“OMG… I love it! Such a lovely piece.”
~ Sherrie Wilkolaski, Editor in Chief & CEO, Luxe Beat Magazine


Link to story here: MARTINI
“OMG… I love it! Such a lovely piece.”
~ Sherrie Wilkolaski, Editor in Chief & CEO, Luxe Beat Magazine
Link to story here: MARTINI
Our latest Third Age Expeditions column called… “Liquid Rush!: Beneath British Columbia’s Nakwakto Rapids” has just been published in Luxe Beat Magazine. This article has also earned us another “Editors Picks.”
“In recent times, the Guinness Book of World Records once listed Nakwakto Rapids as having “the fastest navigable tidal currents in the world!” – up to 39 kilometers per hour during its largest tidal exchanges! A notorious title Nakwakto Rapids can no longer lay claim to as in recent years the turbulent currents at British Columbia’s Sechelt Rapids were measured as being a tad faster.”
Story Link: Here
Our story “Polar Cruising Norway’s Arctic Archipelago” is published in the January 2021 edition of INSPIRED 55+ Lifestyle Magazine. The article is about polar expedition cruising in Svalbard, Norway, one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas known for glacial fjords, frozen tundra Svalbard reindeer, Arctic foxes, walrus and polar bears.
Article here: Polar Cruising Norway’s Arctic Archipelago.PDF
On December 31, 2020, my 2-year term as Explorers Club Regional Director, BC / Yukon, Canadian Chapter, came to an end. I would like to seize this opportunity to formally welcome Sunniva Sorby MI’19, as the new Regional Director, BC / Yukon. Since I assumed the role in January 2019, among several other things, we endeavoured to create greater awareness in the community about the Explorers Club. We were able to achieve this prior to the global pandemic literally shut public gatherings down by presenting two public Explorers Talk events; one large event at the Vancouver Aquarium in November 2019 and another smaller one at the Fjallraven store in Vancouver during February 2020. I extend my deepest gratitude to the entire Executive Team of The Explorers Club Canadian Chapter. I can’t thank you all enough and I feel that I have made some lifelong friends in the process. In particular, to George Kourounis for his stalwart leadership and support. One of the benefits of this role was getting to know George on a deeper personal level.
I would also like to give a huge shout out to the following BC / Yukon Explorer Club members for their steadfast support, assistance, and encouragement over the past two years: Coleen Clancy, Rosemarie & Pat Keough MED’02, Maeva Gauthier TM’17, Lee Treloar MI’09, Craig Minielly MI’18, Phil Nuytten FI’85, Isabelle Groc FI’19, Jude Isabella FI’19, John Pollack FI’06, Ray Hyland MI’12, Cathie Hickson FI’05, David Byng FI’07, and Kathryn Britnell FI’19. Thank you, one and all!
I wish everyone and their families a safe 2021 and a swift end to this global pandemic so we can all more freely continue to exercise our instincts to explore.
With kind regards,
Jett Britnell, FI’16
Our latest Third Age Expeditions column for Luxe Beat Magazine called “A Day at the Museum: Finding Beauty, Truth and Meaning in Norway” was published today. This story has also garnered us another “Editor’s Picks” shout out!
“During our last trip to Norway, we had one free day in Oslo to devote to museum visits and managed to squeeze in four of them. The next day soon after we landed in Svalbard, a remote Norwegian archipelago situated between continental Norway and the North Pole, we were able to make a quick visit to the Svalbard Museum in Longyearbyen hours before boarding and embarking on a 10-day polar cruising expedition. Yes, even here in “Northernmost inhabited place in the world”, there was a museum. What follows provides a summary of five spectacular museums we chose to visit while in Norway.”
“DIVE LOG Australasia is striving to constantly produce great reading. August 2020 is a bumper issue. Our plan here is to give something back to the diving industry.”
~ Mike Scotland, Publisher & Editor
In the August 2020 issue of DIVE LOG Australasia, Kathryn and I are both doing our best to give back to the dive industry, and are also helping to make British Columbia’s spectacular ocean realm better known to our brothers and sisters living in the land down under.
“Into the Sea Lions Den” is our latest Third Age Expeditions story for our column in Luxe Beat Magazine and we have been awarded another Editor’s Pick!
After splashing into the ocean, we quickly descend 10 meters and kneel down upon the rock-strewn seafloor. At the edge of underwater visibility, we could make out some torpedo-shaped silhouettes. Suddenly, from out of the emerald haze more than 20 female sea lions appeared. Glancing over at my dive buddy, I could see a young female sea lion inquisitively peering into his underwater camera system’s dome port. Two coquettish sea lions stop to pose right in front of me as third one mischievously yanked on one of my fins. Then as quickly as they had arrived, the sea lions exploded towards the surface while unleashing a whimsical series of un-choreographed pirouettes, dramatic turns and topsy-turvy spins. Soon enough, they returned to swarm us again and again.
Link to story: here.
I’m giving a loud shout out today to someone we have never met in person, but who both Kathryn and I consider to be a friend. Last month during a Facebook conversation wherein I said I was going to source an out of print book and ask the author to autograph it, the author said to me, “I will send you one.”
The person I’m speaking about is Jennifer Carter,
(Fellow in the Explorers Club, Author, Producer, and so much more), who along with her late husband, Academy Award-winning composer, Joel Hirschhorn, co-authored the book “Titanic Adventure: One Woman’s True Life Voyage Down to the Legendary Ocean Liner.” Yes, Jennifer was the first woman to dive to the wreck of the Titanic when she signed on as expedition leader for the all-male French/American Titanic expedition in 1987. And this is but one of her long lists of noble accomplishments.
We feel blessed to be able to call Jennifer our friend.
This is the question Shearwater Research, a Canadian company who designs and manufactures technical dive computers and electronic control systems for rebreather manufacturers, asked several well-known figures from the international scuba diving community and the Shearwater team.
Video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erBakhvAADo
Given that we had been experiencing weeks on end with rain here in Vancouver around the time I made this video, I could not film my segment in the great outdoors. So, I chose to wax poetic while seated in the Terra Incognita Explorers Bar at stately Britnell Manor. Enjoy!
Mucho thanks to Shearwater Research for their efforts to keep us all connected during this world pandemic. We are all connected!
My image of a red eye medusa jellyfish is the “Big Picture” featured in a double-page spread of the July/August 2020 issue of Canadian Geographic, a magazine of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Canadian Geographic has been making Canada better known to Canadians and the world since is was first published in May 1930. The publication is the authoritative source for all things geography, wildlife and environment, climate and energy, travel, culture and exploration in Canada.
All content on this website © Copyright 2021 - Jett & Kathryn Britnell - All Rights Reserved
(Play Nice In The Sandbox, Kids. Ask, Don't Steal)