On The Wind Sailing

#166: Annie Dike is a reformed lawyer-turned-sailor - that is, she left the profession in her early 30s to pursue a more passionate life. Her and her partner Philip sail a Niagara 35 on the west coast of Florida, and they recently crossed the Atlantic to France on a high-tech Catamaran. Annie & I discussed how she left the lawyer world behind, what the Atlantic crossing was like for a first-time ocean sailor, her various movie projects, her friendship with Pam Wall & her passion for helping others pursue the cruising lifestyle. — Annie Dike is a truly interesting & inspiring character, and what follows was one of the more fun-loving and honest interviews I’ve done in a while. Annie has an infectious personality, and has been using her lawyer-like work ethic to offer cruising opportunities to other aspiring sailors. Mia & I recently teamed up with Annie to offer one of our offshore passages aboard Isbjorn to one of her fans - check out Annie’s Patreon page on patreon.com/havewindwilltravel for

#165. Weather Routing Inc. provides all of the forecasting for the passages Mia & I run aboard Isbjorn. I consult with them to plan the best departure window before a passage, and once offshore can get updates on-demand when I feel I need them. Jeremy Davis & Amanda Delaney, meteorologists for WRI, came by Isbjorn during last week’s Annapolis Boat Show to talk weather, namely, Hurricane Matthew, which we spent the majority of the episode discussing. — Hurricane Matthew is the subject of most of today’s episode. It’s with a heavy heart that I report that one of our best friends lost their boat in the storm literally only hours after we recorded this, on the Friday of Annapolis Boat Show. It’s a long story, but they were forced to leave the boat, an Ericsson 35, in Daytona after having to replace their engine following a winter cruising in the Bahamas. It was a chain of events that started all the way back in April, culminating in the worst news you’d ever want to hear as a boat owner. They’d owned the

#164 is Kari Finstad, a 30-something Norwegian sailor and yoga instructor. Kari recently purchased and refit a 32-foot Wauquiez Centurion - one of my favorite boats, and comparable to the legendary Contessa 32 - and spends most of her time above the Arctic Circle. We talked about her yoga travels to India & the east, her winter on Bjornoya in the Arctic working at the meteorology station, refitting the Wauquiez, her cat companion, baking bread, making kombucha & much more. -- Want to go ocean sailing? Join Andy & Mia on their Swan 48 at 59-north.com/offshore.

#163 is Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, a sailing legend. In 1968 he became the first person to sail solo & nonstop around the world in the infamous Golden Globe Race, in a wooden ketch he built himself, and inspiring modern ocean racing as we know it. Sir Robin went on to compete in several Whitbread races, completed some little-known feats of traditional navigation, set the Jules Verne record with Peter Blake, created the Clipper Race and on and on. I sat down with him in England to reflect on his career. "I got a job in Durban, as captain of a ship, running up & down the east coast. And that’s when Chichester went past on his voyage around the world and I began to think about it. I got home, and I saw him come in, saw him come up the Thames, and I thought, ‘There’s one thing left to do - go around without stopping.’" You’re listening to On the Wind, my podcast about ocean sailing. I’m Andy Schell. -- Want to go ocean sailing? Join Andy & Mia on their Swan 48 Isbjorn at 59-north.com/offshore.

#162. Moxie Marlinspike is a legend in tech. As a programmer, he literally wrote the code that enables everyday encryption. He’s friendly with Edward Snowden and was recently feature in WIRED magazine. Moxie, though, is a sailor at heart. I worked together with him at Broadreach way back in 2008. We caught up to talk about his unique sailing philosophy, his movie ‘HOLD FAST’ & his rise in the tech world. If you’ve followed the news even tangentially, you’ll have heard about encryption. Remember Edward Snowden? His revelations about the FBI’s mass collection of data from everyday Americans set off a wave of stories centered around personal privacy & national security. Today’s guest is at the center of that debate - Moxie Marlinspike, almost single-handedly invented everyday encryption, and his code was recently implemented in WhatsApp and Facebook’s new ‘secret’ Messenger service. If you’re interested in this sort of thing at all, I highly recommend watching the documentary about Snowden called Citizen

#161 is John & Amanda Neal for a third time, who have run adventure sailing expeditions on their Hallberg-Rassy 46 Mahina Tiare for over 20 years. They’ve sailed 220,000 miles on the boat, taking her quite literally to the ends of the earth. We chatted in-person at the Hallberg-Rassy boatyard in Sweden about their recent summer in the Arctic. In case you missed it, in last week’s newsletter Mia and I officially published our 2018 offshore passage calendar. Isbjorn is headed north! That’s right, we’re Arctic bound in summer 2018, with passages to Scotland, Norway, Spitsbergen & Iceland. Visit 59-north.com/arctic for details & to register. As a nod to our podcast fans, we’ve not ‘linked’ this page online yet - so you guys get first dibs before the big launch at the boat show. You can come visit us on Dock H at the Annapolis Sailboat Show to tour Isbjorn and talk about ocean 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 much more. Want to try your hand at ocean sailing? Sign on as crew on Andy & Mia's Swan 48 'Isbjorn' and learn what it takes to cross an ocean in safety, comfort and style. See the full passage calendar, including trans-Atlantic voyages, a North Sea crossing and a trip into the Baltic at 59-north.com/offshore.

#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 first of what will become a sort of special addition to the podcast when Thierry and I have time to film & produce it. The film version will release simultaneously with the podcast, so make sure to visit 59-north.com/onthewind to watch it, or subscribe to our new YouTube channel at youtube.com/59northsailing. There’s also some special bonus footage, including a film tour with Pam and I or her iconic Freya 39 ‘Kandarick.’ Thanks to Pam for participating! And big thanks also to Liz Karamavros for helping to brainstorm the name; to Cameron Deyell, for composing and recording the music especially for the show; to Mia K

#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 experience. Don't miss the music too, recorded locally.

#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 sailing in the Arctic, Isbjorn's original owner Warren Browne, who John sailed with, Skip Novak, batteries for offshore cruising boats, the Adventure 40 project, podcasting and media in general and much, much more. We’re joined in this episode by some of Isbjorn’s crew for the leg 9, south from Lunenburg to Annapolis. They chime in later in the chat with their own comments and questions, and are my good friend Tom Herrington, the guy with the Richmond accent; crew member Dan Levine; my producer, Liz Karamavros; and Mia. -- Thanks for listening to ‘On the Wind,’ the podcast about sailing. If you’ve enjoyed the show

#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, drumroll please, Mia Karlsson! I give a thorough introduction to who all of the panelists are in the actual episode. Towards the last third, there is also a guest appearance by author & circumnavigator Liza Copeland! These panel discussions, which we try and do at all of the boat shows - the next one, by the way, is coming up in Annapolis this fall…go to 59-north.com/events to register - touch on all aspects of ocean voyaging, from boat selection and outfitting, to sailing routes, crew selection, weather routing & forecasting and much more. This is a long one, running at close to 2 hours, so get comfy and enj

#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 money by doing what they love (like in my case), or make some kind of passive income so they are free to actually go sailing. Teddy’s working on that himself. Anyway, Teddy’s half of the interview, where I turned the tables and interviewed him, appeared on my show earlier this year. Simultaneously, my portion released on his show on the same day. I know there will be some of you guys who tuned in to Sail Loot to hear me on Teddy’s show, but for those of you who haven’t what follows is a fresh look at my entire sailing history, going way back to when my parents had just gotten married and went on their first captaine

#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 poop since Sunday morning. I’m bored. I’ve watched more TV than I have in years. On the plus side, Wimbledon and the Tour de France is on in the mornings, and Germany is about to play France this afternoon in the Euro football championships to see who gets to play Portugal in the Finals. This whole thing feels surreal. The thing is, I never get sick. Ever. At least not the kind of sick that requires a visit to the doctor, let alone to the hospital. In an ambulance! The occasional cold, sure. The flu? I had it once in the past ten years. I was due for this, in a pessimistic way I guess. And almost fitting that it happ

#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 of John’s most recent inventions, the so-called ‘ELHF’ furling system, and I use that as a sort of primer for discussing in general how he comes up with new ideas and what the design and production life cycle is like. John is as pure an engineer as there is, and LOVES the technical aspects of running a synthetic yacht rigging company, and it’s a joy to hear him talk about his passions so, well, passionately! He gets to play with CAD and 3D printers all day long, so what’s not to like (if you’re an engineer!). John’s also been a dear friend of mine since we first met in 2009, and you can kind of see that in the way we

#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 my dad a new mainsail before his first Caribbean 1500 on Sojourner, and is currently finishing up the two new genoas that will complement the new Hydranet mainsail on Isbjorn. In this episode, recorded at the WCC Ocean Sailing Seminar weekend in March, Chuck discusses the technical aspects of building and maintaining ocean-going cruising sails. It’s the second or third time he’s spoken at our events, and his talk is yearly surveyed as a favorite among seminar attendees. Chuck talks about design and construction characteristics; downwind sail choices; three-reef versus storm trysail setups; storm jibs; gennakers and C

#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 experience was like on the north shore of the island where we left Isbjorn in Marina Hemingway and stayed ashore in Havana for five days. Chris and I go back several years and it’s always fun to catch up with each other and hear about our latest projects. Don’t miss Chris’ recent coverage of the America’s Cup in New York City in last week’s New York Times. You’ll most likely know of course that Mia and I just visited Havana aboard Isbjorn last month, sailing over from Fajardo, Puerto Rico on what was truly the adventure of a lifetime, both for us and for our crew. Chris sailed to Cuba by another means back in January of 2015

#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 up. It’s a very cool story, but I think I can make it even cooler, so I’m putting it off a week. Instead, episode 148 is another interview with Paul & Sheryl Shard of the Distant Shores sailing tv show. I’ve been hanging on to this one for a while now - we recorded it live in Toronto back in January - and it’s a really cool deep dive into their sailing history, the popularity of their show, some of their favorite stories from over the years and all their traveling and lots more. Paul & Sheryl are professional media people, so they do a really nice job of storytelling. We mixed in a few audience quest

#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 inklings of an idea sprang to life - why not get the three of these guys together, all former podcasts guests, and have a little roundtable chat? So that’s exactly what we did. Matt invited us over to the house he’s taking care of in Eastport, and we sat around the coffee table in the living room. I got things going with Matt, and the hope was that everyone would kind of just jump in at points and start talking on their own. I was not let down. After a while, Matt, Paul & Mark just kinda started needing out on each other, and MAN was it fun to see! The longer the episode goes, the less you’ll hear my voice, as I