At the age of 22, John Neal bought a 27-foot Albin Vega sloop and set off from Seattle headed for Hawaii. His book chronicling that voyage, Log of Mahina, became a best seller and people started seeking him out to ask: "How can I find and prepare a boat for ocean voyaging?" In 1976 he began conducting Offshore Cruising Seminars and in 1990, to meet the requests for hands-on offshore instruction, John established Mahina Expeditions. He’s sailed 342,000 miles in the South Pacific, Caribbean, Patagonia, Antarctica, Atlantic, Scandinavia and the Arctic, rounding Cape Horn six times in the process. John’s wife Amanda was featured in episode 14 of Out The Gate.