‘Solo’, the Andrew McAuley story, airs on ABC

David Michôd's documentary 'Solo' (co-directed with Jen Peedom) about Andrew McAuley's attempt to kayak the Tasman Sea from Tasmania, Australia to Milford Sound, New Zealand

In 2007,  Andrew McAuley set out on a 1,600 kilometre solo adventure to cross the Tasman Sea by kayak. His journey across infamously treacherous seas was outside of the range of helicopter rescue for all but the first and last 200km. After a month at sea, in which he survived incredible storms, 60 knot winds and 10-12m waves, he was within sight of New Zealand’s South Island. His wife and child were waiting on the shore at Milford Sound when a distress call was received. Soon after his kayak was found, but Andrew McAuley had disappeared.

‘Solo’, a documentary about his adventure and final days, aired on on ABC1 (Australia) on Friday 17th April 2009. The complete documentary can be watched online at ABC’s iVIEW for until May 1st 2009. Within Australia, it can can also be downloaded here, streamed from here, and is available on DVD from the ABC shop. The documentary was screened by the BBC in the UK as ‘Solitary Endeavor on the Southern Ocean’ in February 2009.

‘Solo’ is very hard to watch, but is too incredible a story not to hold your complete attention. The entire expedition borders on fantastical, and seems almost beyond the possibilities of human endurance. That he successfully crossed the Tasman is an incomprehensible achievement, and only serves to compound the tragedy that he did not make landing on the NZ coast. The footage is harrowing enough that it seems unlikely that anyone will attempt to repeat the journey in quite as pure a fashion as McAuley. His journey was so different, both in craft and route, to the successful Queensland-Auckland crossing by James Castrission and Justin Jones in 2007/2008, that they can hardly be compared in the same breath. Watching the video footage recovered from his kayak, it’s hard to believe that McAuley made it so far and equally hard to believe that he did not make it to land.

With regards to the film-making, it is worth watching if only for the footage recovered from the kayak’s cockpit. The interviews with his wife are emotional but also revealing into his psyche and strength of mind. However, I found the footage of his son to be entirely intrusive and edited in a way that seemed wholly contrived to tug the emotions of the viewer. This detracted from the piece as an expedition documentary and made it more like prime-time reality TV. Most interesting were the interviews with his friends and colleages, with regards to his perceived competition from the Castrission-Jones crossing. The section covering the marine police’s enquiry into his expedition was not given enough attention. As a viewer interested in expeditions (rather than personal dramas) I would have enjoyed discssions into the reasons for these actions.  ‘Solo’ does not have the style of expedition docmentaries that are made for film and that it was ‘made for  television’ is obvious and detracts slightly from it as an adventure film piece.