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Dear Friends of the R/V Heraclitus,

The R/V Heraclitus has just completed its first leg of the “Coral Sea to Black Sea Expedition, 2006 – 2009,” 11,000 nm since Cairns, Australia. We sailed through the Great Barrier Reef, visited Timor, Sumba and many other magical islands in Indonesia, passed through the Straits of Malacca to Phuket, Thailand, and then on to Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Madagascar. We are living a true mariner's way of life, exploring modern and ancient sea people cultures.

After a challenging and adventurous voyage across the Mozambique Channel from Madagascar, we are now happily docked at the Zululand Yacht Club in Richard's Bay, on the North East coast of South Africa. From here we will depart on January 31, 2008 to become the first junk to round the Cape of Good Hope in 161 years!

Once in Cape Town we will spend several months performing standard maintenance on the ship, which will include a dry-dock. All ships undergo periodic dry-docking in order to inspect their hull and make repairs to below waterline equipment. The Heraclitus is normally dry-docked every four years. Since the last dry-dock, four years ago in Ensenada, Mexico, the ship has crossed the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean twice, as well as cruising the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.

We send this to you because you have sailed or appreciated or supported the ship in the past, you share our common dream, or because you are considered a good friend and may wish to help carry out this big dry-docking adventure. Dry-docking is always a major undertaking that requires significant resources of personnel, equipment, materials, and money. For this purpose, our organization, Planet Water Expeditions, is asking for your support. To date, we have already raised $16, 000.00 (US), and are in hopeful negotiations with a dry-dock in Simons Town, near Cape Town, to give us dry-docking facilities in return for engaging in marine workshops with the local community. We also have several new volunteer crew, in addition to our experienced crew and staff, to help while the ship is out of the water. For those new to seafaring, this is a great opportunity to learn the nuts and bolts of ship construction and maintenance!

As children, inspired through stories by Jules Verne, Jack London and the great adventures of Jacque Cousteau, Thor Heyerdahl and the movies of Errol Flynn, we dreamed of one day living the romantic life of a sailor. We found much more than we were looking for. Heraclitus is a ship that many fall in love with. It is more important than ever to keep this dream alive.

What is the Heraclitus?
Movable architecture, sculpture, a floating dream,
A temporary autonomous zone roaming the world's oceans,
A magical space for inner and outer adventure,
A training space for people to learn the ways of the sea,
Yes and much more!

The Heraclitus never fails to impress or move people. A vessel with a great tradition of performing theatre in ports of call around the world, Heraclitus is a fantastic bridge to other cultures - not only those on foreign shores but also those on board. The Heraclitus is a unique ship. Designed after a Chinese junk, made of ferro-cement, built in Oakland, California, named after a Greek philosopher, and with the looks one would rather expect in a fantastic comic book. She began her dramatic life sailing out under the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco in 1975. It is a vessel that enables whoever sails on her to truly perceive and understand the world as one, the earth as a blue planet, as Planet Water.

Heraclitus has sailed the world's oceans more than once, hosted hundreds of crew from all over the world, ran aground several times, wrecked twice on reefs, sunk once in a hurricane; she has seen anger and happiness, fear and joy, faithfulness and deceit, love and hate but somehow always sailed on. She has grown tremendously richer in spirit and character in those decades and is now more than an exceptional ship and unusual home for theatre, science and adventure - some say she has a soul.

Heraclitus has become a legend, a piece of art herself, molded by many hands, from many lands, functional and at the same time a symbol of our common desire for freedom. She has become a planetary heritage and deserves to be maintained, kept up, repaired and restored, to continue an almost extinct life style, to enable a future generation to experience what she has to offer, to give others opportunities to live on the world's oceans.

Heraclitus, launched in 1975, is now 32 years old and has sailed about 300,000 nautical miles during her adventurous life. Over the years countless individuals, and many corporations have helped to “keep the voyage going, going and never gone.” Every little bit helps: volunteers skilled and/or eager to learn, logistics support, and of course, cash of any amount. We also welcome building materials, paint, cement, steel, machinery, tools, housing and food for the crew while the ship is high and dry. For cash donations, please see the information at the end of this letter, and for in-kind donations, we can supply you with a more detailed plan and supply list. Anyone joining us during the dry dock will receive room and board for the duration, plus a special rate for those of you who wish to sail on future voyages.

All donors will be rewarded with many thanks, a knowledge that you helped a special ship and expedition, and a special souvenir, which we brought from Madagascar, as part of the new 'Heraclitus Trading Company'. We will also, gratefully acknowledge your contribution on our new website, www.rvheraclitus.org.

We hope this letter finds you happy and healthy, with all our best wishes for the New Year, and please feel free to pass this letter on. Greetings from the Heraclitus!

Please contact christinehandte@gmail.com for further information and participation, or call South Africa Tel. 00-27-763-404-588

For tax deductible donations, you can send a check to the Institute of Ecotechnics in the US or UK, or you can make a payment online via Paypal. To pay online, go to our webpage at www.rvheraclitus.org/support.html and follow the instructions. (If you have a Paypal account, you may pay directly though Paypal by using the address: support@ecotechnics.edu.) For US donations, please make your check payable to the Institute of Ecotechnics and mail to the Institute at 1 Bluebird Ct., Santa Fe, NM 87508. For UK donations, please make your check payable to the Institute of Ecotechnics and mail to the Institute at 24 Old Gloucester St., London, WC1N 3AL, UK.