A one tonne shipment of wine from Portugal for one of the 海角视频's most prestigious hotels is marking a new era of growth for a Cornish business reviving sea freight under sail.
Alex Geldenhuys, founder of Falmouth carbon neutral shipping company New Dawn Traders, is among a growing band of eco-entrepreneurs opening up trade routes for sailing vessels importing and direct selling coffee, chocolate, rum, wine, almonds and olive oil from far flung places.
But instead of loading onto container ships - which burn the dirtiest fuel known as bunker oil - these vessels are powered by the wind - no fuel, no carbon footprint.
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After more than 10 years in business, New Dawn Traders is just about to enter its next stage of growth with a growing demand among producers to find a cleaner way to transport their goods.
Alex said: "We've shown that what you thought was impossible in this day and age is possible, it is happening and that in turn inspires more people to do the same and make a change."
Set up in 2013, New Dawn Traders also acts at the centre of a 'Voyage Co-op' bringing together ships, producers and buyers.
It works with a syndicate of sailboats to bring goods to the 海角视频 such as coffee, raw cane sugar, olives, honey and rice from the Americas and mainland Europe.
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Debbie Warner, who founded the Wild Wine School in Cornwall, joined the team this year to set up the wholesale trading arm and expand its wine portfolio where there's a growing demand for wine-by-sail among eco-conscious restaurateurs and traders.
Alex said she was inspired by the concept of veg box schemes that connect small producers direct to customers who want to shop locally and ethically.
She said: "The organic and fair trade movements are now largely understood and and the next thing is ethics in the supply chain, food miles and transport pollution. The next frontier is improving these things.
"People are concerned about food miles and they want to know how their food is getting here. Things like coffee and chocolate and wine are every day food items but we have forgotten what it takes to bring it here. It travels a long way."
This latest shipment for The PIG hotel group - which has eight hotels including at Harlyn Bay in Cornwall, was carried aboard a 1936 ketch sailboat Klevia, from Porto to Penzance.
The sailors witnessed pods of dolphins and a couple of stormy nights on their voyage that took just over a week.
Onboard was The PIGs newest house wine, Bal da Madre (Valley of the Mother). It is packaged in boxes to cut out glass (responsible for 70% of carbon emission in the wine trade) and distributed by electric vehicle to every PIG hotel and served to guests by the glass or decanted into the hotels' carafes.
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It costs per glass 125ml - £5.25; 175ml – £6.95; 500ml Carafe - £19.75.
The partnership is a huge boost for the business - The PIG is its first trade customer of scale.
And for the first time, New Dawn Traders is expanding its team and on the lookout to buy its first ship to meet a growing demand for cargo-by-sail.
Alex said it is planning to increase its cargo carried from 64 tonnes this year to 120 tonnes next year.
She said: "It's been a very slow build up - if someone told me that it would take this long where we are I would have given up before I started.
"And while we have always made money and covered our costs, to get to this stage where we can finally expand, grow and invest in our business feels so exciting."
New Dawn Traders is not alone - in fact there is a growing network of boats that are challenging the shipping industry, mainly in Europe and Central America.
It's not for everyone - the relatively small cargo sizes means its more costly - but there is a market and there are a number of engine-less shipping firms meeting demand.
One of the most established is Fairtransport, the owner of a an 1873 ketch Nordlys and 70-year-old minesweeper the Tres Hombre where Alex worked as a chef before starting New Dawn Traders.
The Netherlands based firm was started by three friends in 2007 becoming the world’s first modern climate-friendly shipping company.
The Tres Hombres, which is about to complete its 14th round Atlantic voyage, can carry up to 40 tonnes including rum, cocoa, coffee, honey and canned fish.
These are small cargos when compared to the average cargo ship, which carry upwards of 21,000 containers at a time - 90% of the world's goods are carried this way. But the growing market for engineless freight services is helping to shift the dial for the wider industry.
Alex said the aim is not about replacing cargo ships but about serving those markets that don't want to use polluting ships or are increasingly finding that it doesn't work - too big, too centralised with too much road haulage attached.
The blocking of the Suez Canal by super cargo ship Ever Given in 2021 became a global symbol of the problems with the just-in-time industry, relying on increasingly gargantuan vessels that overwhelm the current infrastructure and demand ports big enough to take them.
But there is room for diversity in the industry, thinking beyond a 'one size fits all' solution, said Alex.
She said: "We are not going to overthrow the shipping industry, what we are trying to do is something that is zero carbon and driven by ethics and values that have a positive impact on the people and the planet.
"What we are doing may seem fantastical but it at least starts opening up the conversation about sail cargo, it is being discussed by the International Marine Organisation, which essentially runs the seas, so it is having a direct influence and it is helping to shift change in big industry as well.
"If we can make Cornwall self sufficient in a small way - with its imports and exports with sail cargo, perhaps just in olive oil - that would be a big thing but achievable.
And it brings back in to use those smaller ports and associated infrastructure that is largely lost but could be used once again by engine-less shipping.
And there are advances in boat building technology to make it happen - Dutch firm EcoClipper is currently fundraising to develop the , a steel replica of the Dutch clipper ship, Noach, capable of carrying 500 tonnes of cargo and passengers on a regular schedule.
For New Dawn Traders, the plan is to open fundraising in October to buy its own sailing vessel - a traditional ketch like the Klevia, that will be the 海角视频's first ship specifically used for sail cargo.
"We have been so overwhelmed with support from our followers so we know there has been a real appetite for it."
She said she has ''100% found traditional finance raising hard going", particularly as a woman in business.
Her experience is borne out by the stats. This article in (paywall) reports that all-women founding teams have received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into 海角视频 start-ups last year, according to Dealroom, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.
Aside from the gender imbalance, she said starting from scratch with no existing capital or personal family wealth has been a barrier.
She said: "Before I knew the statistics, I thought it was just me and that all I needed to do was work harder. The reason why we started with direct trade was mainly because it was so hard to get finance and this was a way that we could start slowly from the ground up.
"But now, I do think that people are really starting to understand what we are doing. It has been a leap of faith but it is something that we really believe in."
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