Show Notes
Itâs been a while since I last recorded an episode. A friend put it perfectly the other night â Iâve been âdown below, sheltering.â Thereâs been a lot to deal with, but Iâve come through it. Right now Iâm lying alongside in Cherbourg, France, aboard Osprey â our 85-foot maxi â with a brand-new mainsail, surrounded by some of the best sailors and sailing service providers in the world. Ahead of us is a single, clear task over the next month: to sail solo to the Caribbean and, in doing so, qualify for the Global Solo Challenge. This episode is about getting caught up â where Iâve been, whatâs happened â and setting the stage for what comes next. Because the story thatâs unfolding now is, without question, the most interesting sailing story Iâve ever told.
More from The Mariner
This is the second installment in my reading of Cruising Under Sail by Eric Hiscock, from the 1987 edition.
This is the first installment in my reading of Cruising Under Sail by Eric Hiscock, from the 1987 edition.
Join me 250 Nm west of Madeira as I negotiate my way through the Azores high on my qualifying passage on board the 80 ft yacht Osprey for the 2027 Global solo challenge round the world yacht race
In this episode you join me on deck as we enter the Needles Channel, en route to Southampton, to pick up the crew for the Fastnet Expedition 2025.
This episode tells the full story of the sail thatâs been with me through it all â my old Open 60 mainsail, which, although it has impossibly high mileage (100,000nm!), has proven indefatigable, indestructable and faithful right through to the end. But, itâs about more than gear. Itâs about the kind of grit and grace it takes to keep going when the world says you shouldnât, whatever your passion may be. The first half of the episode dives into how this sail came to me, how I bent it on in the middle of the Atlantic alone over 20 hours, how it carried me through the Newport Bermuda Race in 2024 (when it was already over 20 years old!) and how it feels now to look up at it as it drives me one last time solo across the Atlantic to meet up with its successor . This episode is about our connection to supposedly inanimate objects â to the people for whom I make these podcasts, to the sea, and to the idea that life doesn't need to be easy to be good. Here is the Youtube playlist of my solo transatlantic voyage on the Open 60 'Falcon': https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNEtiOvex8NBvt_ai1Megepf2zcPSPSHY&si=jFDPmyFtOvqiqx1R In the second half of the show, I walk through the details of the new mainsail â five reefs, batten choices, batten closures, reinforced reefing pointa, luff handles, hybrid Maxi/ Open 60 design â everything Iâve learned from decades of sailing distilled into one sail. This isnât a luxury project. Itâs a mission. Itâs the very machinery I need to sail west, non-stop around the world and tell the real story of solo sailing â not ârich boy goes yachting,â but something raw, real, and meaningful, that everyone can benefit from. You can own a piece of the mainsail that wouldnât die as your own talisman of Tenacity, a reminder to you in the straits of your passion, that perseverance, persistence and sheer bloody-mindedness are the currency of personal growth and will bring your goals within your grasp. For a pledge of $100, youâll get one of the hand-cut and signed sections from this legendary, 100,000Nm mainsail, with all the funds going directly to the new sail wardrobe and the Osprey Westabout campaign. If you believe in what I'm doing â the story, the struggle, the adventure âthen this is your chance to own a piece of the mainsail of the mainsail that would not die and allow it to fuel all that comes after it's work is done.