
and one new addition. While the
Benefields’Äô friend Ofri, who had
been a faithful fellow sailor since
the Panama Canal, departed on
adventures of his own, Amy’Äôs boy-
friend Ryan Worth came aboard.
Like Amy, Ryan is a student at UT,
focusing on kinesiology and sports
psychology. He is taking some time
off from school to join the Bene-
fields on their adventures.
He immediately fit right in.
’ÄúRyan is proficient in a plethora of
outdoor sports and he has recently
begun sailboat racing. Two years
Throughout his life, Knox-
ville professional Trey
Benefield has struggled to
explain his love of adventure
sports and the outdoors to
those near and dear to him.
But now he has seized the
opportunity to explore his
urge for adventure by sailing
halfway around the world
with his daughter, Amy, at
his side. Together, they are
following their hearts to
find out why professional
athletes devote themselves
to these sports’Äîand hop-
ing to discover more about
themselves along the way.