On the Wind Sailing

Dan Turner is a 40-something Australian with extremely high ambitions for himself. When he was just a teenager, he wrote a list of bucket-list items that he wanted to accomplish during his life — things like ultra-running and becoming a martial arts champion. In a quite short time, Dan completed every last one of them — except sailing around the world. We met in Nuku Hiva and I talked to Dan onboard FALKEN about his attempt to circ...

Women and the Wind are three exceptional and multi-faceted women who embody courage, creativity, and pose a rare example of primal femininity at sea. Kiana, Laerke and Alizé, cross the Atlantic using all traditional sailing methods aboard "Mara Noka" a 50-year-old plywood catamaran with nylon sheathing and tar coating. The girls grinded away on a year-long refit in Florida, before heading out for their mission to follow, document, ...

Ben Shaw returns to the podcast, this time in-person and onboard DOVKA, his family's Hallberg Rassy. Ben is the host of the Out the Gate sailing podcast and a former crew of 59º North. Ben and his wife Lauren sailed with us on ICEBEAR in 2019 to prepare for their own cruising adventures, and we met up quite spontaneously in Hiva Oa, after both crossing the Pacific to the Marquesas. We talked about Ben and his family's cruising plan...

Will and Sarah Curry are the perfect example of a young family who has managed to create and sustain a life between land and sea, managing and operating "Hydrovane" from their catamaran with 2 littles, and from their home in Vancouver. First and foremost we discuss the ins and outs of the fantastic and hardy product itself — but on a more personal level they share a bit about finding their limits aboard, adjustments they had to mak...

Richard Clarke was raised on Toronto Island and first sailed at 4 years old. An impressive performance with Canadian Youth sailing led him to compete in the Finn Class in four consecutive Olympic Games with Team Canada. This opened the door to a wildly successful professional sailing career. Richard was part of a winning Volvo Round the World crew, has broken the 24-hour sailing distance record four times, holds both the Transatlan...

Bob and his wife Jody spent most of their life as live-aboards and at sea. Their marital dynamic and life long friendship is infectious. Bob dives into his younger years as a Hells Angel, his entrepreneurial mindset, and how sailing literally saved his life. Bob has owned and operated more businesses than he can barely count, and has written and self-published eleven books on the side. We discuss some of the darker times in Bob's l...

Longtime friend of the pod Jessie Zevalkink returns to the show ahead of her debut as host of ON THE WIND! We first met Jessie back in 2017 at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, interviewing her after she'd completed the Great Loop with her friend Katie. As it happens in the sailing community, we kept running into her, and starting next week she'll be co-hosting the show! Andy caught up with Jessie to talk about life after cruising, sing...

Ben Doerr, longtime friend of the pod and founder/skipper at Sail Bainbridge in Seattle, returns to the show to spin some yarns with Andy. This episode is really a catch-up between Ben & Andy, who haven't spoken in a while, and is a wide-ranging episode on everything from sailing & skiing in Alaska to being away from home when you've got a young family. We also briefly touched on Ben's new Sail2Run project in the San Juan Islands. ...

Louay Habib is a true sailing insider. Everyone who participates regularly in any of the major offshore races around the world will know Louay. In fact, if you yourself follow sailing – say races like the Fastnet, the Ocean Race - you probably know Louay too – well his writing at least. Currently he is the communications manager at the Royal Ocean Racing Club. But for two decades, Louay has reported on sailing. He is a master in co...

Katy Campbell is a world-class sailor, groundbreaking entrepreneur, and one of my lifelong friends. A decade ago, Katy launched her sailing school ‘Sea to Sky Sailing’. Sea to Sky is now the only RYA-recognized training center on North America’s west coast, and Vancouver’s only school offering both cruising and racing programs, including a regular winter Caribbean race circuit which is where we recently got together to record this ...

Matt Rutherford returns yet again to the podcast, this time from his outpost in the Philippines. It's always fun to catch up and shoot the shit with Matt, but this time I really wanted to hear about his near-sinking on a Caribbean delivery last fall. Matt talks through the entire ordeal, from riding out a gale with all the pumps running, to nearly losing the rudder out of the bottom of the boat, to ultimately his safe landfall in B...

Jesse Terry is a normal guy — dad and husband, keeps a 9-5 job, lives in the city, etc etc, all that "normal" stuff. But he's decidedly not normal as a boat owner — keeping a classic wooden ketch in top condition with some friends and racing & cruising her up and down New England's coast and out to Bermuda. I talked to him about the contrast between his "normal" life and sailing life, what it's like owning a wooden boat and a recen...

Paul Osborne is the dad behind Osborne Adventure. Paul's family, including his wife and three kids, are planning a unique circumnavigation over the next few years to raise awareness for Down Syndrome. Paul has spent a lifetime traveling, mountain biking, white water kayaking, climbing, camping, and hiking, and in real life is a photographer and designer. I spoke to Paul about his adventure planning, life with kids, being a dad, sai...

Don McIntyre, founder of the GGR, OGR and now MGR, returns to the podcast! Andy sat down for a meandering conversation where they talk about meeting in Lagos, Portugal at the start of the Mini Globe Race, his philosophies on life, sailing and adventure, Don's definition of success, how he handles the 'haters' surrounding his ambitious events, how he pays for his crazy ideas and lots, lots more.

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ON THE WIND is presented by Forbes...

Peter Gibbons-Neff returns to the podcast to talk about the successes and failures of his Mini-Transat racing campaign. "PGN" and I sat down face-to-face in Annapolis where he told me about losing a rudder shortly after the start in the Canaries, the hardest part about solo sailing a 21-ft. boat, how the mini-class doesn't allow even basic electronics, his military background and how that helps him offshore — plus his plans to one ...

David Cross is an author in the midst of writing a book — a large portion of which involves a solo, offshore passage to Brazil. Wanting to get the fundamentals right, David asked if he could turn the tables and interview me about this fictional voyage in order to make it as realistic as possible. Of course I was happy to oblige, and this conversation is the result of our chat. Read more about his book on loansailor.com.

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ON THE W...

Andy Hesketh, aka Andy H. is the founder of the Odyssey Sailing Festival and host of the Ocean Cruiser's Podcast. Andy lives aboard his Jeanneau Sun Odyssey called VOYAGER and has been sailing full-time for several years. He wasn't always a sailor though, leaving a corporate life behind to pursue wider horizons. I talked to him last fall when he was aboard is boat in Greece.

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ON THE WIND is presented by Forbes Yachts, the yacht s...

Happy New Year podcast listeners! Mia & I are back with our somewhat-annual year-in-review show, where we sit down and chat through the highs and lows at 59º North. This one was recorded onboard FALKEN just before the first trip of 2025 was set to depart Portugal. Mia & I discussed everything from new projects coming in 2025 to the successes (and failures) of 2024 as well as our plans as a sailing family. Enjoy!

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ON THE WIND is p...

Lin Pardey is a living legend, having paved the way for countless cruising sailors for her epic voyages in an engineless boat with her husband Larry in the 60s and 70s, beautiful boats they built by hand, by themselves. Now at 80 years old, she's still doing it. I sat down with her and her new partner David Haigh, himself an accomplished solo sailor in Annapolis to talk about life after Larry and what inspires her and David to keep...