(August 27, 2010) Anthony 'Campo' Campbell is seeking funding to complete his film. Here is his story:
"The wave hit our boat with such force that the whole foredeck team was washed away. As they shot to the back of the boat, I was left alone, pinned to the front by a mountain of ice cold water. We had to move fast. Walls of water 40 feet high kept coming, one after the other. The Southern Ocean is deadly and we were getting a working over. It was relentless, it was terrifying, it was exactly what I wanted. I had to smile.
"When I signed up for the world's toughest yacht race, the Global Challenge, I didn't know what to expect. I craved adventure, I loved the idea of circumnavigating the globe using nothing but the wind, and I wanted to test myself in some of the most inhospitable environments known to man. But that was about it. There was no master plan.
"However, after a couple of training sails I realised that I could make another of my dreams a reality. There was a great film just waiting to be shot. For a year there would be 12 people stuck on a boat that was little bigger than a London bus. We would be up close and personal. We would be tired and in danger. There would be the whole range of emotions.
"In the end, the adventure was everything I could have hoped for and then some. We had births, proposals, dramatic injuries, and even a life or death medical evacuation.
"Returning to Portsmouth is still the most memorable and emotional day of my life, but it quickly faded as I put all my energy into making a film from the hundreds of hours of footage I had captured during our journey.
"It wasn't celebrity driven, and there was an honesty and integrity about what I had captured on film. This was a real adventure about real people. It wasn't an idea hatched in a TV production office. That's why I think it is something different and special.
"The commissioning editors I showed the trailer to loved the idea and the footage. They were amazed at what I had done. But thanks to the credit crunch and tough times in the TV industry none of them were willing to back the project. I also got the feeling that they didn't want to finance something they were not involved with from the very beginning. I became increasingly frustrated. Without one of them taking a punt on me I was just another guy with an idea."
