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Jonathan "Jono" Dunnett (born 11 March 1974) is a British-born Spanish-based adventurer, writer and windsurfing instructor. In May 2019, he completed a solo expedition to windsurf the European mainland coastline on a windsurfer, landing at Batumi, Georgia.
Jonathan Dunnett was born in London, England, on 11 March 1974. He learned to sail in a Topper dinghy at Clacton-on-Sea, where his family spent weekends. He learned to windsurf at age 10 and competed in Raceboard class from age 15. His brother is novelist Gregg Dunnett. [1]
He is a graduate of Swansea University where he read Biology and Psychology as a Joint honours degree. [2]
From 1997 to 2012 he worked as a sailing instructor on the Spanish island of Menorca, where he maintains a base. In 1998 he completed, with safety boat support, what is assumed to be the first single-day round Menroca windsurf. [3] He represented Menorca at the Natwest Island Games, taking gold for the island three times (Rhodes 2007 - RS:X class, [4] Åland 2009 - Raceboard class, [5] and Isle of Wight 2011 - slalom). [6]
In 2015 he achieved his childhood ambition to windsurf round Britain, becoming the fourth person to complete the circumnavigation this way, and the first to complete it alone without support. The expedition started and ended at Clacton-on-Sea. He carried gear in a waterproof barrel on the back of the sailboard (and also a small backpack). He frequently used the sail as a shelter at night. The expedition included the following crossings: North Devon to South Wales via Lundy Island; South Wales to southern Ireland; and Northern Ireland to Scotland. [7]
In 2017 he published his expedition account, "Long Standing Ambition: the first solo round Britain windsurf" that Amazon selected as a finalist for their 2017 Storyteller Award. [8]
In 2023 he published a Spanish translation of Long Standing Ambition under the title "La vuelta a mi isla: La primera circunnavegación en solitario de Gran Bretaña en windsurf". [9]
On 20 May 2017 he set sail from Grense Jakobselv, next to the border of Norway and Russia, at latitude 69 North in the Barents Sea, in an attempt to windsurf the mainland coastline of Europe. The expedition goal was to reach the European border with Russia in the Black Sea, though the political situation in the Black Sea would frustrate that goal. In early 2018, a severe case of flu and difficult winter sailing conditions on the Cantabrian Sea forced him to take a two-month break in Menorca. He resumed the expedition in March 2018.
Dunnett completed the continuous windsurfing expedition in Batumi, Georgia, in May 2019. He then took a ferry ride to Odesa in Ukraine, from where he sailed his windsurfer to Burgas, Bulgaria, arriving on 10 June 2019. This was the end of the uninterrupted windsurf voyage part of the journey. By that time, Dunnett had sailed approximately 15,000 km in 2 years and 21 days. This was later recognised as a Guinness record for Longest Windsurfing Journey [10] . From Odesa, Dunnett sailed the Black Sea coastline westward and crossed Danube delta into Romania, and then to Burgas in Bulgaria. [11]
From Burgas, Dunnett rode a tour bicycle with a trailer, all the way north, back to the starting point of the journey. He reached Grense Jakobselv on 30 September 2019, 863 days after he started the journey.
On this solo expedition without a support team, Dunnett carried all supplies and gear on the sailboard. His emergency equipment included EPIRB, handheld VHF radio, cellular phone, waterproof headlamp, dried food, and water. [12]
Dunnett's expedition goals beyond the personal challenge were "to get to know my continent as a logical next step after getting to know my island (Britain)," [13] and to raise awareness for environmental and sustainability issues. The expedition, by its route and mode of travel, provided access to many hard-to-reach coasts and allows Dunnett to observe the status of the waters and shores, which he reported on his website and on social networks. [12]
Dunnett used his expedition website to raise funds for World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). [14]
The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic coasts of Norway and Siberia is accordingly called the Northeast Passage (NEP). The various islands of the archipelago are separated from one another and from Mainland Canada by a series of Arctic waterways collectively known as the Northwest Passages, Northwestern Passages or the Canadian Internal Waters.
Juan Sebastián Elcano was a Spanish navigator, ship-owner and explorer of Basque origin from Getaria, part of the Crown of Castile when he was born, best known for having completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth in the Spanish ship Victoria on the Magellan expedition to the Spice Islands. He received recognition for his achievement by Charles I of Spain with a coat of arms bearing a globe and the Latin motto Primus circumdedisti me.
Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gained a popular following across Europe and North America by the late 1970s and had achieved significant global popularity by the 1980s. Windsurfing became an Olympic sport in 1984.
Gaspar de Portolá y Rovira was a Spanish military officer, best known for leading the Portolá expedition into California and for serving as the first Governor of the Californias. His expedition laid the foundations of important Californian cities like San Diego and Monterey, and bestowed names to geographic features throughout California, many of which are still in use.
The Island of California refers to a long-held global misconception, dating from the 16th century, that the California region was not part of mainland North America but rather a large island separated from the continent by a strait now known as the Gulf of California.
The Age of Discovery also known as the Age of Exploration, part of the early modern period and largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, was a period from approximately the 15th century to the 17th century, during which seafarers from a number of European countries explored, colonized, and conquered regions across the globe. The Age of Discovery was a transformative period in world history when previously isolated parts of the world became connected to form the world system and laid the groundwork for globalization. The extensive overseas exploration, particularly the European colonization of the Americas, with the Spanish and Portuguese, and later the British, at the forefront, spurred global trade. The interconnected global economy of the 21st century has its roots in the expansion of trade networks during this era.
Sidney Newman Darby Jr. was an American inventor best known as the inventor of the sailboard.
Richard Chancellor was an English explorer and navigator; the first to penetrate to the White Sea and establish relations with the Tsardom of Russia.
Vito Dumas was a prominent Argentine solo sailor and adventurer, known for his remarkable achievements in long-distance single-handed sailing. Dumas excelled in various fields, including swimming, athletics, photography, painting, and writing. However, it was his indomitable spirit and unparalleled solo sailing expeditions that truly distinguished him as one of the greatest solo navigators of all time.
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America, Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.
The House of Niccolò is a series of eight historical novels by Dorothy Dunnett set in the mid-fifteenth-century European Renaissance. The protagonist of the series is Nicholas de Fleury, a boy of uncertain birth who rises to the heights of European merchant banking and international political intrigue. The series shares many of locations with Dunnett's earlier six-volume series, the Lymond Chronicles: Scotland, England, France, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. The House of Niccolò extends much further geographically to take in the important urban centers of Bruges, Venice, Florence, Geneva, and the Hanseatic League; Burgundy, Flanders, and Poland; Iceland; the Iberian Peninsula and Madeira; the Black Sea cities of Trebizond and Caffa; Persia; the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Rhodes; Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula; and West Africa and the city of Timbuktu.
Brigadier General Richard Kane (1662–1736) was an Irish soldier who served in the British Army. He is particularly associated with the island of Minorca.
José de Bustamante y Guerra, sometimes referred to simply as Bustamante, was a Spanish naval officer, explorer, and politician.
Nobu Shirase was a Japanese army officer and explorer. He led the first Japanese Antarctic Expedition, 1910–12, which reached a southern latitude of 80°5′, and made the first landing on the coast of King Edward VII Land.
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago conforms a province and autonomous community of Spain, with Palma de Mallorca being its capital and largest city.
Doncho Papazov is a Bulgarian oceanographer, adventurer and journalist. He is most famous for several marine voyages of increasing difficulty.
The Croisière de Bruix was the principal naval campaign of the year 1799 during the French Revolutionary Wars. The expedition began in April 1799 when the bulk of the French Atlantic Fleet under Vice-Admiral Étienne Eustache Bruix departed the base at Brest, evading the British Channel Fleet which was blockading the port and tricking the commander Admiral Lord Bridport into believing their true destination was Ireland. Passing southwards, the French fleet narrowly missed joining with an allied Spanish Navy squadron at Ferrol and was prevented by an easterly gale from uniting with the main Spanish fleet at Cádiz before entering the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean was under British control following the destruction of the French Mediterranean Fleet at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798, and a British fleet nominally under Admiral Earl St Vincent was stationed there. Due however to St. Vincent's ill-health, operational control rested with Vice-Admiral Lord Keith. As Keith sought to chase down the French, the Spanish fleet followed Bruix into the Mediterranean before being badly damaged in a gale and sheltering in Cartagena.
Kelly Chan Kum Seng was a Singaporean windsurfer. He was ranked number one in the Raceboard Lightweight class by the International Boardsailing Association in 1992. Chan represented Singapore from 1982 to 1997, winning several regional championships including a gold, a silver and two bronze medals at the Southeast Asian Games. He was ranked 35th in a list of Singapore's 50 Greatest Athletes of the Century by The Straits Times in 1999.
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