#253: Jessie Zevalnkink & Luke Yeates were on the podcast back in October 2017, right after they'd crossed the Atlantic in their 37' yawl DESIREE. Mia & I caught up with them in person aboard their boat in Lagos, Portugal, as we were getting ISBJORN ready to cross the Atlantic. We sat in their cockpit as the sun went down, hearing stories of their dramatic knockdown off Cape St. Vincent, their 6 weeks rebuilding their rudder here in Lagos, life as a married couple and what their future p...
Jan 08, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 253
#252: Haakon Vatle has, as far as we can tell, the world's ONLY master's degree in sea shanties. He's the founder and leader of the Storm Weather Shanty Choir, who fans of the show will know as the group of Norwegian musicians who have mastered the art of the modern sea shanty. And Haakon is a REAL sailor - he's heavily involved with Norway's tallship Statsraad Lehmkul and has sailed her trans-Atlantic 4 times, practicing his shanties in real life aboard the ship. I traveled to Bergen to meet Ha...
Jan 01, 2019•54 min•Ep. 252
#251. Rachel Slade is the acclaimed author of 'Into the Raging Sea,' the heartbreaking account of the sinking of the American merchant ship 'El Faro.' With a degree in political science from Barnard College and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, Rachel began her journalism career as the design editor at Boston magazine and moved up the masthead to executive editor. After a decade on staff, she became a full-time freelance writer in 2016. Incredibly, 'Into the Raging Se...
Dec 11, 2018•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 251
#250: Matt Rutherford and Randall Reeves are both veterans of the podcast and extremely accomplished single-handed ocean sailors. In today's special episode, Matt guest-hosts the show to talk to Randall about his latest attempt at the 'Figure 8' voyage, his plan to sail solo and nonstop around the America's AND Antarctica. Randall was on the show with me just before his first attempt, which failed when he suffered a serious knockdown, blowing out the windows in his boat's wheelhouse. At the time...
Dec 04, 2018•57 min•Ep. 250
#249. Herb McCormick has made a career of writing about sailing, but it wasn't entirely on purpose. A fifth-generation Newport, Rhode Island native, Herb didn't even know that sailing was a thing at all until a chance meeting in his 20's. After vagabonding around for a while, he wound up with a low-level job at Cruising World during the heyday of sailing magazines, and slowly started working his way up, of course eventually becoming Editor. Herb has seen it all in sailing, from the racing and cr...
Nov 20, 2018•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 249
#248. Bryan Rolfe is a grass-roots 30-something cruiser with big dreams and a small budget. He's been documenting his adventures aboard his 27-foot Albin Vega TARKA on YouTube, and is currently in the Caribbean. Mia & I have followed Bryan from afar since he started his trip, and my conversation with him ended up being a very inspirational look at how someone takes a dream and turns it into reality. Longtime fans of the show will know how excited I get talking to other young folks out there ...
Nov 13, 2018•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 248
#247. Mia Karlsson is honored to be the FIRST guest on the new Mermaid Tales podcast, featuring tales of women who are connected in some way to the ocean, hosted by Breezy Mulligan. Here’s a rare opportunity to hear Mia on the podcast, talking about her sailing history! Subscribe to Mermaid Tales wherever you get your podcasts! -- On the Wind is presented by Rutgerson Marine. Visit rutgerson.se to see their full range of sailing hardware. And also supported by Offshore Passage Opportunities. Go ...
Nov 06, 2018•59 min
#130 RECYCLED. John Kretschmer has long been a hero of mine, and has become a friend and mentor over the past 10+ years. John runs offshore adventure sailing passages on his Kaufman 47 QUETZAL (the inspiration for our own business), is a former delivery skipper and a renowned author of several books, including his latest ‘Sailing to the Edge of Time,’ which will release in November . Andy spoke to John back in 2016. -- Recycled episodes of On the Wind are presented by us at 59 North, Ltd. Sail o...
Oct 30, 2018•1 hr 19 min
#246. Lee & Rachel Cumberland are two of Mia and my best friends, and this episode has been a long time coming. Together, Lee & Rachel, in their late-twenties, bought and refit a Tayana 37, quit their jobs and sailed off to Panama. We recorded the podcast at their house, which Lee built with his own two hands, over a glass of wine late in the evening. The conversation traces their story from dream to reality, including all the scary bits, and for the first time ever publicly, I finally g...
Oct 23, 2018•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 246
#245. Matt Rutherford's been a longtime friend of the podcast and has been on the show more than any other guest. For this episode, Matt & I talked about Arctic sailing - I got to tease him for sailing farther north than he ever has! - we talked about the Golden Globe race, death, fear, anxiety, kids, his latest trip to the Northwest Passage, climate change, Shackleton, and more. It was a wide-ranging and meandering conversation, and Matt, like usual, always has something compelling to say, ...
Oct 16, 2018•1 hr 6 min
#244. Pete Goss became a hero in the 1996 Vendee Globe for rescuing fellow competitor Raphael Dinelli in a survival storm in the Southern Ocean. Pete tells this story and many others from onboard his new Garcia Exploration 45 at the Annapolis Sailboat Show. This one's an all-timer, so pay attention! On the Wind is presented by Rutgerson Marine. And also supported by BRNKL Systems and Adlard Coles.
Oct 09, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 244
#174 RECYCLED: Nigel Calder is universally recognized as the guru of yacht systems. His hardcover tomes grace the bookshelves of yachts the world over. On Isbjorn, his are some of my most referenced books. But while many of you will know Nigel for his writing, I’d bet that few know his background. I didn’t. He came aboard Isbjorn during the Annapolis Sailboat Show last October and told me his backstory, which included living in a commune in the UK, years working on oil rigs in the Gulf, building...
Oct 04, 2018•1 hr 14 min
#243. James Aiken is a filmmaker and single-handed sailor that Mia & I met in Ireland after our passage south from Iceland. At the dock in Bangor, James saw our 59 North flag and as a fan of the show, came over to say hi. Coincidentally, five minutes earlier I'd been admiring this beautiful dark-blue boat at the other end of the dock, which turned our to be James' OAKEN YARN, a classic Tradewinds 33. Thus began a week-long interaction with James that included chasing him down under spinnaker...
Sep 18, 2018•1 hr•Ep. 243
#242: Fredrik Molin is another 30-something out sailing the world on his own terms. We've met several like-minded young people this summer in the Arctic, and it's super inspiring to me to know they're out there - we just gotta look in the colder places apparently. After building a successful career as a sommolier and chef, opening and later selling his own restaurant in Bergen, Fredrik needed a new challenge. With some adventurous (and at times crazy) friends, he taught himself how to sail and t...
Sep 11, 2018•53 min•Ep. 242
#241. Longtime friend of the podcast and ISBJORN'S racing skipper Paul Exner speaks to Andy from opposite sides of the world to talk about living through Hurricane Irma, sailing Solstice to Hawaii, relocating his family, and the challenges that lie ahead with his Modern Geographic expedition business. Sail offshore onboard our Swan 59 ICE BEAR & our Swan 48 ISBJORN! Spots open in 2019 - go to 59-north.com/2019 . On the Wind is presented by Rutgerson Marin. And also supported by BRNKL Systems...
Aug 28, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 241
Chief Brody from JAWS was right - we ARE gonna need a bigger boat! Introducing 'ICE BEAR,' our German Frers-designed Swan 59, and 59 North's 2nd boat. Andy tells the whole story. Read more on 59-north.com/icebear .
Aug 23, 2018•25 min
#240. Mike Beemer is the department chair of the Marine Technology program at Skagit College in Anacortes, Washington. Mike & I were initially introduced by John & Amanda Neal from Mahina Expeditions, who work with Mike on some of their offshore cruising seminars. After trying to connect for over a year, Mike & I finally got to chat about his career. Mike started life as a vagabonding sailor & liveaboard, eventually discovering his passion for teaching. He’s since become a sort o...
Aug 07, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 240
#239. Sigurdur Jonsson is the captain of and brains behind ‘Aurora Arktika,’ the adventure charter business based out of Isafjordur in Iceland. Mia & I had the privilege of joining Siggi and his crew for their first ski & sail trip of the season in early March, exploring the West Fjords aboard his new boat ‘Arktika,’ hiking up the adjacent mountains and skiing down to the sea. Siggi’s business started with a chance meeting in Isafjordur with none other than Sir Robin Knox-Johnston & ...
Jul 31, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 239
#178 RECYCLED. Rick Tomlinson is one of yachting’s most accomplished photographers. What I didn’t know before we met, was how accomplished he is as a sailor. Rick was a crew member on four consecutive Whitbread Races, and literally invented the modern concept of onboard reporter. Back in his day, Rick was an integral member of the sailing crew - he took photos onboard as a hobby, on his off-watches, and even developed film in the galley sink offshore! Mia and I traveled to Rick’s beautiful studi...
Jul 17, 2018•1 hr 17 min
#238. Friend of the podcast Erik de Jong joins the show for the 4th time. Originally from Holland and trained as a naval architect, Erik eventually built his own steel boat Bagheera in his backyard and sailed it to Nova Scotia, where he relocated, spending winters designing ships and summers sailing to Greenland. He’s since completed the Northwest Passage and relocated himself and Bagheera to Alaska, where he now runs expedition charters and scientific voyages in the North. Erik & I spoke ab...
Jul 10, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 238
#237. Brandon Wright is the founder of BRNKL, a Vancouver-based tech startup focused on remote monitoring systems for boats. Brandon & I originally connected on Instagram and immediately hit it off. His sailing, tech & entrepreneurial background ticks all the boxes of my own personal interests, so it was a blast talking to and learning from Brandon about how he got his fledgling business off the ground. He has a background in surveillance, having worked for the US Military in the middle ...
Jul 03, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 237
#236. Legendary yacht designer Bob Perry is widely considered as the greatest cruising boat designer of his era, creating some of the most iconic boats of the last several decades including the Valiant 40, Tayana 37 & more. Despite growing up in the midwest and far from the ocean, Bob always knew he’d become a designer. He has somewhat of a hippy past, playing in rock bands in the early days while basically talking his way into the industry as an apprentice when he was in his 20s. He’s worke...
Jun 12, 2018•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 236
#235. Sara Hastreiter is of course one of the members of Team SCA, the all-female crew in the previous edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. Sara was on the podcast back in 2015, immediately following that Volvo to talk about how she went from horseback riding in Wyoming to sailing in one of the world’s premier ocean races. I got to speak with her again in March about what it felt like to be left off the Volvo race this time, her mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas and her ‘Seven Seas, Seven ...
Jun 05, 2018•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 235
#234. Maik Brotzmann has been a friend of the podcast now for a few years, having joined Mia & I in Annapolis two years back to attend one of our Celestial workshops. He grew up in East Germany and lived through the fall of the Berlin wall, before later moving to Iceland to pursue his career on the waterfront. Maik is educated as a metrologist, but his interests are wide-ranging, from weather forecasting and routing to yacht design and naval architecture to sustainable marine tourism. We cau...
May 29, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 234
Hey, we fixed the volume level issue! Here's a quick PSA from Andy on how to get the corrected files in your podcast feed.
May 15, 2018•8 min
#233. Nat Philbrick is the author of ‘In the Heart of the Sea,’ the famous story of the whaling ship Essex, which sunk in the Pacific after being attacked by an angry sperm whale. This true-life story became the inspiration for Herman Melville’s classic ‘Moby Dick’, and at the time, was one of the most well-know sea stories. Of course Nat’s book, which recounted the true story from the perspective of the ship’s cabin boy, went on to become a Hollywood movie of the same name. Nat’s also a sailor,...
May 15, 2018•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 233
#232. Paul & Sheryl Shard of course have the popular TV series Distant Shores, and for 25 years have been sailing the world on their boats of the same name and documenting their travels. Mia & I met them again in Toronto in January where they were excitedly awaiting the launch of their latest boat, a new Southerly 48. We sat down with them between seminars to talk about the design process, how Southerly are now owned by Discovery Yachts in the UK, what they wanted in their new design, an...
May 08, 2018•58 min•Ep. 232
#9. Andy talks about Isbjorn's big refit and the 70-mile shakedown cruise he and Mia did up the west coast of Sweden. Special thanks to Helly Hansen for inviting us to their event; and to Isbjorn crewmember Karl for composing and performing the music motifs on this week's show. -- Our 2020 Passage Calendar is now live! Go to 59-north.com/2020 to sail with us in the Atlantic .
Apr 24, 2018•27 min
#231 Tom Cunliffe is one of the great sailor/writers of the past 30 years. His old-school style in both the boats he chooses to sail and the way he tells his story is fascinating. -- On the Wind is presented by Forbes Horton Yachts . And also supported by Broadreach and Weems & Plath .
Apr 17, 2018•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 231
#230. Goran Rutgerson is the founder of the eponymous Rutgerson company, who design & fabricate rigging and deck hardward in Marstrand, Sweden. Goran grew up in a sailing family and went on to pursue his passion in the sport, rising all the way to the America's Cup ranks. Back in the day, he was good buddies with Peter Harken, and both Harken & Rutgerson evolved as businesses alongside one another on opposite sides of the Atlantic. I spoke to Goran at his office at the Rutgerson Factory ...
Apr 10, 2018•1 hr•Ep. 230
