Crew Bios
Jim Foster, Project Manager:
James K. Foster, founder and project manager, has been preparing for The Magellan Project since 1993. Jim has studied and researched the history of the Magellan expedition since 1993. This has involved field research in Spain and Portugal, Italy, southern Argentina, Guam, the Philippines, and Malacca. Jim’s Magellan field and academic research has led to his successful application for membership in the Explorers Club. Jim is also an active member of the Circumnavigators Club. Jim currently owns the Sea Monkey, a Crealock 37, sailing out of Seward and Resurrection Bay, Alaska since 1993. In 2005, Jim crewed on the heavy weather leg of the Mahina Expedition aboard a Hallberg-Rassy 46, the Mahina Tiare, from Auckland, New Zealand to Papeete, Tahiti. Jim also served as one of the crew of three sailing the 52' Alden ketch Royono II from Titusville, Florida offshore in the Gulf Stream to St. Michaels, Maryland in 1997. Jim has bareboat chartered in the Caribbean, Florida, California, Thailand, and Australia. He is a USCG licensed 25 ton master. He is also a PADI certified Rescue Diver. In 2016, Jim served as the ship's medic for a crew of 18 onboard the 348' Dino Chouest, an anchor handling/tug/supply vessel transiting from Dutch Harbor, Alaska to Fourchon, Louisiana via the Panama Canal.
In 2014, Jim served as the ship's medic for a crew of 19 onboard the REM Supporter, a 94-meter platform supply vessel sailing out of Stavanger, Norway to Murmansk, Russia and on to the Kara Sea for an Exxon/Rosneft Arctic offshore drilling project. He has also been a firefighter paramedic, EMS Battalion Chief and Operations Fire/Rescue Battalion Chief at the Anchorage Fire Department. He was adjunct faculty at the University of Alaska Anchorage, teaching an Emergency Medical Technology course each fall and spring semester for 19 years, during which time Jim served as an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Fire and Emergency Services Program.
Janine Oros Amon, Adventure Coordinator:
Janine Oros Amon is an entrepreneur and project manager in the adventure travel, high-end tourism and food industries. She’s skilled in Event Management, Global Sales, Team Building and Planning / Logistics. She’s visited 110+ countries for business projects, service or personal education. Janine formerly served as a 100 Ton Offshore Captain managing international logistics, crew, and provisions on sailboats from 12 to 60 meters. For 14 years Janine promoted Alaska internationally, and for 8 years she owned a wholesale/retail food importing businesses with a staff of 10. In these roles she developed and has maintained contacts in many global locations.
An adventuress, Janine planned, executed and participated in two climbing expeditions/ fundraisers on Denali (the tallest and deadliest mountain in North America), and also coordinated two 500 mile week-long bicycle trips with 1200+ participants. She’s orchestrated sailboat passages across the Pacific, Atlantic, Mediterranean, in Indonesia and elsewhere. She grew up with a deep love for the sea, has managed ocean conservation projects, learned SCUBA as a teenager, and, when pressed, can talk like a pirate.
Janine graduated from Medical University of South Carolina and UT/Breckinridge RN School with advanced nursing degrees (RN, NP and CNM) She has managed clinics and cared for patients. She is a certified Yoga Instructor who trains in India regularly. Other interests include writing, photography, food, gardening and adventures with her grown daughter. She lives in Anchorage and in Dana Point, CA; both homes are a short stroll to the sea.
Richard Hitchcock:
Richard Hitchcock learned to sail when he was ten years old at Big Lake, Alaska, and over the next five decades owned eight different sailboats. Starting in 1972, Dick began commercial fishing in the Cook Inlet near Anchorage. Over the next six years, Dick worked on and owned/operated his own gill net fishing in both Bristol Bay, Alaska and Copper River flats. In addition, Dick skippered a 68-foot vessel, buying fish for canneries, in Bristol Bay, Alaska. In addition, Dick has accomplished the following in his career as an expert seaman:
- An 18 month cruise in 1979-1980 on a 41 ketch from Alaska to Bora Bora and back.
- Establishment of the William H Seward Yacht Club in 1974 with six sailing friends, serving on the first board of trustees and various committees over the next twenty years.
- Establishment of Sailboats North representing six major lines of sailboats including J/Boats, Sabre and Jeanneau in 1982.
- Establishment of a nine-boat charter fleet in Seward Alaska in 1983.
- Owned and operated the Seward Sailing Company.
- Delivery of 12 power and sail boats from Washington state to Alaska.
- Obtained five separate instructor ratings from the American Sailing Association in 1988.
- Taught Sailing and Seamanship at the University of Alaska Anchorage and in Seward Alaska.
- Skippered charters in the British Virgin Islands.
- Served the City of Anchorage as a firefighter/EMT for twenty years.
Currently serving as a board of trustee for three Non-profit organizations:
• The Magellan project as treasurer
• The Venice Youth Boating Association
• The Magic yarn Project
Dick currently resides in Nokomis, Florida, selling WETA trimarans as the Southeast U. S. dealer.
Jim Foster - Project Manager
Janine Amon - Adventure Coordinator
Richard Hitchcock
This is the Magellan Project library. Get out your compass and navigate through this fascinating world.
Bergreen, Laurence, 2004, Over the Edge of the World, Harper Collins, New York
Chaplin, Joyce E., 2012, Round About The Earth-Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit, Simon & Schuster, New York
Crowley, Roger, 2015, Conquerors, Random House, New York
Dampier, William, 1697, A New Voyage Round the World, James Knapton, London
Ferguson, Niall, 2011, Civilization, Penguin Press, New York
Horwitz, Tony, 2008, A Voyage Long and Strange, Henry Holt and Company, New York
Horwitz, Tony, 2002, Blue Latitudes, Picador, New York
Joyner, Tim, 1992, Magellan, International Marine, Camden
Levinson, Nancy Smiler, 2001, Magellan and the First Voyage Around the World, Clarion Books, New York
Manchester, William, 1992, A World Lit Only By Fire, Little, Brown and Company, Boston
Mann, Charles C., 2011, 1493/Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Morison, Samuel Elliot, 1978, The Great Explorers, Oxford University Press, New York
Nowell, Charles E., ed., 1962, Magellan’s Voyage around the World: Three Contemporary Accounts, Evanston, IL
Parr, Charles McKew, 1964, Ferdinand Magellan, Circumnavigator, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York
Pigafetta, Antonio, 1969, Magellan’s Voyage, Dover Publications, New York
Pires, Tome, 2005, The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires, Asian Educational Series, New Delhi
Rossfelder, Andre, 2010, In Pursuit of Longitude/ Magellan and the Antemeridian, Starboard Books, La Jolla
Severin, Tim, 1997, The Spice Islands Voyage, Carroll & Graf, New York
Shaffer, Lynda, 1996, Maritime Southeast Asia to 1500, M.E. Sharpe, London
Suarez, Thomas, 1999, Early Mapping of Southeast Asia, Periplus, Singapore
Tarling, Nicholas, 1992, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Cambridge University, Cambridge
Zweig, Stefan, 1938, Conqueror of the Seas/The Story of Magellan, Viking Press, Macmillan Company of Canada
Special Appreciation for our Home Crew and Contributors Ivan Kirkpatrick & Christine Golden
