2012-2013 Adventure Series

Adventure is the pursuit of life – often with an unknown ending. Meet these extraordinary and yet everyday people who have experienced adventures of a personal nature or to far-off locations. The topics are ranging from living life to the fullest from a wheelchair, piloting off Sandy Hook, trekking the Camino Real in Spain, sailing around the Americas, and climbing Baffin Island’s rugged peaks.

Evening Adventure series at 7:30 p.m. $13 Members / $15 Non-members for each program

R/V Hero: The End of the Wooden Ship Era in Antarctica Richard Wolak February 21, 2013 Until the mid-1980s, the Research Vessel Hero, a wooden-hulled, Maine-built, New England side trawler, was the primary platform for U.S. marine studies in the area of the Antarctic Peninsula, Cape Horn, the Scotia Arc, and Patagonia. She was the namesake of the historic Stonington, CT vessel that was among the very first to establish the existence of the Antarctic continent in the early 1800s. Connecticut native, Richard Wolak, spent 10 years with the U.S. Antarctic Program and was responsible for the operation of R/V Hero for four years. Richard will take us from the exploits of Captain Nathaniel Palmer and the original Hero that sailed from Stonington to more current tales of harrowing voyages across the Drake Passage, Hero's encounters with the solid world of polar ice, her unique ability to provide support for polar science, and the ship's major role in rescuing the crew of a destroyed Argentine research station in Antarctica.