Out The Gate Sailing: Recent Episodes
Benjamin Shaw
At 21-years-old Jasmine Harrison became the youngest female to row solo across the Atlantic. A year later she set a record as the first woman to swim the full length of the British Isles. Currently, she’s participating in the Mini Globe Race, a solo, around-the-world race for 5.8 meter mostly home-built yachts. Before starting the race, Jasmine didn’t know how to sail. We crossed paths in the Marquesas where we discussed her exploits. Follow her progress on the Mini Globe website or her Instagram page.
Andy Schell of 59° North Sailing is no stranger to the Out The Gate podcast. We’d both been wanting to follow up on our last podcast conversation, but hadn’t managed to connect over Zoom. So, when Falken, 59° North's Farr 65, and Dovka both happened to pull into Hiva Oa in the Marquesas the same morning, we took the opportunity to finally sit down and chat. We talked about our respective Pacific crossings, the importance of letting go, and what we’re each looking forward to in sailing, work, and life. This interview can also be found on Andy's pre-eminent podcast On The Wind.
After completing a nearly 3,000 nautical mile passage from Banderas Bay, Mexico to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, my crew and I sit down to debrief our voyage. Joining me on Dovka for the 23.5 day ocean crossing was my brother Jon Shaw and my college buddy Tim Field. A few days after arrival, the three of us sat down to discuss the highs and lows of the trip, from a magical manta ray visit to managing the monotony of late night watches. You can relive moments from the passage @SVDovka on Instagram.
Mark Synnott is a professional rock climber and author. He’s climb many first ascents, written a multitude of National Geographic articles and simply put had a ton of bad ass adventures. He took up sailing about 20 years ago, and recently sailed his boat, Polar Sun, through the Northwest Passage on a quest to unlock the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Franklin Expedition. Mark has a new book about the adventure called Into The Ice. National Geographic also produced a special about his journey called Lost in the Arctic that you can watch on Disney+.
I met 23-year-old Kevin Boyle when he sailed into La Cruz Mexico aboard his Ericson 32 and I took his lines at the dock. Kevin stuck out in the sailing community of La Cruz because of his young age. He reminded me of myself when I went cruising in my 20s and I really wanted to talk to him about his experience cruising a young person and seeing how he made that happen. He’s currently crossing the Pacific from Mexico to the Marquesas and I’m hoping we can reconnect in French Polynesia.
Tim Carden is not new to adventure, having ridden his motorcycle solo all over the world. But, he is relatively new to sailing and he’s planning an audacious journey in his trailerable 27-foot trimaran. He’s planning to drive his Corsair F-27 south from his home in Albuquerque, NM, to launch it in the Sea of Cortez. From there, he’ll sail solo down the Sea of Cortez, out across the Pacific to French Polynesia, north to Hawaii and then back to California. He’ll do all this without fossil fuels, having converted the boat to electric propulsion and electric cooking. You can follow Tim’s journey on Instagram at Manta_On_The_Sea.
Heather Richard is a skilled sailor, an exceptional teacher, a great storyteller, and a kick-ass mother! As a high school graduation present for her son, they double-handed in the Pacific Cup Race to Hawaii, aboard the boat on which she raised him! Heather and I talk about prepping for this race, the crossing, and the long sail back. We discuss why she’s decided to sell her boat and what she’s looking for next. After hearing her story, you can sail with Heather at Fine Day for Sailing.
Raffi Patatian is one of the most conscientious, careful, and knowledgeable sailors I know. He set off for Mexico aboard his Hallberg Rassy 43, Wind River, in the fall of 2023. Since then, he has sailed many miles down the West Coast and across the Pacific Ocean, mostly singlehanded. He’s an entrepreneur who ran his own IT business in the Bay Area before heading off cruising. Raffi and I caught up at his Sausalito home when he briefly returned from Fiji to pick up some boat parts.
Jamie and Behan Gifford have been sailing their Stevens 47, Totem, around the world for more than a decade. They raised three children aboard but are now empty nesters, planning the next chapter of their cruising life. Lauren and I joined them aboard Totem to discuss life afloat, upgrades to their beloved boat, their successful coaching business, and their upcoming sailing plans. (Photo by Jill Hearne)
Jon Bilger is the director and founder of PredictWind. Jon founded the company after working on forecasting for the Alinghi Americas Cup team. The technology has revolutionized accessibility of weather forecasting and routing for both racers and cruisers. I talk to Jon about his own sailing background, how he developed Predict Wind, some new exciting tools - like 100 meter accuracy tidal current modeling for San Francisco Bay - and more.
John Taussig is the founder and executive director of Backcountry Medical Guides and the subsidiary Maritime Medical Guides. He’s a career paramedic who’s worked on helicopters, in ambulances, on ski patrol, as a ranger, and as a captain on boats. He’s a surfer, climber, kayaker, mountain biker, snow boarder, sailer, and and all around adventurer based in Bellingham Washington. John and I talked about responding to bear attacks in Yellowstone, commuting to work from Santa Cruz to Monterey via sailboat, flying on choppers through the Sierra as part of a air medic team, his trip paddling and sailing a kayak from Washington up the inside passage to AK, and more.
Michael Rohde is rebuilding - bow to stern, keel to masthead - a late 70s Cape George 36 named Akela. He welcomed me aboard the boat last August when it was on the hard at Napa Valley Marina. He’s jumped into this major project with both feet and is making good progress. Inspired by other YouTubers, he’s documenting the entire refit on his channel RohdeSoda.
Andre Lay is licensed Captain from the Bay Area who is in the process of circumnavigating North America in a compact trawler. He’s currently in Barra de Navidad on the Mexican mainland and is soon headed for El Salvador. He is doing this trip simply to prove too himself he can, to meet people, and to see what’s out there. He’d also like to raise awareness for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but as Andre says” I’m not trying to change the world by going around it. I’m just out there to experience it.”
Scott Racette and Ashley Gremel met sailing in San Francisco Bay in 2016. Five years later they sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge together aboard their Pearson 365, Azimuth, to begin a trip from the San Francisco Bay to the Chesapeake Bay. Along the way they adopted a cat, transited the Panama Canal, fixed leaking through-hulls, and learned a whole lot. I talk to them about the adventure.
Brendan Borrell is a corespondent for Outside Magazine. Along with photographer Tom Fowlks, he recently paddled from the Central Valley of California to the headwaters of the San Francisco Bay. Taking advantage of a very wet winter last year, which led to the reformation of Tulare Lake, they paddled over flooded farmland, up irrigation ditches and down rivers, braving putrid water, a sinking boat, being shot at, and nearly being arrested. An article about the adventure titled My Wild Wet and (Sometimes) Miserable Paddling Trip Through the Heart of California, with words by Brendan and photos by Tom, appears in the November/December issue of Outside Magazine.
As my wife, two daughters and I prepare to move aboard and sail south aboard Dovka, our 1981 Hallberg Rassy 352, the four of us sit down with my parents Sid and Rebecca shaw to talk about the boat--which they used to own--and our coming travels. Follow our trip at www.Dovka.com
Andy Schell, along with his wife Mia Karlsson, founded the ocean sailing business 59 North to share the wisdom of the high seas. Lauren and I sailed with them in July of 2019 and that’s when I last had Andy on the show. Since then Andy and Mia have grown 59 North by leaps and bounds. In this episode, I catch up with Andy to hear about the changes and the difficulties and stresses they’ve faced in building the business and how he attempts to find balance while pushing boundaries.
Pam Wall has encouraged and inspired so many individuals and families to find joy from sailing and cruising. She has spent decades sharing her knowledge through lectures, boat show seminars, and of course podcasts like this. Pam first took off cruising with her husband Andy Wall aboard their 30-ft sloop Carronade. Later, with children, they cruised aboard the 39-ft sloop Kandarik. While I’ve never met Pam in persons, she’s been friends with my parents for years and my father, Sid Shaw, met Andy Wall in Tahiti in the 60s.
Isabel Lardner has sailed many miles on tall ships, something I’ve always dreamed of doing. She share stories of her time at sea and describes what it’s like sailing these special ships.
Mary SwiftSwan is the founder of Afterguard Sailing in Oakland. Afterguard is only one of the three sailing schools she’s founded. She began teaching sailing in 1984, became the very first woman ASA instructor/evaluator, and has literally written the book on ASA instruction - helping write the ASA curriculum for the 101 and 103 courses.
Ryan May run’s his charter business, May on the Bay, out of Sausalito aboard his Catalina 34. A U.S. Coast Guard Captain, Ryan has logged over 25,000 offshore nautical miles since learning to sail as a kid in Toronto - visiting nearly 40 countries by sail. Ryan and I met because our kids went to the same school in San Francisco and quickly bonded over our similar sailing experience. Book a sail with Ryan at www.MayOnTheBay.com.
Leigh Hunt is President and CEO of Modern Sailing school and club. Modern has been introducing people to sailing on SF Bay since 1983. In 2014, Leigh, decided to make his passion for sailing into a business - leaving a career in product management to purchase Modern from the previous owner. Recently Modern has expanded their operations, taking over the space in the Berkeley Marine Center that used to be OCSC.
Hank George, of Blue Heron Battery, is an engineer who has a background working in the nuclear industry. Designing his own components, he was cruising with lithium power over a decade ago, years before most people. And he’s helped many other boaters do the same. In addition to his expertise, what has impressed me with Hank as I’ve gotten to know him over the past months is the clear way he’s able to explain complex topics with generosity and patience.
Years ago, Jim Hancock conceived of a hands-on, interactive learning center that would inspire a passion for sailing and science by delighting people through play and discovery. Jim and I talked about the Sailing Science Center four years ago when he was on the podcast. Since then the center has come a long way. They’re up and running with regular programing and an army of volunteers. In fact, this coming weekend on June 24, you can catch up with Jim and see and play with Sailing Science Center exhibits at the Oakland Yacht Club’s Summer Solstice event.
The Race to Alaska is a wonderful race in which boats of all shapes and sizes head north from Port Townsend, Washington and end up in Ketchikan Alaska, 750 miles away. The only rules are no engines and no outside support. Satchel Douglas has done the race twice before - and joined me on Episode 9 of the show to talk about his effort as part of Team Shut Up and Drive. This time he joins me to talk about his latest attempt at the race aboard a wing foil! His story of how he qualified for the first leg of the race across the straits of Juan de Fuca is an adventure in itself. The first leg just started on Monday June 5.
When Jason Brown started asking around about the possibility of freediving in San Francisco Bay people told him it was impossible. But my friend Jason has never been one to let impossible stand in his way. Together with his buddy John Prins he’s pioneered freediving just inside the Golden Gate in water that’s cold, dark, and frequented by massively strong currents. Not only has he attracted the attention of the press - with a recent front page article in the San Francisco Chronicle - but he’s attracted the attention of the world’s preeminent free diver - Alexey Molchanov who recently joined Jason here in the Bay.
At 10-years-old, Malcolm Morgan fell into boat maintenance when his family bought at Hobie Cat dealership after having sailed exactly once. He quickly took to doing electrical work and over the past 50 years has built up an expertise that is nearly unparalleled. Malcom works as a yacht broker for Oceanic Yachts and runs a marine electrical business, Malcolm Morgan Marine In our conversation, he shares his thoughts on proper grounding, lightning protection, lithium batteries and more.
This week on OTG I discuss the U.S. Sailing Safety at Sea Seminar Lauren and I just took as well as the lithium battery conversion I am in the process of completing.
Heinz Baumann learned to sail on lakes in Europe, but was introduced to a whole new world of sailing and racing when he moved to the Bay Area. He’s sailed his boat Rageboge, a 38-foot Hallberg Rassy, down to Mexico with his family and across the Pacific in the 2022 Pac Cup. More recently, he’s started a charter business called Swiss Adventures and he takes paying crew sailing in Alaska, all the way from Seward out to. Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands.
Markus Pukonen has been traveling the world for 7-and-a-half years. He’s sailed, he’s biked, he’s canoed, he’s kayaked, he’s stand-up paddlebarded and he’s pogo sticked his was around the globe. What he hasn’t done is traveled anywhere by motorized vehicle. I was introduced to Markus by a mutual sailing friend and I was excited to catch up with him just after his return to North America to hear about his amazing adventures and what inspired him to take this epic journey. You can learn more about Markus and follow his travels at RoutesOfChange.org
Last time Ronnie Simpson was on the show, in 2020, we talked about being wounded by an RPG in Iraq and how sailing saved his life. This time, Ronnie and I talk about his preparation for the upcoming Global Solo Challenge, a new round-the-world sailing race. He’s currently in North Carolina preparing his boat Sparrow, an Open 50, for the race. You can follow his effort at www.RonnieSimpsonRacing.com
Bernard Dunayevich owned one of the first windsurfers in Argentina and taught himself how to rig and sail it in piranha infested waters. But he says the main disincentive from falling in was the cold water and lack of a wetsuit. He’s come a long way from that first heavy board, having raced all over the world and even making a bid for the Olympic Games. Today he sails regularly out of Berkeley.
Sally and Simon Currin met while planning an expedition to Mount Everest. Since then, they’ve traded in high altitude climbing for high latitude sailing, and in the process won awards from the Cruising Club of America and the Ocean Cruising Club for their navigation and exploration of Greenland’s Scoresby Sound - the largest fjord system in the world. Simon is also the current Commodore of the Ocean Cruising Club.
In the 90’s, Susan Cole, her husband John, her 7-year-old daughter Kate, and their dog Elmo all boarded their Mason 43 for a three-year adventure though the Caribbean with ups, downs, hurricanes, and more. I talk with Susan about her recently published memoir titled Holding Fast, that chronicles her family’s cruising trip but is really a love story. From falling in love, to setting sail together, to battling the cancer that eventually took John’s life, Susan shares in vivid detail moving and meaningful moment from her life together with John.
Ryan Ellison, who’s American, and Sophie Darsey, who’s French, met in Sweden. Together they learned to sail then purchased a 2007 Beneteau Oceanis 40 and set off sailing together in what they expected would be a one-year trip. Five years later they’re still cruising, having sailed from the North Sea to France, then Spain, then the Mediterranean, and then across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and up to the Chesapeake Bay. I talk with Ryan about his life-changing encounter with a goose, his traumatic single-handed transatlantic trip, training a new fuzzy, four-legged crew member, and what more than five years living and sailing aboard with his partner has taught him about life and relationships. You can learn more about Ryan and Sophie and watch their excellently produced videos at RyanandSophie.com.
I catch up with Chris and Marissa Neely aboard their Choy Lee 41 Avocet. After years of living aboard and working on their boat in Ventura, CA, they’ve thrown off the dock lines and are going cruising. Their first stop? San Francisco Bay. Chris grew up sailing on the Bay and they are excited to be back in home waters. You can follow Chris and Marissa on their trip through their popular and beautifully produced videos at Sailing Avocet.
Federico Guerrero grew up 4 blocks from the beach in Argentina. Laura Smith Grew up next to me, in Falls Church Virginia. The two of them fell in love with sailing independently and then met at sea aboard a ship - and soon after nurtured a plan to build their own boat and sail it to Antarctica. Today they run a charter business called Quixote Expeditions out of Ushuaia, Argentina - regularly taking guests on expeditions to Antarctica aboard one of the two vessels in their fleet. I talk to them about running the business, sailing at the bottom of the world, and how they connected with yet another childhood friend of mine to start taking photography trips in conjunction with Visionary Wild.
Andy Cross grew up daysailing and cruising with his family in Michigan. He made his first offshore passage at 19 and he’s been working in the sailing industry pretty much ever since. In 2012, Andy and his wife Jill bough a Grand Soleil 39, named her Yahtzee, and threw off the lines to live aboard full time - raising two boys aboard the boat. They’ve sailed the Salish Sea, the Inside Passage, Alaska, San Francisco, Mexico, through the Panama Canal, Down to Columbia and beyond. Read Andy's blog at sailingyahtzee.com
Cal Currier had never been ocean sailing, but at sixteen-years-old the Palo Alto high school student set himself a goal to sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean. A few short months later, with support from his father and New England sailmaker Sandy Van Zandt, he had learned to sail, found the right boat, and set off on his crossing. His 28 day 3,400 nautical miles trip from Massachusetts to Portugal may qualify him as the youngest to ever make the west-to-east passage. We talk about his preparation for the trip as well as the highs and lows of the crossing itself.
He made it! Cyril Derreumaux recently became the second person in the world to kayak from California to Hawaii. We spoke before he left (episode 73) and now 91 days and 2,400 miles later we discuss the trials and triumphs of his successful solo crossing. It was not his first attempt, but he took what he learned from the aborted trip a year previously to make sure he was prepared physically and mentally for the adventure.
Justin Jenkins is a sailor, musician, and carpenter who has sailed all over the pacific. He and I have been corresponding about sailing for a few years and I recently met up with him at the KKMI where he works and lives aboard his Luders 36. We had a good conversation about the ups and down, the stress and anxiety of preparing for an ocean voyage.
Ryann Finn departed New York in January of 2022. Just over three months later he arrived here in San Francisco, having sailed his 36-foot proa sailboat 14,000 nautical miles - down the Atlantic, around Cape Horn, and back up the Pacific to San Francisco. He faced multiple challenges, including broken gear that required stops in Brazil and Patagonia, plenty of storms, and frustrating calms in the Pacific as he neared his destination. He talks about his adventurous passage and adjusting to life back on land. You can follow Ryan on Facebook at 2Oceans1Rock.
James Frederick was recently awarded the 2021 Qualifiers Mug from the Ocean Cruising Club for sailing 2,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, 1,000 of those without a rudder. We met up in Annapolis the night before he received his award to talk about his rudder failure, steering by drogue, and how he went from being an artist, and taxi driver to an ocean cruiser aboard his 1965 Alberg 30 Triteia. He’s currently cruising in French Polynesia and you can follow his adventure at www.svtriteia.com.
Captain Heather Richard, a good friend of mine, was one of the key inspirations for this podcast. She was my very first guest and I’m thrilled to have her back on the program for episode 101. She lives and runs a charter business in Sausalito called Fine Day for Sailing aboard her 43-foot sailboat Carodon. A U.S. Coastguard licensed captain, Heather’s been sailing since the age of 4 and more recently she’s picked up wing foiling. We talk about winging, her recent sailing trips down to Baja, homeschooling three kids along the way, and her sailing plans for the future.
The Rosie G is an innovative, new, scow bowed, junk rigged, boat that came from the mind of Barry and Samatha Spanier. She was designed by Jim Antrim and built by Cree Partridge and his yard at the Berkeley Marine Center. All of these folks are friends of the show, which is why it was such a treat to sit in the dog house on Rosie G in the Emeryville Marina and talk with Barry and Samatha about the boat’s conception, construction, and coming sea trials.
McKala Bower is a trans woman who only started sailing a short while ago, but she’s got big ambitions to be the first trans and first openly gay person to circumnavigate solo. She’s always loved adventure and the outdoors and we talk about how at 25, a near-death experience in the mountains actually led her to coming out as trans. Now she’s tackling an adventure on the sea aboard her sailboat S/V Swirl, a San Juan 30, built in 1977. Learn more about McKayla at whoismckaylabower.com
In this second interview with Brady Trautman and Alex Blue of S/V Delos fame, we talk about their new Passport 42, Lintika - the largest boat in their Cruisers Academy fleet. The sail training school they’re running in Tahoe and Sausalito is going strong and we had a great time talking about their plans for Lintika, surviving a tsunami warning in San Francisco, and nearly striking it rich on whale poop.
Mark Hensley, knows sailing - he’s sailed his entire life. But he’s spent most of his time on the water at sea as captain of an oil tanker during a 20-year career with Arco Marine. He’s got plenty of stories from his time on the water and subsequent years teaching at the Maritime Academy in Vallejo, CA.
Jim Antrim, often called the Wizard of El Sobrante, is a naval architect who apprenticed under Dick Carter, Britton Chance and Gary Mull. He’s designed record breaking multihull and monohull sailboats as well as popular production boats. He’s an expert in composite material engineering and has developed several computer programs used in performance analysis and prediction. I met him in his office to talk about many of his designs and how he got into naval architecture in the first place.
Matt Rutherford made a name for himself when he completed a solo, 309-day, non-stop, record-breaking trip around the Americas in a 27-foot Albin Vega. Today he’s focused on putting the finishing touches on a 72-foot, Brucer Roberts designed steel schooner that will be the flagship of his non-profit: Ocean Research Project. Matt and I talked about the 60-day research expedition he and Nikki Trenholm undertook from San Francisco to Japan in a 30-foot daysailer they built in about a month.
Cameron Albin is a marine and an Iraq war veteran who suffered a traumatic brain injury while on deployment. After being discharged from the military he found himself struggling, until he rediscovered sailing. Now, he’s started American Odysseus Sailing Foundation to help other veterans and first responders living with PTSD by taking them to sea. The organization is organizing an entry into the 2023 Ocean Globe Race with an all-veteran crew aboard a Swan 59.
Billy and Sierra Swezey are better known to their online fans as the couple behind Tula's Endless Summer. The two met at a surf shop in Florida when Billy sailed in on his small boat. Not too long afterwards both of them were living on the boat, with their dog Jetty, cruising the waters of Florida and beyond. Since then they've had a series of fixer up boats - and a camper - that they've gotten on the cheap and turned into seaworthy homes allowing them to explore further and further. Currently they're fixing up a DeFever motor yacht in Napa while waiting for their new Seawind catamaran to be constructed and delivered. They film their boat work and travels, sharing it on YouTube with over 150,000 subscribers. Their able to support themselves and their travel with the revenue that creates.
Tyler Walkey and Julie Sinusia fell in love with a ketch rigged Ingrid 38 in Monterey. Trouble was they needed to get it down to Los Angles within days of purchasing her because they had flights home to Japan they had to make. That’s where I came in. They posted online looking for experienced crew and I happened to have the time to join them for the few days it would take to sail down the coast. I recorded this interview with Tyler and Julia while we were at sea, underway between Monterey and LA.
When Lauren Sloss met Alex Kleeman in San Francisco, she was planning on moving to New York to study journalism. He was planning on sailing the world. They managed to do both of those things and stay together as a couple - eventually getting married and sailing far and wide together. As well as being a sailor, Lauren is a Journalist who recently wrote a wonderful article in the New York Times about a trip up to the Delta in which she explored the history and geography of the land and water.
Sonya David and Jack Patton met while sailing, and really haven’t stopped. They live together on their Passport 42, along with their cat Fathom, and together run Spirit Marine Services a business they started to do boat projects and maintenance for others. They have sailed extensively all around the Bay Area and plan to head off further afield in the near future. You can follow their adventures at TwoTheHorizon.com.
The former editor of Good Old Boat magazine got into sail ing when his mother mistakenly subscribed to Cruising World when he was a kid. He met his wife Windy through a Latitude 38 crew list and ended up cruising together aboard an Newport 27 down to Mexico, through the Panama Canal and around the Caribbean. Later, they set sail again, this time with their two daughters, aboard a Fuji 40 and sailed up to Alaska, down to Mexico and across the Pacific to Australia. Along the way he started writing for sailing magazines and ended up running Good Old Boat.
This week we go below the waves to learn more about how what we humans do on the water while fishing, sailing, or shipping impacts humpback whales and other marine mammals. I’m joined by Kathi George and Bekah Lane both of whom work with the Marine Mammal Center in Marin. Kathi, Director of Field Operations and Response at the Marine Mammal Center, works on whale entanglement prevention. Bekah is a graduate student researcher at the Marine Mammal Center studying the risk of ship strikes to humpback whales in the Bay.
Cree Partridge started building boats in his parents front yard while still in elementary school. His passion for being on the water started at a young age and continues to this day. In college, he channeled his desire to be on the water into racing and traveled all over the world to crew aboard big, fast boats. He then got into boat building. For the past twenty years he’s run the Berkeley Marine Center, where he helps bring many a dream to life.
Ben Pedersen-Wedlock grew up on boats and is an experienced ocean sailor. Anna Behrens had little to no sailing experience - until she met Ben. About a year after meeting, the two took off cruising in a 28-foot, ferro cement, William Atkins designed boat named Inga. They sailed south from San Francisco, down around South America and back up to New England, all without an engine. We talk about their 50-plus day passages, transiting the Beagle Channel, getting arrested in the Falkland Islands, running low on food and power in the dead of winter, and more.
Kevin Wasbauer is an experienced sailor, having competed in the Fastnet, the Heineken Regatta, the Transpac and many other races. In 2020 he purchased a Farr 53 named Atalanta and refit her during the pandemic in order to launch a charter business out of Monterey called Shearwater Sailing. I recently joined Kevin for a chat and a sail aboard this beautiful boat.
In 1967, my father Sidney Shaw was shipwrecked on a small reef just south of Vietnam while sailing aboard an 87-foot steel schooner named Dante Deo. The crew of seven, including a young child, were attempting to navigate the reef strewn South China Sea when they struck the Bombay Reef. Over 50 years later, my dad’s memories of the disaster and survival are still vivid as he recounts the story.
When Bianca Bahman and Fernanda Schlender, two Bay Area women decided to go on a surfing trip in Indonesia together they had no idea what kind of adventure they were in for. The small boat carrying them to the island resort where they were to vacation hit a reef in the middle of the night, forcing the two to take charge of the situation and fight for their lives. The two share the harrowing tale with me. Bianca also wrote the story up for the December 2020 issue of Latitude 38.
Erden Eruç is an accomplished ocean rower who is the first person to complete a solo circumnavigation by human power and the first to row the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. In the spring of 2021 he launched his boat from Crescent City with the goal of reaching Asia and climbing Mount Everest. He stopped in Hawaii to fix some gear and better time his crossing. That’s where I caught up with him before he departed on the next leg of his adventure. During his crossing , he’s partnering with the Ocean Recovery Alliance to raise awareness about plastic in the ocean. He’s currently in the Pacific and you can track his progress at westboundrower.com
Ryan Foland, together with John Arndt, the Publisher of Latitude 38, recently launched a new sailing podcast called Good Jibes. The podcast, hosted by multiple members of the crew at Latitude 38, features stories and tips from west coast sailors and is focused on community, cruising, and racing. Ryan and I talk about the show’s origins and where its headed. Ryan grew on the water in Southern California and spent most every summer anchored off Catalina Island.
My parents, Sid and Rebecca Shaw have been sailing together for over 50 years. Starting in the 60s as a newlywed couple aboard their 33-foot ferro-cement ketch and then later aboard their 35-foot Hallberg-Rassy, they cruised all around the world. We talk about how they got into cruising and what kept them at it. From learning to sail in Florida to a near sinking in St. Thomas, they share stories from their time together at sea.
When Lin met Larry Pardey in Newport Beach in 1965 he was just starting to build Seraffyn a 24.4-foot Lyle Hess designed cutter. The two quickly became inseparable and went on to sail more than 200,000 miles together, circumnavigating twice. Together they wrote twelve books on sailing and inspired many would-be cruisers with their “go simple, go small, go now,” philosophy. Larry passed away in 2020, but Lin continues to sail, and she shares in this interview sailing stories from the past and the present, including an inspiring tale about the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors.
My wife Lauren Keane and I share a love of adventure. I brought sailing to the marriage. She introduced me to long-distance, back-country hiking. To celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, we traversed the High Sierra Trail, a 72-mile hike across Sequoia National Park that took seven days and ended on Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48. Lauren joins me in this episode to debrief the trip and discuss the similarities and differences between backpacking and cruising.
Marga Pretorius stumbled into sailing while a freshman at UC Berkeley and quickly realized if she wanted to head off towards the horizon on her own boat one day she’d need to learn how to fix all things nautical. Work on her own vessels and a career at the Berkeley Marine Center had her tackling all kinds of boat projects. Today she lives and cruises aboard her Kelly Peterson 44 - with an impressive collection of tools that she clearly knows how to use - as illustrated in her May 2021 Cruising World article. She’s recently started a marine surveying and consulting business called Dogfish Boatworks so you too can benefit from her expertise.
In March of 2021, during the Corinthian Yacht Club Midwinter race, Jim Diepenbrock was dismasted while sailing his Swan 48, Wingman 5. It was a dangerous situation, but Jim handled it with a calm demeanor that allowed him to get his boat and his crew safely back to the dock. We talk about this incident and other scary situations he’s encountered while racing on the west coast.
Roughly 15 years ago, Barry Walton and two of his surfing buddies bought a 24-foot sailboat, sailed it out the Golden Gate, turned left, and spent months sailing down the coast to Mexico. Though the trip wasn’t at all what Barry was expecting, he brought along a camera, filmed the adventure and just recently turned the footage into a 5-part documentary called Reaching Reality.
Noelle Brewin and Laura Levy met while sailing on San Francisco Bay. They bonded over a desire to create quality sailing apparel for women. Together the recently started Somand and launched the Farallon Jacket with an anatomical cut, and many other design features, specifically crafted for women. We talk about getting the business up and running during the pandemic and their plans going forward.
Cyril Derreumaux is attempting to solo paddle his kayak across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Hawaii. French-born, Cyril now lives and began paddling here in the Bay Area about a decade ago. Since then, he’s raced the Moloka’i Hoe in Hawaii, paddled the Cal100 down the Sacramento Rive, done the 444-mile Yukon River Quest race in Canada twice, and in 2016 skippered a 4-man row from CA to Hawaii - setting a world record time of 39-days, 9-hours and 56-minutes for the 2,400 mile trip. You can follow his current crossing at SoloKayakToHawaii.com
Brady Trautman and Alex Blue are a filmmaking and sailing due who met cruising on SV Delos. For the moment, they’ve left the high seas and are starting a new adventure on Lake Tahoe - a sailing school called the Cruisers Academy. I talk with Brady and Blue about their time sailing on Delos, their adventure sailing in Svalbard, the resulting documentary series “80 Degrees North,” and their new ventures in Tahoe and beyond.
Ron Elliot probably has more close encounters with great white sharks than nearly any other person. Ron is a retired urchin diver who has spent countless hours underwater at the Farallon Islands. He continues to dive at the Farallons, even after a recent encounter during which he found himself facing a massive shark charging him with open jaws…. He didn’t escape unscathed. Watch Near Miss, a film by Josh Berry featuring Ron. And help support shark research at the Farallons, which has suffered a loss of funding during the COVID pandemic.
Brooks Watson started sailing about a year ago. But he’s jumped in with both feet, not only getting out on the water, but building a new community for sailors on the Clubhouse social media platform and launching a non-profit, Watts on Water that will enable cruisers to bring solar powered lights to those in need all over the world. He’s currently focused on the recent disaster in St. Vincent and is working to bring lights to those in need after a volcanic eruption cup power to much of the island.
James Dilworth is a sailor and boat builder. He built a 17-foot catamaran, strapped it to the roof of his car, took it down to Mexico and spent time exploring the Sea of Cortez. Once, in a challenge from the Discovery Channel, he built a boat with 3-grand in 3-days and attempted to sail it to the Farallon Islands. When I first met James he was getting ready to fly to the Philippines where he’d bought a traditional dug-out canoe, outrigger sailboat to take between the islands. In this conversation he shares the highs and lows, close calls and unforgettable experiences from his many adventures.
Joe Balderrama loves the feeling of sailing alone - and he’s done a lot of it both in the San Francisco Bay and across oceans. He’s currently the Commodore of the San Francisco Bay Singlehanded Sailing Society. We talk about everything from the Three Bridge Fiasco to surviving squalls in the Pacific.
In January, Ryan Finn left New York on a single-handed, non-stop passage to San Francisco around Cape Horn - a feat that’s never been done. But only a day out from shore he heard a bang and found a gaping hole in the hull of his 36-foot proa. He was able to make repairs and limp back to the east coast of the United States. After interviewing him before his departure (Episode 62), I caught up with him again briefly to hear about the incident, the aftermath, and his plans for the voyage moving forward. He’s set up a Go-Fund-Me campaign to help with the costs of the voyage.
Mike Scheck is President of Scanmar International, the Bay Area company best known for making the Monitor Windvane. A long-time Bay sailor, Mike took over the company from founder Hans Bernwall in 2014. Scanmar actually sells a few different windvane models and autopilots. Mike and I talk about the advantages of different kinds of steering gear, the new emergency rudder system for the Monitor, the origins of Scanmar, as well as the challenges of making your avocation into your vocation.
Graham Balch is the Managing Broker at Green Yachts - a new brokerage in San Rafael that is dedicated to selling, servicing and promoting electric boats. He shares with me the latest advances in electric propulsion and other green technology for sailboats. Graham recently spent time with Kika and Dan of Sailing Uma to test sail a Salona 46 in Croatia and you can see their video review of that boat here.
Kimball Livingston covered sailing for the San Francisco Chronicle for fourteen years. He then moved to a position as the West Coast Editor for Sail Magazine. His assignments took him around the globe and had him covering everything from local races to the America’s Cup. His coverage has been seen and heard on NPR, Radio New Zealand, and the CBS Evening News. He’s a past Commodore of St. Francis Yacht Club and current Chair of Junior sailing at the club.
Ernie Koepf has seen the many sides and many eras of commercial fishing on the west coast. He grew up fishing with his family out of Half Moon Bay, and took to the life, buying his own boat to search the seas for crab, salmon, herring and more. His book Opening Day is a fictionalized account of his life and it’s a story beautifully told. Ernie will be reading his writing at the 8th annual Suasalito Community Boating Center Herring Festival on January 27th. Get your tickets here.
Ryan Finn grew up sailing with his family in the Gulf of Mexico. At 19 he was diagnosed with non-hodgkin's lymphoma and while undergoing cancer treatment he became fascinated by single-handed sailing. Today, Finn has successfully completed three Trans-Atlantic and three Trans-Pacific crossings. Now he's about to attempt the first ever solo, non-stop sail from New York to San Francisco around Cape Horn East to West. And he’s undertaking the 14,000 voyage in a modern proa, an updated version of a Polynesian sailing canoe. Follow Ryan’s journey at 2Oceans1Rock.
Linda Newland has devoted a good part of her life to expanding the presence of women in the sailing. She is an accomplished sailor herself, having done numerous single-handed races, including multiple San Francisco to Hawaii Transpacs. She holds the record for the “Fastest Woman Single-handed Transpac” in a race from San Francisco to Japan, and she skippered an all-female Transpac team in 1997. Linda holds a 100-ton Captain’s License, she ran a yacht delivery service, she’s a maritime attorney, a nautical science instructor, a certified ASA instructor, and served as president of the National Women’s Sailing Association. Nearly thirty years ago she co-founded the Island Yacht Club’s Northern California Women’s Sailing Seminars, and in September went virtual to continue the tradition through the pandemic.
Jeff Cote is the founder and owner of Pacific Yacht Systems. He and his staff provide custom marine electrical solutions for boaters. He thinks of his work less as providing a service and more as enabling dreams. He started the company after buying his own boat and having to redo the electrical system because it was causing him such grief. He wasn’t going to let his dream die due to gear frustrations. And he’s now helping others keep their dreams alive and head off into the blue with systems that allow them to be disconnected and self-sufficient for days, weeks or months on end.
Lisa Chapin Bullett Grew up sailing sunfish off the beach in Florida. Later, while living in Texas, she jumped to sailing bigger boats thanks to a program called SailTime in which members share boat access. Today, after cruising the East Coast, the Caribbean, and the Pacific as crew aboard various boats, Lisa is the owner of Sailtime San Francisco. As a licensed captain, Lisa has a passion for introducing people and families to sailing in whatever way works best for them.
Will Curry grew up cruising with his family in desolation Sound, Sarah didn’t. But she did grow up reading about families that were out cruising and longed to do it herself. So it’s not a surprise that on their very first date they talked about sailing to the South Pacific. Five years later, that’s just what they were doing, aboard their own boat. In addition to sailing together, Will and Sarah work together on the family business - Hydrovane steering systems. Follow Will & Sarah on their blog: svkaiquest.com
Tim Henry is a man of many talents. He’s a sailor, a surfer, a windsurfer, a journalist, and an artist. Until recently Tim was Managing Editor at Latitude 38 and he’s uncovered some great stories for the magazine covering the Sausalito general plan, anchor outs in Richardson Bay, the Berkeley marina, and more. We talk about all of these things in this wide-ranging conversation.
In 1999, at age 29, Clark Beek sailed out of Newport Harbor aboard his 40-foot Ketch on what he thought would be a year-long cruise. Ten years later he sailed into San Francisco, bringing with him stories of being torn apart by a Rottweiler, having dengue fever in Costa Rica and dysentery in India, going through a bloody insurrection in Fiji and a tsunami in Thailand, running aground on shoals and reefs, sailing through storms, and being run over by a container ship! Clark is a journalist who has written for nearly every sailing magazine out there. Check out his writing at http://condesa.org/
Philippe Jamotte took up sailing in 2013. In October 2020, he departed San Francisco trying to set a new record for the fastest westward solo, non-stop circumnavigation in a boat under 40 feet. He’s not one to do things by halves. A few of his past passions include long-distance motorbike racing, triathlons, and pottery. Since getting into sailing about seven years ago, he’s crossed the Atlantic as crew in the Clipper race, won the 2018 Transpacific Yacht Race in an Olson 30 named Double Espresso and set his sights on this solo circumnavigation. You can follow his journey at pjsails.com
Wilbur Spaul has been sailing since the 70s. For over 40 years he’s dreamed of crossing oceans in a tiny boat. On September 27, 2020 he will leave Berkeley, head out the Golden Gate and attempt a record breaking sail to Hawaii in a 9-foot sailboat called Chubby Girl. The San Francisco sailing community has rallied around Spaul to help him bring this dream to fruition. Now it’s time to start the adventure. You can follow his voyage at www.ChubbyGirlCruising.com
Ronnie Simpson was badly injured when hit by a rocket propelled grenade in Iraq. After coming home he discovered sailing as an exciting new way to explore the world. Since taking to the water, he’s raced solo to Hawaii, lost a keel at sea, biked across Asia, and set up sailing and surfing clinics to help other wounded veterans. Today he lives in Fiji where he’s running a board and sail shop called Mamanuca Board Traders.
Chris Neely grew up sailing on San Francisco bay, but met Marissa in the mountains where he taught her to sail on Huntington Lake. Not long after graduating college the two bought a 1979 Cheoy Lee 41, SV Avocet, which they are taking time to extensively refit in preparation for sailing far afield. Follow them on Sailing Avocet, their popular and beautifully produced video series on YouTube documenting the work they’re doing.
Tor Johnson first set sail as a child in the 1970s, cruising across the pacific with his parents and older brother and sister. It was during these travels that a friend gave him a camera, hooking him on photography. Today his photos appear on the covers of magazine such as Cruising World, Yachting World, Sail, and Sailing. Tor and I talk about the challenges and dangers of capturing unique images of boats, waves and more. You can see Tor’s work at www.tjhawaii.com.
Martin Machado is a visual artist who finds inspiration form the sea and the people who work it. His paintings and drawings reflect the stories, landscapes and people he encounters when he sails his small boat in the California Delta, or spends six months at sea aboard a 900-foot container ship, or squats in an old cannery with other salmon fisherman in Alaska. We had a fascinating conversation that touched on everything from pirate attacks to painting landscapes. Check out Martin’s artwork at MartinMarchado.com
Patrick and Tara Franz, and their son Everest, started sailing about five years ago after moving to the Bay Area. It wasn’t long afterwards they started thinking about living aboard and cruising to distant destinations. The boat they've chosen for the journey is a 68-foot, Britton Chance designed aluminum racer from 1971. The Pandemic has added another element to cruising, but the Franz family continues to travel and enjoy their adventure. You can read their latest updates at svpandion.com.
John Arndt is the owner and publisher of Latitude 38, the magazine that is fairly synonymous with sailing in the Bay Area. John started selling ads for the magazine in 1987 and in 2016 bought Latitude 38 from founder Richard Spindler. John also started, and has championed, Summer Sailstice, an event close to the summer solstice that encourages sailors across the globe to get out on the water any way they choose for a day of sailing.
Stan Honey is a professional navigator, inventor and businessman who’s won 11 Transpacs, the Volvo Ocean Race and set a non-stop circumnavigation record a transatlantic speed record. In addition to being a successful navigator he’s an accomplished inventor and businessman. He pioneered on-screen navigation for cars, and invented the technology that superimposes the first down line in yellow for football game. He and his wife, Sally Lindsay Honey, race and cruise aboard their Cal 40 Illusion.
Stan Honey is a professional navigator, inventor, and businessman who’s won 11 Transpacs, the Volvo Ocean Race, and set a non-stop circumnavigation record a transatlantic speed record. In addition to being a successful navigator he’s an accomplished inventor and businessman. He pioneered on-screen navigation for cars, and invented the technology that superimposes the first down line in yellow for football game. He and his wife, Sally Lindsay Honey, race and cruise aboard their Cal 40 Illusion.
Jim Quanci has been sailing and racing on San Francisco Bay since the early 80s. He’s raced to Hawaii 18 times, once with his whole family, once alone, and many times with his wife - whom he met while racing on the Bay. Jim has sailed many miles on his Cal 40 Green Buffalo and many more all over the world on charter boats. In this episode, we talk about what’s changed in racing over the years, his race strategy, single handing, and what he loves most about being out there on the water.
Ryan Nelson has loved being on the water from a very young age. As a kid he cobbled together logs, a pole, and some fabric into a sailing raft. Today, as the owner and operator of Rogue Rigging, he’s still working on boats - and loving it. He spent nearly a decade rigging for West Marine before striking out on his own. I sat down with Ryan in his rigging shop at the Berkeley Marine Center and we talked about his business, his four boats, and his passion for racing on San Francisco Bay.
At the age of 22, John Neal bought a 27-foot Albin Vega sloop and set off from Seattle headed for Hawaii. His book chronicling that voyage, Log of Mahina, became a best seller and people started seeking him out to ask: "How can I find and prepare a boat for ocean voyaging?" In 1976 he began conducting Offshore Cruising Seminars and in 1990, to meet the requests for hands-on offshore instruction, John established Mahina Expeditions. He’s sailed 342,000 miles in the South Pacific, Caribbean, Patagonia, Antarctica, Atlantic, Scandinavia and the Arctic, rounding Cape Horn six times in the process. John’s wife Amanda was featured in episode 14 of Out The Gate.
When Kame Richards started Pineapple Sails in 1973, he’d only been sailing a handful of times. Forty-six years later, his business is still going strong and he’s learned a whole lot about sailmaking and sailing. In this interview we talk about his business, tides and currents on SF Bay, racing to Hawaii under a full moon, and the Alameda Community Sailing Center which he recently launched.
In 2008, Behan and Jamie Gifford set sail from Seattle with their three children, Niall, Mairen, and Siobhan. Their Stevens 47, Totem, took them down to Mexico, across the pacific, and beyond. Almost exactly ten years later they crossed their own track, completing a circumnavigation. They are currently in Mexico, where they had planned to set sail for another Pacific crossing, before the Coronavirus pandemic put those plans on hold. You can follow their adventure at sailingtotem.com
John Kretschmer is a philosopher sailor and a great storyteller - in the vein of Bernard Moitessier. As a sailor he’s logged more than 300,000 offshore sailing miles. He’s taught thousands of people about ocean sailing, imparting his knowledge in person and through his writing. He’s the author of At the Mercy of the Sea, Flirting with Mermaids, Cape Horn to Starboard, and most recently Sailing to the Edge of Time - which just last week came out as an Audio book. I sat down with John when he was in town to speak at the St. Francis Yacht Club.
Rich Jepsen found his life’s work at age 14, when he was allowed to take a small boat out sailing for the day by himself. Eight years later he got his first gig teaching sailing, and he’s continued that work to the present. He was an owner, operator and CEO of OCSC Sailing School in Berkeley for over 30 years. Today, while still teaching sailing and leading sailing trips around the world, he’s also Vice President of U.S. Sailing. In 2017 Rich received the Timothea Larr Award for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of sailor education in the United States.
In January 2018, Caitlin Schwarzman and Jason Rucker set sail with their son Arlo and daughter Alma, from Alameda for a year-long adventure through the Pacific. Their boat Debonaire is a 44-foot double-ended wooden ketch - and is the sister ship to a boat Caitlin went cruising on with her parents in the 1970s. We discussed getting themselves and their boat ready for the trip, the adventure itself, and how it brought them closer as a family. You can find their blog at: www.ayearandaday.net
In part two of this two part interview, Elana Conner talks about sailing solo across the Pacific: what made her think she could accomplish it in the first place, what lessons she learned after she got out there, and why it’s made her feels more like herself than ever. We talk weather, electronics, and the frustrations of sailing in the wrong direction. Follow and support Elana at www.peregrinasails.com
As a child, Elana Conner lost both of her parents and spent her school years in foster care, hoping from family to family. She struggled, but managed to finish high school and then college. She learned to sail in San Francisco, less than a decade ago. But personal difficulties and strong mentors convinced her she needed to follow her dream of circumnavigating on her own boat sooner rather than later. She recently sailed across the pacific solo, arriving in New Zealand a little over a month ago. In this first of a two part interview, I speak with Elana about the challenges she’s overcome and how she learned to sail. Follow Elana at https://www.peregrinasails.com/
Here are ways you can support children in the foster care system:
- First, and most basic, when folks shop on Amazon, choose to shop at https://smile.amazon.com/ and choose a local foster care org or CASA chapter. For every purchase made, Amazon will give money to your org, and it adds up quickly!
- Foster Hope is the New Zealand base foster care organization Elana talks about in our interview - https://www.fosterhope.org.nz/
- Together We Rise — https://www.togetherwerise.org/team-building/ — They have a number of programs, including opportunities for corporate team-building projects (like assembling bikes and skateboards, or backpacks).
- Become a resource family in SF to foster or adopt a child from the foster care system: https://sfcaresforkids.org/foster/
- SF Foster Youth Fund — http://www.sffosteryouthfund.org/what-we-do/ — they provide funding and/or scholarships to allow children in foster care to have access to activities beyond the basics, like music lessons, summer camps, etc.
- CASA in California— https://www.californiacasa.org/ — CASA stands for Court-Appointed Special Advocate, and there is a CASA program in almost every district in the country, as well as a national advocacy organization. People who are interested in becoming a CASA go through a multi-month training and are sworn-in at their local court.
- Finally, here is an additional list of ways to help foster kids: http://www.fostercoalition.com/help-foster-children
Lauren Moody fell in love with the sea when she served in the Navy aboard an aircraft carrier. But it wasn’t until after her deployment at UCSC that she got into sailing, on boats that were a little smaller. After moving to the San Francisco area a decade ago, she built a community of sailing friends at the Travis Marina. It was there she first laid eyes on Intrepid, a Bob Perry designed Islander Freeport 36. It was in bad shape, nearly sinking at the dock. But it took some time for her to convince the owner to sell. Now she’s putting much time and effort into bringing the boat back to Bristol condition, doing all the work herself and learning much along the way. You can read about her accomplishments at SailingIntrepid.com
In 2001, while cruising in the Caribbean, my girlfriend Miranda had to be evacuated from our boat and taken to a local hospital due to extreme dehydration. It was one of the scariest experiences I’ve had at sea and I wrote about it in Sailing Magazine’s 2002 Safety at Sea issue. In this episode, I retell that story.
Jim Hancock is the founder and president of the San Francisco Sailing Science Center, a hands-on, interactive learning center that will be headquartered on Treasure Island. He's a long-time Bay Area sailor who has cruised the Pacific, been a sailing instructor, and is the visionary behind this exciting new project.
In 2015, the Vawter family, parents Cameron and Annie with daughters Isa (6) and Adelaide (7), set off under the Golden Gate Bridge aboard their Mason 43, Banyan. They've been cruising the Pacific ever since, arriving in New Zealand last year.
Trev and Lizzie were musicians when they met. When Trev fell in love with sailing, Lizzie was more than game to do what they needed to do to follow their now shared dream of moving aboard a boat and sailing the world. They recently purchased a 43-foot Morgan Center Cockpit in Santa Cruz, California. They're learning the ins and outs of their boat, sharpening their sailing skills, and preparing to head off cruising next summer. They've made a few videos about the experience so far that you can watch on YouTube.
On Oct. 19, 2019, Randall Reeves sailed back under the Golden Gate Bridge, completing his Figure 8 Voyage. I sat down with him aboard his boat Moli to reflect on the record-breaking trip, what draws him to single-handing, adjusting to life ashore, and more.
Tony Gooch was the first person to ever complete a solo, nonstop circumnavigation from the West Coast of North America. He did this in the early 2000s, aboard his 44-foot aluminum cutter Taonui. Nearly 20 years later, Randall Reeves used the very same boat, renamed Moli, for the Figure 8 Voyage, his solo circumnavigation. Randall and Tony have become good friends. In this conversation, Tony and I discuss Randall's epic adventure, the many miles Tony and his wife sailed together - including some harrowing incidents at sea - and Tony's own single-handed sailing adventures.
Five years ago, Garrett and Audrey Ruhland had a life-changing discussion about the five things they most wanted out of life. From that discussion, a dream to travel and sail the world was born. But neither of them knew how to sail. And they didn’t have money for a boat. Last week they sailed out the gate, bound for Mexico and Panama, aboard their 35-foot sloop Thisldu. I talk to them about how they got from hatching a dream to making it real. And where they plan to head now.
In the 60s, Barry Spanier built a boat in San Francisco, sailed it through the South Pacific and then lost it, and everything but his life, in a shipwreck. Starting over again, he launched a sail loft in Hawaii and became a legend in windsurfing sail design. Today he's building another boat at the Berkeley Marine Center. The Rosie G is a junk rigged, scow-bow 42-footer designed by Jim Antrim.
Long before Barry Spanier started Maui Sails and became a legend in windsurfing sail design, he built a ferro-cement sloop in San Francisco and sailed off to the South Pacific. He was running of away from the madness of the 1960s, but he found plenty of new crazy adventures, from "borrowing" the 76-foot Alden Schooner Constellation, to having a curse put on him, to loosing his boat and almost his life when he was shipwrecked off New Zealand.
Just about a year ago, Randall Reeves sailed out the gate on his epic Figure 8 Voyage. I last caught up with him in Halifax, Nova Scotia after he'd spent 8 months at sea alone. Now, after just completing the Northwest Passage, he's one big step closer to completing his record-breaking trip. Randall and I talk about the challenges of this northern leg and the route he'll take as he covers the last, roughly 2,500, miles home to San Francisco.
Allison Payne is known by many simply as WhaleGirl. As a researcher with the Marine Mammal Center Cetacean Field Research team, she heads out into the ocean daily, sometimes three times a day. She is a naturalist for San Francisco Whale Tours, looking for and documenting the behavior of whales, and she is often joined by Bear, the whale watching German shepherd. You can see the excellent pictures Allison takes while in the field and read more about her work at WhaleGirl.org
Bruce and April Winship set sail from San Francisco aboard their catamaran Chewbacca when their daughters Kendall and Quincy were 5 and 7. They spent a decade cruising together as a family through Mexico then Central & South America. Their adventure is captured in their new book, Set Sail And Live Your Dreams. During our conversation, they shared with me what they learned as sailors and as a family while cruising. They talk about almost loosing their home on a reef, the challenges of homeschooling, and the simple joys of living together on a small boat.
Paul Exner has dedicated his life to the practice and teaching of Ocean Sailing through his business Modern Geographic. He is a coach and mentor to those he takes on sailing expeditions. He sails out of the big island of Hawaii on a boat he knows inside and out because he built it himself from a bare hull. Paul and his family nearly lost everything when Hurricane Irma hit the Island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The devastation was so complete, Paul decided to resettle his family and his business to Hawaii. We talk about that transition, the difficulty of starting anew, sailing with kids, and the wonders of sailing in Hawaii.
Warwick "Commodore" Tompkins began life afloat just weeks after being born. He spent the first nine years of his life aboard the 85-foot schooner Wander Bird, and rounded Cape Horn - the wrong way - when he was only four. Now in his 80s, Commodore has spent his life racing, delivering, designing, rigging, and cruising boats of all kinds. Today he lives in Mill Valley and sails his self-built sailboat, Flash Girl. We talked about racing, boat construction, making landfall, and his philosophy of sailing.
Ben Doerr is a charter captain, a husband, a father of two, and a professional musician. From his base in Bainbridge Island, just west of Seattle, WA, he runs, Sail Bainbridge, a sailing adventures outfit aboard his John Alden designed 44-foot Pearson Countess Ketch. He is also launching sail to ski adventures to explore the slopes above British Columbia's Princess Louisa Inlet - a destination accessible only by boat. We talk about his business, the similarities between performing music and sailing, and the wonders of sailing in the Pacific Northwest.
With his new film Near Miss, Director Josh Berry has created a poetic portrait of Ron Elliot. An urchin diver and keen underwater observer, Elliot has spent countless hours underwater at the Farallon Islands, much of it in the company of Great White Sharks. Berry's latest film showcases a very close encounter Elliot had with a very large shark. Visit the Near Miss website for more information on screenings. Josh and I discuss the film, sailing, surfing, and exploring the Bay Area.
My wife Lauren and I recently crewed aboard Andy Schell & Mia Karlsson's 59-foot Swan, ICEBEAR from Annapolis, MD to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. We talked with Andy about that experience and our goal to go cruising with our own kids some day. This interview originally aired as episode #270 of Andy Schell's On The Wind podcast.
Andy Schell and Mia Karlsson started their charter business, 59° North, to pursue their own passion for offshore sailing and share it with others. My wife Lauren and I sailed from Annapolis, MD to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia aboard their 59-foot Swan, Ice Bear. At the end of the passage we sat down to talk about everything from getting paid for doing what you love to scooping poop in the middle of the night in the middle of the ocean.
Captain Kira Maixner began sailing in 2014 and it quickly became a way of life for her. She is now a sailing instructor at the Modern Sailing School and Club in Sausalito and crew on the USA 76 America's Cup Yacht and first mate on a San Francisco Whale Tours. For the Pacific Sail & Powerboat show she put together and moderated a panel discussion by and about women sailing on San Francisco Bay. The participants included Nichole Ortiz, an active member of the Modern Sailing Club and the Club's first club skipper; Captain Darci Bogdan, a Santa Cruz native who is a sailing instructor and Captain for Chardonnay Sailing Charters and Sea Spirit Ocean Safari; Laura Levy, an active racer and the co-founder of Sømand, an emerging brand that designs performance sailwear specifically for women; and Joan Byrn, a local racing skipper and promoter of women's sailing as well as a lead organizer for the Red Bra Regatta, the largest all-women regatta on the Bay. See the full bios of the participants here.
Mary Gidley spent 101 days floating across the Atlantic on a raft as part of a sociological experiment. That experience is captured in the new documentary called The Raft. Mary had other adventures on the water, including opening and running Cass' Marina, the first operation to rent sailboats on the San Francisco Bay, and cruising to Mexico, long before it was commonplace to do so. Mary's son Memo is a professional race car drive and a charter captain. We spoke aboard his boat, Basic Instinct. The Gidley's were featured in a three part Latitude 38 series.
Amanda Swan Neal was the rigger aboard Maiden, the first ever yacht sailed by an all-female crew in the round-the-world Whitbread race in 1989. I talk with Amanda about the new documentary, by director Alex Holmes, called Maiden, which tells the story of skipper Tracy Edwards and the race. We also talk about sailing from NZ to SF in the 1980s and the offshore sail-training expeditions that Amanda and her husband John Neal offer aboard their Hallberg-Rassy 46, Mahina Tiare III.
Quincey & Mitchell are a young, inspiring couple who are working to get a charter business, Q+M Travels, up and running. They have a great boat for it, a Kelly Peterson 46, that they found in Panama and sailed back to the Bay just about a year ago. Mitchell has been teaching sailing on all kinds of boats for years. Quincey is a professional nutritionist. Together they love hosting people aboard their boat both for weekends and longer adventures.
In September of 2018, Randall Reeves set out from San Francisco on the Figure 8 Voyage 2.0. Since then he has spent 227 days at sea alone, rounding Cape Horn twice, in an attempt to circumnavigate both Antarctica and the Americas in one season. He recently made landfall in Halifax, Nova Scotia after a N. Atlantic storm damaged his Monitor wind vane and ripped his sail. I caught up with Randall in person at the Armdale Yacht Club.
In 1965, my dad sailed across the Pacific Ocean on a 35-ft Piver designed trimaran. Onboard was the very first solar panel ever on a cruising boat. The boat's owner, Venkataraman Radhakrishnan, had friends at Bell Labs who were building the first communication satellites (Telstar I and Telstar II) and had access to the reject cells. There wasn't much on the bare-bones boat to power, but the panel put out enough juice to run the 3-inch, Phillips reel-to-reel tape player on board.
Katie and Lyall Burgess met while sailing in the Caribbean. After purchasing their own yacht, they realized there was little info available to help boat owners go solar. This prompted them to found Sun Powered Yachts in 2018. Katie and Lyall live off the grid on the Big Island of Hawaii with their two girls. They have been spending more time at sea, preparing to spend a full year aboard with the girls in 2022.
The Race to Alaska runs 750-miles, from Port Townsend, Washington to Ketchikan, AK and has only two rules: 1) No Engine 2) No Support Crew. The eight members of Team Shut Up And Drive will spend a week together on a sparse, 33-foot racing boat with a bucket for a toilet. I talk with Nathalie Criou and Satchel Douglas two members of the team.
In September of 2017, I spent a week living and cruising San Francisco Bay aboard a 10-foot, mahogany sailing dinghy. I learned a lot about local waters and met some interesting sailors along the way. An article about the adventure was published in the May, 2019 issue of Cruising World Magazine. In this episode, I share an annotated version of the article.
For Luc Maheu, working on the water is all about heritage. Sailing is in his blood and he's keeping the tradition alive in style. He's a master mariner, a merchant marine, a charter captain and in his spare time runs a business building traditional rigging tools. We chatted aboard his 60-foot schooner, docked at the Pt. San Pablo Yacht Club in Richmond, CA.
Many Bay Area kids and adults have learned to sail on Clipper Cove, the largest, most well-protected cove on the San Francisco city shoreline. Travis Lund is the Executive Director of the Treasure Island Sailing Center, a sailing school on the cove.
Pete Lyons likes sailing at highway speeds. Land sailing that is. Pete was driving along a lakebed when he saw sails in the distance. He went to investigate and discovered the boats were on wheels. He fell in love with the sport and has been running his own land sailing business for over 20 years now.
Jonathan Buser first learned to sail small boats at the Richmond Yacht Club junior program. Today, he still sails on SF Bay, but aboard USA 76, an 84-foot racing machine that nearly won the 2003 America's cup.
Marine biologist David McGuire is the founder of Shark Stewards, a non-profit focused on shark conservation. He tells the tale of looking a great white in the eye and how sailing in the Pacific led to his work saving sharks.
Randall left San Francisco Bay last autumn in an attempt to become the first person to circumnavigate both the American and Antarctic continents in one season. He's rounded Cape Horn and is now headed back for a second pass, before heading north. He'd been alone at sea for 123 days and was skirting under Tasmania when we spoke via satellite phone.
In this very first OTG episode, I talk to Heather Richard, a charter captain out of Sausalito who has been sailing on SF Bay nearly every day for more 20 years. She talks about being a strong woman sailor, nearly being swept away from her boat by bay currents, and navigating hurricane force winds in the Caribbean.