On the Wind Sailing

#208: As I record this, Isbjorn is stuck in medieval Visby, on the island of Gotland smack in the center of the Baltic. We've only made it about 100 miles south of Stockholm, on this our 11th and LAST passage of 2017, due to horrendous weather. Recent guests the Veber family reported gusts over 50 knots in their homeport of Falsterbo, on the Swedish southwest coast about 200 miles from here and on...

#207.  Jake Albano, who's still in his 20s, is a longtime friend of mine and has been an integral part of sailing Isbjorn and managing the cruising rallies I used to be involved with. I first met Jake at the ARC Europe rally in 2014 when he was sailing aboard Persistent Lady , the dramatic story of which you'll hear in the episode. Jake then sailed with me as mate on our first 'test' trip for our...

#206.  Mia & I met the Veber's in Horta in the Azores back in may, where the family of four had just completed their return Atlantic crossing in their 30' "Anna Lisa." The Veber's had set out from Sweden the year before towards the Caribbean, and after a winter cruising & exploring the Caribbean, were headed home. We invited the whole gang aboard Isbjorn, including the kids Trulls & Mathilda, wher...

#205.  Bruce Scwab is the first American sailor to complete the legendary Vendee Globe race. Bruce grew up in northern California and started sailing with his dad a young age, eventually working at a rig shop for many years where he honed his as a solo racing sailor, winning the first event he ever entered. Bruce now lives in Maine and specializes in outfitting cruising boats with alternative ener...

#204. Randall Reeves is about to embark on an ambitious passage he's dubbed the 'Figure 8 Voyage,' in October. With a 39' steel boat and only his thoughts to accompany him, he's hoping to complete a circumnavigation of both the America's & Antarctica, alone and nonstop. Inspired by historic explorers and modern sailors like Matt Rutherford, Randall's is a personal challenge. I spoke to him back in...

#203.  Cap'n Fatty Goodlander pretty much needs no introduction. He & his wife Carolyn have circumnavigated the globe a full three times, setting an example along the way of how to do it safely & on the cheap. Fatty's brand of storytelling is legendary - he's an editor-at-large in Cruising World magazine, and has appeared in basically every sailing publication there was over the past 30 years. He...

#202:  Johnny Owens & Paul Rogan are 2/6th of the 'Ireland to Iceland 2017' crew whom we met on the docks in the faraway fishing town of Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides. Their gang of merry sailors were on an adventure to the Arctic in a 40-foot steel ketch, Johnny's father as captain, making music as they want in the pubs along the way. We invited them to Isbjorn to share their story of adventure...

#201.  Brion Toss is a certified Master Rigger and author of the bible on the subject, The Rigger's Apprentice . I've long admired Brion and first got to meet him in 2008 at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, right before I became a rigger's apprentice myself. I've managed to keep in touch with him over the years (and of course have a copy of his book aboard Isbjorn), and finally we're teaming up to hos...

#200: It's been a long-time coming, but Mia Karlsson is FINALLY on the podcast! Mia is my wife, of course, and while we don't share a last name, we share just about everything else! Mia tongue-in-cheek promised to be the 200th episode on the show, long before she ever thought I'd make it this far, so I called her bluff! We recorded a long & rambling chat just before setting out across the Atlantic...

#199.  If you don't know Johan & Malin of RAN Sailing, go check them out on YouTube right away. They're a wonderful young Swedish couple on a long-distance voyage in their aluminum sloop 'RAN'. After months of trading emails, we finally got to meet up with them in Tortola and we hit it off immediately! Mia & I spent three days with Malin & Johan hanging out in Trellis Bay, sharing stories, cooking...

#198. Special thanks to Thierry Humeau & Telecam Films for directing & producing the TV version of today's podcast with Etienne Giroire. Thierry flew to Florida in April 2016 to film a TV-adaptation of the podcast at Etienne's eponymous shop, ATN Inc. in Ft. Lauderdale. This is the audio-only version of that - to see the full-length film version, go to youtube.com/59northsailing . -- On the Wind i...

#197.  Today's recycled episode is a family affair, with Ted & Claudia and their kids Max & Anya. Ted & Claudia sailed their Wauquiez Amphitrite ketch from Annapolis to the BVI several years ago, and have never gone home! They've setup base camp on Tortola where they live aboard the boat, work locally and send the kids to local school in the islands. Since this podcast first aired, they've even so...

#196.  Dennis Schell is affectionately & jokingly known to all my sailing friends as simply 'Andy's Dad'. I have him to thank for my sailing career, and for inspiring me to start my own business. Dad raised me as a sailor & taught me everything I know. We recorded this chat aboard Isbjorn in Trellis Bay, BVI, shortly before we both sailed - he on Sojourner, us on Isbjorn - north to Bermuda. We cov...

#195.  Jon Amtrup is a Norwegian sailor who spends a large portion of his time above the Arctic Circle. In fact, when I spoke to him back in January at the Oslo Central Train Station, he had just returned from Tromso after a winter sailing expedition with a group of Russians who wanted to see the northern lights! So Jon's pretty hard-core to say the least. He's also an avid single-handed sailor, a...

#194.  Dr. Andrew Merrie is not a sailor, per se, but is indeed a vocal advocate for the world's ocean's. An expat Kiwi living in Stockholm, he works for the Stockholm Resilience Center, a non-profit, independent research institute specializing in sustainable development and environmental issues. We're releasing this week's show early because Andrew is launching his latest research project 'Radica...

#193. Greetings from Bermuda, where we recently made landfall on Isbjorn! This week's recycled episode features Webb Chiles, certainly one of the most adventurous small boat sailors in recent memory, if not one of the greatest. He's been around the world several times, cross the Pacific in an open boat, nearly drowned when he fell overboard off Florida and on and on. He's written several books abo...

#192: Susie Goodall is a badass. Mia & I met her in Antigua in February after she'd just completed a solo trans-Atlantic crossing in her Rustler 36. At just 26, she is the first woman to enter next year's Gold Globe Race, essentially a reenactment of the famous race that Sir Robin Knox-Johnston won in 1968, establishing nonstop solo ocean racing. Susie was prepping for the return voyage to England...

#191:  Kristoffer Applequist is kind of a big deal in Sweden. One of the countries premier comedians, Kristoffer is also a sailor, and a longtime fan of the podcast. He reached out to me a while back, and we've since become friends. Mia & I visited his beautiful house in the Sunne, in central Sweden, to talk to Kristoffer about his comedy background & his sailing ambitions. Since this conversation...

#190:  Crossing the Atlantic is at the top of my mind at the moment - by the time you hear this, we'll be at-sea, en route to Bermuda, the first leg of what will be my 3rd, Mia's 4th trans-Atlantic passage. I recorded this seminar about our two previous trans-Atlantic experiences the Toronto Boat Show in 2016. Mia & I discuss weather routing, seasonal route options and best practices, and call on...

#189:  Clint Wells is one of my best friends, and Isbjorn's first mate when Mia can't make a passage. He was there when I first met Mia in New Zealand, and he sailed across the Atlantic with us on Arcturus back in 2011. Clint is NOT a sailor - or at least wasn't, until joining us. I spoke to him a few years back about our Atlantic crossing together and the challenges he faced - both physically, an...

#188: Linda Hammarberg & her husband Ludvig recently returned to Sweden after a multi-year circumnavigation with their two young kids, Otto & Lovis, onboard 'Mary af Roverhamn,' their Joshua-type steel ketch. During parts of the voyage they were followed by a film crew from Swedish television for the show 'familje pa Aventyr' - which basically translates to 'Families on Adventure.' The Hammarberg'...

#187. Matt Rutherford is a longtime friend of the podcast and founder of the Ocean Research Project. Matt became famous, of course, for his legendary Solo the America's voyage, during which he sailed a 27' Albin Vega around both American continents. In our latest chat, recorded in Sweden back in January, Matt recalls the summer of 2016 in Greenland, where he & his partner Nicole piloted their rese...

#186: Today's episode is a recording I made of my seminar on Heavy Weather Sailing I gave at last weekends Ocean Sailing Seminar, hosted by World Cruising Club in Annapolis. While I'm lucky not to have too many gnarly heavy-weather sea stories of my own, I've studied the subject for years and enjoying talking about it theoretically. What follows is a discussion on what I feel are the 'best practic...

#185. Retired Senator Tom Harkin & I recorded this 'recycled' episode at his house in Hope Town, in the Bahamas, almost two years ago now. Tom was a career senator, but this episode is nothing about politics. Rather, it's about Tom's incredible, unbelievable life story. He was a fighter pilot during Vietnam and became one of the few people ever to eject from a jet and survive to tell the tale. He...

#184:  Olly Cotterell is one of the youngest Clipper Race skippers ever, sailing to a podium position in the 2013-2014 edition of the RTW race onboard OneDLL. He currently skipper's the prototype, foiling racing yacht 'Maverick,' which recently won her class in the RORC Trans-Atlantic Race. Olly & I have a connection in that we've both worked for Broadreach. We met up to record this episode in per...