On the Wind Sailing

#160. Brian Porter was on the build team for the record-breaking, 100-foot supermaxi 'Comanche,' and continues to work on owner's Jim & Kristy Clark's shore crew. He came on the podcast to talk about his boat-building beginnings, getting a dream job building Comanche, working alongside pro sailors Ken Red, Stan Honey & Jimmy Spithill, Comanche's recent trans-Atlantic record, the America's Cup and...

#159. Pam Wall, the film version. When we changed the name of the show to ON THE WIND, I hinted about new projects in the works. Today I can finally announce one of them. The episode that follows is the audio version of this week's ON THE WIND, which in its original form is actually a film, directed by Thierry Humeau and shot in Pam Wall's backyard in Ft. Lauderdale back in April. This is the firs...

#158 Isbjorn sailed to Cuba in April. Finally, my full-length essay on the experience in Havana. This one is for the dreamers, filled with descriptions of what it's like at marina Hemingway, chasing signs of Che, Fidel and the Cuban revolution, drinking daquaries at La Floridita, sipping Havana Club rum, smoking cigars, driving around in old cars and everything else that defines the Cuban experien...

#157. is John Harries, the founder of morganscloud.com , AKA 'Attainable Adventure Cruising,' and in my opinion the foremost authority on safe and simple ocean sailing boats & equipment. He's an accomplished high latitudes sailor with over 150,000 miles under his keel. Mia and I met him for a round 2 on the podcast in Lunenburg, where he dinghied out to Isbjorn for an in-person chat. We discussed...

#156 is another World Cruising Club 'Ocean Sailing Forum,' this one recorded back in January at the Toronto International Boat Show . In the Forum, I moderated a panel of experienced ocean sailors including Les Suter, who you'll recall from episode 97, Toronto native Colin Kilgour, Sheryl Shard of the Distant Shores TV show , Caribbean 1500 and ARC Europe vets Joy & Ian Winterborn, and finally, dr...

#155 is…me. Back in January, Teddy J of the Sail Loot podcast and I had a marathon recording session, banging out two-and-a-half hours of material while Mia and I were up there for the Toronto Boat Show. I had a bit of a cold, hence my voice sounding a bit off. The first hour-and-a-half was Teddy interviewing me for his show. Sail Loot focuses on folks in sailing who have figured out a way to make...

#154. About 48 hours has passed since my appendectomy. I'm sitting at my cousin Dan's kitchen table in North Andover, about 20 miles from Boston, writing this while I spend a few days here recovering. Isbjorn is back at sea, having departed Newport yesterday morning around 0800, about the same time I jumped in the car to drive the two hours north to here. I'm stiff. I'm sore. I haven't had a good...

#153. John Franta of Colligo Marine has been on the podcast before of course, in episode 45, where we discuss his career and some of the technical aspects of Colligo 'Dux,' the synthetic, dyneema-based standing rigging that we put on Arcturus before crossing the Atlantic. John's back this week to discuss some more technical aspects of his job at Colligo. We start the discussion by focusing on one...

#152. Jeremy Davis from Weather Routing Inc. talks with Andy Schell about climate change, pilot charts, hurricane season, Bahamian 'doratios' (i.e. wicked and sustained thunderstorms), how to become a meteorologist, the difference between weather routing & weather forecasting & much much more in a very informative and technical episode 152 on weather.

#151. I feel like the business is 'on the brink' - either we finally get to enjoy all we've worked for over the past ten years, living out what I'd only dreamed about. Or, it doesn't work out, we don't sell enough bunks to make a living, and we do something else. A few things here or there could tip the scales either way. Here's how.

#150. is my good friend, sailmaker Chuck O'Malley. I've worked with Chuck and his business at Chesapeake Sailmakers since first moving to Annapolis after college in 2006, and he's been my sailmaker ever since. Back then, I was living on my dad's boat Sojourner, and Chuck repaired a spinnaker we had onboard. He'd eventually build all three new sails for Arcturus before our Atlantic crossing, build...

#149. Chris Museler and I talk sailing to Cuba. He describes the fear and excitement he experienced in Haiti, the 'two sides' of Jamaica, the emotional roller coaster on sailing between vastly different cultures in a relatively short period of time, what Cuba is really like, how he ran out of cash getting to Havana and much more. Throughout our conversation, I chime in a describe what our experien...

#148. Paul & Sheryl Shard talk to us live from Toronto about their start in sailing, how they got into movie-making, combining their passion for movies, travel and sailing, Paul's career as a boat-builder, Sheryl's theatre background and lots more! Audience Q&A included throughout. -- I wanted to post my episode about Cuba this week, but being at the rally has left me with little time to finish it...

#147. is a fun one. Back in March, I had planned to do another podcast with Matt Rutherford to get an update on what he's doing with his Ocean Research Project. As it were, Paul Exner was also in town to speak at a seminar Mia and I hosted in Annapolis. AND, ship's pilot Mark Baummer was around, and had asked me for some advice to help him plan a passage to Bermuda on his Gemini catamaran. So, the...

#145 is Tory Salvia, founder and executive producer of The Sailing Channel. Tory and I sat down in person in Annapolis a few weeks ago and had a fascinating conversation. We talked about Tory's sailing career in general and how he got started, his love of good old boats, how he's been influenced over the years, and more recently, his starting thesailingchannel.tv . Tory made his career in media pr...

#143 is Emma Louise Wyn Jones, a very charming and inspiring 22-year-old sailor and yachting photographer from the UK. I met Emma during the recent Caribbean 600 Race. If you happened to catch that video that the race media posted about Paul & I discussing the weather for the race, it was Emma who shot it. If you didn't see it yet, check out this episode's show notes page for the link. I was inter...

#142. We've got two new sponsors for this show, but before we get to them, a quick note on Mia and I. We're back stateside for a week, driving to Annapolis on the day this releases. If you're in town, join us at Fawcett Boat Supplies on Thursday March 17th (St Patty's Day!) for a free seminar we're giving on fulfilling ocean sailing dreams. Fawcett's has been holding these winter seminar series' f...

#141. It's only been a week since our last episode, but when we went bi-weekly, I promised an interview every two weeks. Episode 140 is a live seminar I recorded from Toronto on Sailing the Baltic. Not an interview, of course, so sort of a bonus episode this week. I highly recommend going to 59-north.com/baltic to follow along with the slides from this talk. You'll also find a load of show notes a...

#139. if not THE BEST one yet, it's certainly the one I'm most proud of, for a number of reasons. It's the highly-produced, onboard audio, musically-enhanced storytelling podcast of Isbjorn's crew racing in the RORC Caribbean 600, only last week. Behind skipper Paul Exner , the crew of Dan, Charly, Vanessa, Keith, Ken & Michael and I charged around this most grueling of racecourses. We were in thi...

#138. I sat down with John & Amanda Neal of Mahina Expeditions , two of my favorite people in sailing and a huge inspiration both philosophically and practically in building my own offshore passage business with Isbjorn. This is the first of several podcasts I recorded in front of a live audience at the Toronto Boat Show in January, so you'll hear some questions pop in from the handful of people w...

#137. is a unique one. It's Part 2 of a very long conversation I had with Teddy J of the Sail Loot podcast. Teddy and I recorded over Skype when I was up in Toronto two weeks ago and wound up talking for over two and a half hours! This is unique in that It's a 'part 2.' Teddy and I are releasing these episodes simultaneously on each other's shows, so to catch Part 1 - in which I spend over 90 minu...

#136. is Rick & Julie Palm, live from Cruiser's University in Annapolis way back in October. Rick & Julie Palm have been mentors of sorts for Mia and I. They had the role of event managers for World Cruising Club before we took over and have been active in the Caribbean 1500 basically since its inception under Steve Black, who was a dear friend of theirs. And they are consummate ocean sailors. If...

#135. is a bonus episode with Jesse Osborn, last week's guest along with his wife Samantha. In this episode, Jesse reads a journal post he titled 'IF YOU DON'T WANT SOMETHING, YOU MAY SETTLE FOR ANYTHING. BUT ANYTHING, COULD BE NOTHING AT ALL.' Read Jesse & Samantha's blog at empiricusembarks.com .

#134. Happy New Year! Welcome to the first episode of 59º North in 2016!  Episode 134 is Jesse & Samantha Osborn. You won't have heard of them, but they're some of the most interesting and accomplished cruising sailors I've ever come across. Matt Rutherford introduced me to them last fall and they ended up sleeping aboard Isbjorn during the week of the Annapolis Boat Show, bunk-mates with the lege...

#133 is Pam Wall , circumnavigator and another of my sailing heroes. Pam is a staple in most of the sailing magazines and seminar circuits, and made a career in sailing working for and with West Marine after sailing round the world in her beloved Freya 39 Kandarik. I spoke to Pam during her lunch break one day at Cruiser's University in Annapolis this fall, where we were both on the speaking sched...