On The Wind Sailing

#145 is Tory Salvia, founder and executive producer of The Sailing Channel. Tory and I sat down in person in Annapolis a few weeks ago and had a fascinating conversation. We talked about Tory’s sailing career in general and how he got started, his love of good old boats, how he’s been influenced over the years, and more recently, his starting thesailingchannel.tv. Tory made his career in media production, making videos for the Navy for a long while as both producer and director on many of his projects. He has a love for film, which has shaped his career all along, but eventually he wanted to combine that with his love of sailing, and so The Sailing Channel was born. Today, thesailingchannel.tv is a mix of curation - Tory hosts many popular sailing movies from now and from the past - and original production. If you’ve seen ‘Red Dot on the Ocean,’ the Matt Rutherford story, that was one of Tory’s prouder moments as producer, as he brought it to life. We delve into how he made the business happen, some of his fa

#143 is Emma Louise Wyn Jones, a very charming and inspiring 22-year-old sailor and yachting photographer from the UK. I met Emma during the recent Caribbean 600 Race. If you happened to catch that video that the race media posted about Paul & I discussing the weather for the race, it was Emma who shot it. If you didn’t see it yet, check out this episode’s show notes page for the link. I was interested in talking to Emma about how she decided to go into yachting photography, her sailing history in general, and about what it’s like starting from scratch and trying to move up in the sailing world. I get a lot of emails from college students and twenty-somethings looking for advice, so this episode is particularly interesting if you’re one of those people wondering how to get your start. When we left Antigua in early March, Emma had gotten a crew job aboard ‘The Blue Peter’, the classic, 1930s-era 65-foot wooden sloop you might remember me mentioning in the Race Recap podcast that barged in on us at the star

#142. We’ve got two new sponsors for this show, but before we get to them, a quick note on Mia and I. We’re back stateside for a week, driving to Annapolis on the day this releases. If you’re in town, join us at Fawcett Boat Supplies on Thursday March 17th (St Patty’s Day!) for a free seminar we’re giving on fulfilling ocean sailing dreams. Fawcett’s has been holding these winter seminar series’ for a while now - in fact, Matt Rutherford’s is tonight, March 15 - and they’re a great way to pass the off season. Hope to see you on Thursday! This episode is sponsored by Mallard Marine Services & ATN Inc. Episode #141 is David Hayes & Isabelle Tremblay and their beautiful girls Rebecca & Demi. The ‘Morning Haze’ family, as we know they - by their boat name of course! - are veterans of the podcast, having been on the show, way back in episode #53. When we spoke then, their boat ‘Morning Haze’ was still on the other side of the Atlantic. Since then, they’ve sailed another several thousand miles together

#141. It’s only been a week since our last episode, but when we went bi-weekly, I promised an interview every two weeks. Episode 140 is a live seminar I recorded from Toronto on Sailing the Baltic. Not an interview, of course, so sort of a bonus episode this week. I highly recommend going to 59-north.com/baltic to follow along with the slides from this talk. You’ll also find a load of show notes and links that will be useful if you ever plan to sail in the Baltic yourself. In this episode, Mia and I discuss sailing in the Baltic from our own perspective. We spent three summers in the Baltic on Arcturus, mainly sailing the Swedish coast, but also covering the Baltic islands of Aland and Gotland. This talk is full of practical notes and inspirational stories from our experiences there. Before we get to it, a few notes from us. Many of you have requested lists of books I talk about, and I finally got around to building a books page on the website. Go to 59-north.com/books to see all my favorites, sorted by categ

#139. if not THE BEST one yet, it's certainly the one I'm most proud of, for a number of reasons. It's the highly-produced, onboard audio, musically-enhanced storytelling podcast of Isbjorn's crew racing in the RORC Caribbean 600, only last week. Behind skipper Paul Exner, the crew of Dan, Charly, Vanessa, Keith, Ken & Michael and I charged around this most grueling of racecourses. We were in third place until I noticed a structural failure in the rudder bearings, forcing us to retire. This is the story, narrated by Andy and interspersed with live audio from onboard the boat during the race and music by Blaggards throughout. What do you think of this style of podcast? It's my first, and I hope you dig it! This episode is sponsored by Forbes Yachts. Visit forbesyachts.com to find your dream bluewater boat.

#138. I sat down with John & Amanda Neal of Mahina Expeditions, two of my favorite people in sailing and a huge inspiration both philosophically and practically in building my own offshore passage business with Isbjorn. This is the first of several podcasts I recorded in front of a live audience at the Toronto Boat Show in January, so you’ll hear some questions pop in from the handful of people we had in attendance. John & Amanda have varying and extremely interesting backgrounds that led them to the place they are today in sailing. John grew up on the west coast and did a bunch of single-handed sailing on his 27’ Albin Vega - the same kind of boat that Matt Rutherford completed his Around the America’s voyage on, by the way - and began giving lectures on how to go ocean sailing. He also became a pilot, a hobby he continues today. Meanwhile Amanda, half a world away in New Zealand, grew up cruising with her family and eventually wound up crewing on the first-ever all-female team in the Whitbread Race

#137. is a unique one. It’s Part 2 of a very long conversation I had with Teddy J of the Sail Loot podcast. Teddy and I recorded over Skype when I was up in Toronto two weeks ago and wound up talking for over two and a half hours! This is unique in that It’s a ‘part 2.’ Teddy and I are releasing these episodes simultaneously on each other’s shows, so to catch Part 1 - in which I spend over 90 minutes talking about my own sailing history and a lot of the aspects of not only the Isbjorn business but also my entrepreneurial inspiration from my dad and my grandfather. So head on over to the Sail Loot podcast - just search Sail Loot in iTunes, or stream online at sailloot.com - and listen to Part 1. In Part 2 that follows here, I turned the tables on Teddy and spent the next hour talking to him about how he got inspired to go sailing after a trip in Dominica he did with some friends. Ever since then he’s always wondered how people managed to pay for their dreams, and hence the Sail Loot podcast was born. Teddy has

#136. is Rick & Julie Palm, live from Cruiser’s University in Annapolis way back in October. Rick & Julie Palm have been mentors of sorts for Mia and I. They had the role of event managers for World Cruising Club before we took over and have been active in the Caribbean 1500 basically since its inception under Steve Black, who was a dear friend of theirs. And they are consummate ocean sailors. If you want to follow the lead of a successful and humble ocean sailing couple, you can’t beat these two. They started cruising on a Tayana 37 and then upgraded to a Tayana 52 and completed a circumnavigation. Recently, now in their 70s, they bought an Outremer 51 catamaran. Comparable to the Gunboats in flat out speed, their new boat, Archer, is capable of speeds over 20 knots and is a true performance catamaran. In this episode Rick, Julie and I talk to a Cruiser’s University class about making the transition from monohull to catamaran, delving into Rick & Julie’s cruising history and what it’s like sailin

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

#134. Happy New Year! Welcome to the first episode of 59º North in 2016!  Episode 134 is Jesse & Samantha Osborn. You won’t have heard of them, but they’re some of the most interesting and accomplished cruising sailors I’ve ever come across. Matt Rutherford introduced me to them last fall and they ended up sleeping aboard Isbjorn during the week of the Annapolis Boat Show, bunk-mates with the legendary Don Street, who also took up residency aboard. Jesse & Samantha sail a one-off, steel-hulled gaffer called Empiricus and recently completed the Northwest Passage, and only just, narrowing avoiding getting frozen in for a long winter. Empiricus remains hauled out in Iceland, where they’ll be continuing their adventures in the Arctic next summer. Amazingly, the couple had little prior sailing experience before their adventure in the Arctic. In the offseason, Jesse & Samantha live a sort of home-steading lifestyle in Alaska. Samantha is a veteran bush pilot, flying into and out of remote regions in Arc

#133 is Pam Wall, circumnavigator and another of my sailing heroes. Pam is a staple in most of the sailing magazines and seminar circuits, and made a career in sailing working for and with West Marine after sailing round the world in her beloved Freya 39 Kandarik. I spoke to Pam during her lunch break one day at Cruiser’s University in Annapolis this fall, where we were both on the speaking schedule. Pam’s sailing career started in the 60s when on a whim she moved to Ft. Lauderdale to pursue a sport she knew little about. Inspired by Australian sailors who had worked their way all the way into the Great Lakes, where she grew up, Pam decided the life was for her. Pam describes what it was like back in the day in Ft. Lauderdale, a yachtie town if there ever was one, and how she met her husband, Andy, their plan to build a boat and sail away, how she became involved with West Marine, Andy’s agonizing death not too long ago and how she’s only now starting to recover again from a hellish few years. Pam, recently l

#BONUS Episode! Andy spends 25 minutes or so discussing the evolution of the isbjorn Sailing business, and in the bigger picture, the evolution of he and Mia's sailing 'career' in general over the past 8 years. This one is full of practical advice, so grab a pencil and take some notes! Or better yet, head over to 59-north.com/sailingpodcast and find this episode's show notes for the full transcript plus links. Enjoy!

#132 is Ken & Jen Kaye, the father-daughter duo who, alongside Jen’s mom Ellen Kaye, run the Schooner Woodwind out of Annapolis, MD. This is a very special episode for me, as crewing on the Woodwind was my first stint as a paid sailor, and I worked a whole lot alongside Jen and Ken, who usually were out on the water skippering the boats. If you’re a longtime listener to the show, you’ll have heard the stories of how i grew up sailing on my mom and dad’s boat on the Chesapeake. That’s all well and good, but I truly learned how to sail when I started working on the Woodwind. Jen and her dad are racing sailors at heart, and the Woodwind, while appearing pretty traditional on deck, has a modern, sleek underbody, fin keel, and huge, skeg-mounted rudder. She’s a hell of a boat to sail, and Jen & ken sail her fast!

#131 is Tucker Thompson, TV & Publich Host of the America’s Cup, former America’s Cup sailor himself and Annapolis, Maryland native. I met Tucker at the Annapolis Boat Show launch party in early October when we were introduced by a mutual friend. For the first time in Annapolis show history, the Auld Mug was on display, and was a highlight of the launch party, where guests were invited to pose for photos with it. Mia and I were the very last people that night to get a photo with the cup before the Secret Service agents in charge of guarding it (yes, you heard that right), packed it up for the evening in it’s Loius Vitton trunk. I was politely reprimanded for leaning my elbow on the table the cup stood on during the photo.

#130. is John Kretschmer, one of my all-time heroes and a mentor of mine. John’s motto is ‘never lost, just hard to find,’ and it’s a pretty good summation of how it was tracking him down for the podcast. I finally got in touch with him over Skype, me in Annapolis and he at home in Ft Lauderdale getting ready for another passage on his boat Quetzal. John and I talked a bit about how he’s inspired me to follow this career, how he got into it in the first place, about rounding Cape Horn in a 32’ boat going to wrong way, his career as a delivery skipper, Hurricane Lenny and much, much more. Find John, online at least, at yayablues.com.

#129. is Mark Baummer, a Chesapeake Bay Pilot, one of the guys who will go out and take command of commercial ships when they enter the Bay from an ocean voyage. In this episode Mark and I talk about our trip together (Mia and I did a ride-along with Mark on a 750-foot coal ship), about how he got into the merchant marine in the first place, what it is a pilot actually does, how he became a pilot and much, much more. This is a fascinating look at a professional maritime career, and a real treat to have Mark on the show. Enjoy!

#128 was actually recorded at 59º North - which of course is the latitude of Stockholm, Swedden - in the offices of På Kryss, a popular Swedish sailing magazine, and my guest was Johan Bostrom. We talked about his sailing career, what the sailing culture is like in Sweden, how he single-handed his HR Monsoon 31 across the Atlantic from New York to Sweden and lots of other cross-cultural topics related to Sweden, the US and sailing.

#126 & 127 are parts one and two of World Cruising Club's 2015 Ocean Sailing Forum. It’s a panel discussion of all things ocean sailing. I moderated it, and our guests included Lee & Rachel Cumberland of Satori, their Tayana 37; Rick & Julie Palm of Archer, their Outremer 51 catamaran; and Sheryl & Paul Shard of Distant Shores, their Southerly 49. Paul & Sheryl also have been making the popular TV series of the same name now for over 25 years.

#126 & 127 are parts one and two of World Cruising Club's 2015 Ocean Sailing Forum. It’s a panel discussion of all things ocean sailing. I moderated it, and our guests included Lee & Rachel Cumberland of Satori, their Tayana 37; Rick & Julie Palm of Archer, their Outremer 51 catamaran; and Sheryl & Paul Shard of Distant Shores, their Southerly 49. Paul & Sheryl also have been making the popular TV series of the same name now for over 25 years. Thanks to Sailrite for sponsoring this week's episode. Join Andy & Mia offshore on Isbjorn, our classic Swan 48. 59-north.com/offshore.

#125. is Janne Larsson, Swedish electrician cum-circumnavigator. This is another episode I recorded at Hallberg-Rassy’s Oppna Varv in August. Big thanks to podcast fan – and now guest of the show! – Nuno Antunes for introducing me to Janne. Janne is another dreamer, and another example of how to make dreams turn into reality. An electrician living in Helsingborg on Sweden’s southwest coast, Janne and a friend Karl made a handshake agreement one day after a wine-filled evening the night before, and agreed they’d set off together and sail around the world. Nevermind that neither of them had ever sailed before. That was just a detail. The book 'Brave or Stupid' was  born. Thanks to Sailrite for sponsoring this episode! Come ocean sailing with Andy & Mia on their Swan 48 'Isbjorn'. To view the passage calendar, visit 59-north.com/offshore.