At last year’s Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show in Oakland, I found myself shooting the breeze with the guys at the Monitor Windvane booth when a gaffe overtook me. I try to stay ahead of thoughtless remarks by keeping my mouth shut, but even then I was talking about the Figure 8. It was a natural-enough question that, Read More
No one died. And yet, that time immediately after rejecting Steal Away felt like mourning. During the survey, I spent the better part of five days discovering, thinking and planning aboard my new craft. I would eat here; I would sleep there; tools on that shelf. A dash to the mast for a reef would, Read More
On Valentine’s Day, Joanna Bloor, my wife and Chief Belief Officer for the Figure 8 Voyage, presented me with the following, inaugural guest post, this by way of answering the question posed in the title. — Joanna writes: It’s probably the most common question I get. “How are you OK with ‘letting’ your husband, Read More
The experiences of last summer’s Northwest Passage and especially our adventures at Fury Beach (encountering polar bears, being torn off our anchor by ice flow, finding barrel staves from the 1800s) have left me more curious than ever about the Arctic, its explorers, its people. Especially fascinating are the strategies for survival in a, Read More
Note: this is a follow-up to my Murre and the Pacific cruise of French Polynesia. In 2011 I explored French Polynesia on Murre and was only a month departed from the Marquesan Island of Nuku Hiva when I learned a recent tragedy there had been attributed to cannibalism. Murre rode her anchor in Opunohu Bay off Moorea by this, Read More
Meet Jerry Borucki, a fluid-dynamicist retired from NASA’s Ames Research Center, resident of Mountain View, California and extreme sailor. His goal, one he has chased for many summers since 2006, has been to reach the North Pole in a small boat. Most people would think Borucki is going at things in reverse. Sailing exploits during his younger, Read More
It is commonly held that excitement is the goal of adventuring. But in truth, excitement is adventure’s potentially enjoyable but often unwieldy result, too much of which can be the death of you. Professionals know this as a matter of course. The sentiment reflected in the title of this post is an aphorism widely attributed to Roald, Read More