After graduating with a Master’s degree in International Affairs, and after two years as an auditor for a major financial company, Valentine Ribadeau Dumas changed course in the direction of her true passion. For the past ten years she has been at sea or on land, running logistics for scientific and exploratory expeditions around the world. By applying her background and experience in administration and logistics, Valentine has contributed to important missions on the field in a variety of roles: expedition logistics manager, crew member on sailing boats, cetacean research captain at the Mingan Island Cetacean Study (MICS) and in several projects abroad. Valentine began exploring the Arctic as co-first-mate in Svalbard aboard a polar sail boat. Then she worked in Resolute Bay (Nunavut, Canada) for an Arctic diving mission (“Deepsea Under the Pole”) and for the “Catlin Arctic Survey” scientific expedition. In 2012 and in 2013, she spent several months aboard the “Students On Ice” sailing boat, a research and logistic base in the Arctic for various projects around Baffin Bay. The wilderness of Polar Regions and the Inuit culture inspire and fascinate her. She started communicating about the lessons we could learn from there and the challenges to face in the next years. Today taking care of Vagabond represents a unique way of staying in the Arctic, living close to the community of Qikiqtarjuaq.

Vincent Berthet spent five years of his childhood living at sea on a school-boat, learning how to sail and navigate in the Caribbean region. On board, the crew participated in archaeology and ethnology missions with native Americans. They also filmed their adventures and day-to-day life, an opportunity for Vincent to discover his passion for filming. Back in France, he graduated from a cinema school and then worked for a company producing documentaries, taking care of the preparation and logistics for a lot of shootings in various countries. In 2008, he joined a sailing expedition “Around North America” as a cameraman. From Alaska to Norway through the Panama Canal, he is in charge of all the videos and pictures of the expedition. During summer 2009, he decided to work in eco-tourism in Spitsbergen, trekking on glaciers and sailing in fjords, discovering then the polar regions. After this new experience, he moved to Quebec in Canada. In 2010, he was a member of the Under The Pole Project which aim was to dive under the Arctic sea-ice between the Geographical North Pole and Canada (Movie: "Deepsea Under The Pole"). 45 days were spent on the sea-ice, sled-hauling and living by -50°C. In 2012, he explored the East coast of Greenland kayaking during 51 days (Movie: “Ice trap”). Finally in 2013, he was the partner of Sebastien Roubinet for the expedition “La Voie du pôle”, an attempt to cross the whole Arctic Ocean from Alaska to Norway with an ice boat. Today aboard Vagabond, he enjoys his first polar night and he is watching the boat getting iced in.

Links: rorqual.com, Catlin Arctic Survey, Students on Ice, Arctic Tern, 69nord, Under The Pole, Wide, La Voie du Pôle.