Nikki Henderson is no stranger to the 59N family. She’s a skipper, a podcaster, master of the Quarterdeck and a dear friend in the community. But when she signs off from these watches, she doesn’t quit. You likely know that she’s been on heaps of other seafaring adventures, including skippering the famed Whitbread machine, Maiden; the Clipper Round the World Race; and her first attempt at the Race To Alaska with Team Sail Like a Girl. I sat down to talk with Nikki about her second, most recent attempt at the R2AK, its challenges, and what made this one such a successful campaign in what I think is one of the greatest adventure races on earth. Guest-Hosted by Ben Doerr.
Navigating the challenges of parenthood whilst also maintaining an atypical lifestyle — be that of a sailor, adventurer, or anything that doesn’t involve a 9-5 desk job — has been a consistent theme of this podcast. Now the tables have turned. Andy, Mia and August are raising their two boys whilst running a business and working as professional sailors themselves. Hoping to be a parent myself one day, I took the opportunity to put them on the spot to discuss what has surprised them about parenthood, what they wish they had known before taking the plunge, and what advice they have for anyone else dreaming of a similar future.
Pam Wall returns to the podcast, live from her living room in Ft. Lauderdale. Andy sat down to talk to Pam about the treasure trove of memories in her house, how she stays happy and inspirational despite the tragedy of losing her husband and daughter too soon, the relationship she has with her son, how she stays fit at nearly 80, and lots lots more.
Celeste Pomerantz wasn't a sailor until she signed up for a sail & ski trip out of Tromsø, Norway, that was headed north in search of un-skied peaks in Svalbard. The boat was called SOFIE, and was owned and skippered by friend of 59º North, Mats Grimsaeth. I discovered Celeste in the ski film Wavy 2 about the adventure and immediately reached out to her. We talked about sailing in the Arctic, her upbringing in the mountains of western British Columbia, similarities between big mountain skiing and offshore sailing, managing fear, 'imposter syndrome' and her studies in renewable energy.
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole and the North Pole, but his greatest achievement may have been leading the first successful crossing of the Northwest Passage in 1906. Terje Andre Pedersen grew up inspired by Amundsen's great stories of exploration. He has followed his own dreams, and is soon to set sail towards the Northwest Passage in Amundsen's wake with a ship made of wood and a crew made of iron.
Episode 113 is an essay about the first passage of Andy & Mia's Swan 48 Isbjorn. They sailed to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, departing Annapolis on July 4, with Charly, Dan, John and Sean onboard as the inaugural crew. Andy talks about the passage and reflects a bit on how it all went down and what it felt like to reach this milestone. To see some photos of the trip, go to 59-north.com/passagelogs.
Episode #111 is Miles Poor. Miles and his wife Anne run MRP Refits, both here in Annapolis and at their winter base in Nanny Cay, BVI. MRP specializes in project management on pretty fancy sailboats. Miles’ main career was as a facial surgeon. We sat down on Miles’ Tayana 55 in Annapolis, a boat he uses for MRP as his ‘showroom’ and discussed his very interesting history – he was born in Stockholm and went to boarding school in Switzerland, learning to sail on Lake Geneva – and then delve into some ocean sailing stuff.
Episode #110 is Duncan Hood, a long-time sailor and technically an Annapolis resident for more than two decades, but who’s traveled the world teaching instructors how to teach sailing.
Duncan works ASA and years ago got asked to travel to China to help start a sailing school in the south, near the border with North Korea, and his story of that misadventure makes up a good chunk of the middle of this episode. It’s a riveting tale
Episode 108 is a followup to the very popular blog post I wrote last week about our too-close encounter with a Navy ship en route from Bermuda to NYC. Douglas MacDonald, owner of the HR43 we were sailing, comes on the show to discuss what happened from his perspective. He's very humble about the experience, and wants to provide his insight on how you can avoid this kind of thing yourself. If you haven't read the article, click here.
Andy sat down with Hank in Bermuda during the ARC Europe stopover and chatted for almost an hour and a half! Hank talked about his career working on offshore oil rigs, how he got into racing as a teenager (and lived a sailing bums life in the 70s), & how he started OPO and the NARC Rally. Towards the second half of the episode, Hank discusses candidly some scary stuff - the loss of a crew member in the NARC Rally in 2010, and the abandonment of the Alpha catamaran during an ill-fated delivery last January. It's an inspiring look at one of the biggest names in the American offshore cruising business.
Tania Aebi spoke at the ARC Europe Rally in Bermuda last Sunday, and Andy recorded it. Tania was skippering Jojo Maria, a Beneteau on it's way back to New York from the Caribbean. During the Bermuda stopover she regaled the packed house of crew with her tales of circumnavigating in her 26-foot Contessa in the 1980's at age 18. She was the youngest woman to ever do so single-handed. Her book 'Maiden Voyage' remains in print and is an all-time sailing classic. The fleet was based at the St. George's Dinghy & Sports Club.
The beautiful and charming Anna Vinnars, voice of the podcast, on the show today to talk about her epic cycling trip from South Africa to Sweden (yes, you read that correctly!). Co-hosted by Ryan Briggs, Andy's best friend. This is a re-run from one of the very first podcasts Andy ever did, back in the 'Two Inspired Guys' days. It's not so much about sailing, but it's all about adventure. You'll dig it. And you'll fall in love with Anna's voice like Andy did!
Despite what I say in the intro, this is actually episode #102! Episode #102 is Mike Meer, a dear friend of mine and my former employer, who taught me everything I know about yacht rigging. It’s all about yacht rigging in the context of ocean sailing, in Mike’s witty, fun-loving style. He’s a cool guy, and he gets across complex rigging issues in a very understandable manner. The slides from Mike’s talk are available at this episode’s blog page on 59-north.com/sailingpodcast, so head there to follow along.
Want to go ocean sailing with Andy? Book a berth on Isbjorn, our classic Swan 48, at 59-north.com/offshore.
Episode #100 is Paul Exner & I on the road talking business. It occurred to me shortly after releasing Paul’s first interview with Victor Hempel that a lot of my listeners might not know who the hell this Paul Exner guy was. So we re-hash some of Paul’s sailing experience, focusing on his technical knowledge of the sport. Ultimately though we ended up talking more about the new business than anything else. This is a very honest episode - we talk about the conflict of using the podcast as an advertising platform, how to price offshore passage trips, what it’s like emotionally starting your own business and lots more.
Episode #99 is legendary America’s Cup sailor and local Annapolitan Gary Jobson. Gary told stories of growing up in New Jersey sailing dinghies, sailing with Ted Turner and winning the 1977 America’s Cup, commentating for ESPN, winning two Emmy wards, watching the foiling catamaran’s at AC34, his thoughts on AC35 in Bermuda and lots more!
Want to go ocean sailing? Book a berth on Isbjorn, our Swan 48, on 59-north.com/offshore.
Retired Senator Tom Harkin invited me and my dad to his house in Hope Town, Bahamas, a place he’s been going to since the 70s to escape the rat race in DC, and which he’ll spend a lot more time at now in retirement. We took the ferry over and had lunch with Tom and his wife Ruth on the dock overlooking the sea of Abaco and Tom’s new sailboat, a 26’ lifting keel Seaward. We recorded the podcast on the deck behind Tom’s house, overlooking the Atlantic ocean. My dad was there as well, listening in the background. Tom’s got an amazing life story, a lot of which includes his love of sailing. We discussed his younger days in the Navy ROTC, how he became a fighter pilot, what it’s like to takeoff and land from the deck of an aircraft carrier, how he built a trimaran in Japan, how he survived ejecting from a fighter plane on a training mission gone wrong, and much more. This is a good one, so listen up!
At about 0200 in the morning last Wednesday, after we’d tied the dock lines up in Little Creek VA, I got out the recorder and we debriefed the passage north on Sojourner from Marsh Harbor to Annapolis. The crew were myself, my dad, and Les and Jim, two podcast fans who’d signed up for the expedition online! The trip was ideal sailing - broad reaching under a full moon for most of the way, and warm, dry and comfortable (at least until we got back into colder water on the Bay). Aside from one night, that is. Early Easter Sunday morning we experienced a violent frontal passage, with 50-knot initial gusts and sustained winds overnight in the 30-40 knot range. Easily the strongest weather I’d encountered in my offshore career, and a hell of an experience for Les and Jim who’d never been offshore before. So we talked about it. Here's the tape.
Live from World Cruising Club's Ocean Sailing Seminar weekend in Annapolis. Andy spends 90 minutes discussing boat types and how to prioritize outfitting your boat for deep ocean sailing. He emphasizes that basically ANY boat can complete an ocean passage when properly outfitted and with a properly trained crew. But sometimes it's nice to have a few luxuries, and Andy talks about how to prioritize adding equipment.
Despite the intro, this is not the first Thursday episode…but it is another business-oriented episode, kind of a hybrid actually. Andy sat down with Forbes Horton of his namesake Yacht Sales brokerage in his office in Annapolis. Forbes’ firm, thanks to Lloyd Cooper, put together the deal to buy Isbjorn, the Swan 48 we talked about previously. Andy has known Forbes for a while - they talk about how they met, how he got into sailing and his own adventures in a Tartan 34c, the brokerage business in general, and how the deal came together with Isbjorn!
Paul Exner talks to single-handed sailor Victor Hempel aboard Paul's boat 'Solstice' in Tortola. Paul and Andy also announce their partnership between 59º North & Modern Geographic to offer sailing expeditions aboard the Swan 48 'Isbjorn' and Paul's Cape George 31 'Solstice.'
Paul will be regularly co-hosting '59º North' during the normal Tuesday releases. What do you think of the new co-host?
You know that intro music you love from the podcast? It's Blaggards! Andy spoke with lead singer and co-founder of the band, Patrick Devlin just in time for St. Paddy's Day.
This is the beginning of the story of how Mia and I came to own a 1972 Swan 48, hull no. 2, which we've named Isbjorn. I'll follow this up with regular podcast and blog updates on how the business is developing and how the refit is going, in real time, as we embark on the next stage of our sailing careers.
HUGE thanks to Lisa Jodensvi for drawing the amazing polar bear logo! This is just a first draft, but I had to share it! The final version is coming soon...
This week's episode features another LIVE lecture from the Toronto International Boat Show about sailing offshore to the Bahamas! The tried and true route is down the ICW from the Chesapeake. But that takes weeks! Which ic great if you have the time to meander and enjoy the nice towns along the way.
This one is for the sailors who are also skiers - Drew Hardesty is a forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center. How does he relate to sailing? Drew is the definition of an outdoorsman, and the wilderness envrionment that is the backcountry in the mountains of Utah is strikingly similar, philosophically, to the wilderness that is the high seas, and both are blessed and cursed with the same adventure and the same problems.
