I catch up with Chris and Marissa Neely aboard their Choy Lee 41 Avocet. After years of living aboard and working on their boat in Ventura, CA, they’ve thrown off the dock lines and are going cruising. Their first stop? San Francisco Bay. Chris grew up sailing on the Bay and they are excited to be back in home waters. You can follow Chris and Marissa on their trip through their popular and beautifully produced videos at Sailing Avocet.

Federico Guerrero grew up 4 blocks from the beach in Argentina. Laura Smith Grew up next to me, in Falls Church Virginia. The two of them fell in love with sailing independently and then met at sea aboard a ship - and soon after nurtured a plan to build their own boat and sail it to Antarctica. Today they run a charter business called Quixote Expeditions out of Ushuaia, Argentina - regularly taking guests on expeditions to Antarctica aboard one of the two vessels in their fleet. I talk to them about running the business, sailing at the bottom of the world, and how they connected with yet another childhood friend of mine to start taking photography trips in conjunction with Visionary Wild.

Andy Cross grew up daysailing and cruising with his family in Michigan. He made his first offshore passage at 19 and he’s been working in the sailing industry pretty much ever since. In 2012, Andy and his wife Jill bough a Grand Soleil 39, named her Yahtzee, and threw off the lines to live aboard full time - raising two boys aboard the boat. They’ve sailed the Salish Sea, the Inside Passage, Alaska, San Francisco, Mexico, through the Panama Canal, Down to Columbia and beyond. Read Andy's blog at sailingyahtzee.com

Cal Currier had never been ocean sailing, but at sixteen-years-old the Palo Alto high school student set himself a goal to sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean. A few short months later, with support from his father and New England sailmaker Sandy Van Zandt, he had learned to sail, found the right boat, and set off on his crossing. His 28 day 3,400 nautical miles trip from Massachusetts to Portugal may qualify him as the youngest to ever make the west-to-east passage. We talk about his preparation for the trip as well as the highs and lows of the crossing itself.

He made it! Cyril Derreumaux recently became the second person in the world to kayak from California to Hawaii. We spoke before he left (episode 73) and now 91 days and 2,400 miles later we discuss the trials and triumphs of his successful solo crossing. It was not his first attempt, but he took what he learned from the aborted trip a year previously to make sure he was prepared physically and mentally for the adventure. 

Justin Jenkins is a sailor, musician, and carpenter who has sailed all over the pacific. He and I have been corresponding about sailing for a few years and I recently met up with him at the KKMI where he works and lives aboard his Luders 36. We had a good conversation about the ups and down, the stress and anxiety of preparing for an ocean voyage.

Ryann Finn departed New York in January of 2022. Just over three months later he arrived here in San Francisco, having sailed his 36-foot proa sailboat 14,000 nautical miles - down the Atlantic, around Cape Horn, and back up the Pacific to San Francisco. He faced multiple challenges, including broken gear that required stops in Brazil and Patagonia, plenty of storms, and frustrating calms in the Pacific as he neared his destination. He talks about his adventurous passage and adjusting to life back on land. You can follow Ryan on Facebook at 2Oceans1Rock.

James Frederick was recently awarded the 2021 Qualifiers Mug from the Ocean Cruising Club for sailing 2,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, 1,000 of those without a rudder. We met up in Annapolis the night before he received his award to talk about his rudder failure, steering by drogue, and how he went from being an artist, and taxi driver to an ocean cruiser aboard his 1965 Alberg 30 Triteia. He’s currently cruising in French Polynesia and you can follow his adventure at www.svtriteia.com.

Captain Heather Richard, a good friend of mine, was one of the key inspirations for this podcast. She was my very first guest and I’m thrilled to have her back on the program for episode 101. She lives and runs a charter business in Sausalito called Fine Day for Sailing aboard her 43-foot sailboat Carodon. A U.S. Coastguard licensed captain, Heather’s been sailing since the age of 4 and more recently she’s picked up wing foiling. We talk about winging, her recent sailing trips down to Baja, homeschooling three kids along the way, and her sailing plans for the future.

The Rosie G is an innovative, new, scow bowed, junk rigged, boat that came from the mind of Barry and Samatha Spanier. She was designed by Jim Antrim and built by Cree Partridge and his yard at the Berkeley Marine Center. All of these folks are friends of the show, which is why it was such a treat to sit in the dog house on Rosie G in the Emeryville Marina and talk with Barry and Samatha about the boat’s conception, construction, and coming sea trials.