There is a person who I admire a lot, Amir Klink. His love for the sea inspired him so much, that he dedicated a great part of his life in planning and executing amazing adventures that has approximated him from the oceans.
He was born in São Paulo and has been visiting Parati with his family frequently since he was a child. In that historical and charming city in Rio de Janeiro coast, near from São Paulo borderline, Amir established his “head quarter”. It’s from there that he planning and working on many of his projects.
The main accomplishments done for him were:
- In 1984, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean alone in a small paddle boat, departing from south of Africa and arraving in Bahia a hundred days later.
- In December 1989, he started his trip from Antartica to Artico sea, crossing the world in 642 days, alone in Parati sailboat.
- In 1998, he began the “Antártida 360” project. He crossed the world alone using the worst and most dangerous route in the sea, the circumnavigation of Antarctica sea. He faced freezing temperatures, icebergs and big agitated waves for 79 days, alone in its Parati sailboat.
- In 2003/2004, he repeated the circumnavigation of Antarctica sea, but at this time with a crew, that helped him in the documentation of the trip. He used Parati II in this trip, a sailboat projected and developed by him personally.
He always has been involved in many interesting projects, as the foundation of National Museum of the Sea, in São Francisco do Sul – Santa Catarina, or in the National Geographic expedition.
I really admire him, not only because his achievements. Even being the most important Brazilian navigator, he is a low profile guy, no snobbish. He seems to be a great person, who treats everybody with loyalty and sobriety.
I hope you have enjoyed the information.
Hi Renzo,
Because I lived most of my life in California, there are quite a few Brazilian celebrities that I have never heard of, and Amir Klink is one of them. How did you develop your interest in him? Are you a navigator yourself? I think you mentioned on the first day of class that you like to surf. Are these two pieces of information connected? Also, how do you know that he is low profile and not snobbish? Did you get the chance to meet him in person?