Skip to content

What’s happening!

Hi! I’m a writer and photographer (and a budding filmmaker), an outdoor adventurer and expedition guide, and an elected Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and 2021 recipient of the RCGS Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration. (Thanks to Dan Milnor for the photo above – at Cuverville Island, Antarctica).

RCGS-EN-4Lines-Blue

And I’m a PhD scientist, too. Although I no longer work as an exploration geologist, my sciences background is a huge part of who I am and of nearly everything I do.

thumbnail_IMG_20200125_125423

 

Like most everyone on the planet, my plans for 2020-2021 were pretty much derailed by COVID-19. But I sure have made up for it since! I still take on the occasional writing contract, but working mainly as an expedition guide and lecturer, on small cruise ships (for Lindblad/National Geographic and for Swan Hellenic) in Patagonia, Polynesia/Southeast Asia, and Antarctica.

This is a really good fit for me, both as an adventurer and as a scientist. I love working in these amazing places, and I seem to have found a really appropriate niche for where my skills lie – explaining geology and history and other “technical” subjects to people in a way that is not only easy to understand, but that fires people up and makes them enthusiastic about learning more!

And… after quite a few years not working on my OWN books, I am getting back into writing again! In 2025, I wrote two articles relating to Polynesian canoe design and navigations for two different books. And – from my nearly endless fount of ideas for books I want to write – I am finally getting it together to focus on writing and finishing one of them. I am very inspired and motivated!

My current projects and endeavours include:

I have three book ideas that are at the top of my list now. (My whole list is, like, fifteen… so these three really are at the top of a pretty long list). As much as it pains me, in order to focus enough to complete one of them, I have to put the other two of on hold for a bit. But I am super-excited to have chosen The First Seafarers to write first, as it ties so closely in both with the guiding work I am doing on small ships in the South Pacific and Island Southeast Asia, as well as with my lifelong interest in paddling small boats like kayaks and outrigger canoes on the open ocean.

Long before domestication of the horse and the invention of the wheel, the easiest way for humans to travel was by boat. That may seem strange to us today, where most of us get around by following roads or by plane, rather than by sea. (Even today, many people around the world use small boats to get around – such as these women in Papua New Guinea returning from tending their gardens).

In fact, small paddle-craft and sailing craft have powered most of the great migrations in human pre-history – from the settlement of Australia, to southeast Asia and Polynesia, to the Americas – and that is what I will investigate in my upcoming book The First Seafarers.

Carl Martin and Jacqueline Windh talking about dugout canoes.

The Secret Coast Expedition project: This is the project that I was in the midst of when COVID hit. It is not only an exploration of the remote, surf-swept west coast of Vancouver Island, but also of a nearly forgotten period of our history: the first contacts between the indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth people and the earliest explorers to arrive here – the first of whom were the Spanish.

So it is one of the two on hold right now, as I focus on completing The First Seafarers… but I will absolutely come back to this!

Haha and then I mentioned a third book… well I have actually started writing it, but am temporarily setting it aside until I have a full draft of The First Seafarers. So I am not sharing any more about that book right now – other than that it also aligns with my interests in ocean navigation and history!

Come adventuring with me! In 2025-26 I will be back down to Patagonia and Antarctica on small expedition cruise ships with National Geographic/Lindblad and Swan Hellenic. These aren’t the giant cruise ships with casinos and shows… no, these are the small cruise ships for 120 or so people, where we take you out on fun adventures in the zodiacs!

And in November I will be heading back to Tahiti as Guest Lecturer on the small and intimate (but luxurious) cruise ship Paul Gauguin.

And then in April and May I will be back to the south Pacific isles – Melanesia, Indonesia, Philippines and Japan, with Swan Hellenic.

I have many cruise ship adventures coming up. Why don’t you join me on one? If you would like more information about when and where, you can get in touch with me personally through my Contact page.