by Rich Wilson | Dec 29, 2016 | Essays-RichWilson
Often I am asked – don’t you feel confined in that little boat? And my answer always is – not at all! Because where else can you live every day, all day, with a 360 degree view of the horizon and a hemispheric dome of sky overhead? Immersed in open nature this...
by Rich Wilson | Dec 22, 2016 | Essays-RichWilson
A midpoint invites you to look both forward and backward in a project. Looking backward, are we attaining our goals that we stated at the start? For this project, it was to sail well, to tell the story of the sea to those on land, to deliver all of our promised...
by Rich Wilson | Dec 15, 2016 | Essays-RichWilson
When we sailed east past Marion Island in the Indian Ocean a few days ago, we were 220 miles further north than when we sailed past here in Vendée Globe 2008. Then, as now, there were course restrictions for safety from icebergs breaking off Antarctica that we had to...
by Rich Wilson | Dec 8, 2016 | Essays, Essays-RichWilson
In Captain James Cook’s day, it was thought that there must be a Great Southern Continent that would balance the weight of Europe and the Americas on the globe. In 1774, he sailed deep into the south, incredibly to 71 degrees south, trying to find it, but...
by Rich Wilson | Nov 30, 2016 | Essays-RichWilson
At sea, we see great swaths of ocean, and thereby of the planet. Sometimes on a long ocean voyage, we may be close to land, but more often we are hundreds of miles off any land. In either circumstance, I like to think about the people, the places, the cultures – just...
by Rich Wilson | Nov 23, 2016 | Essays-RichWilson
Today is a beautiful day at sea. We are 300 miles east of Recife, Brazil, the blue sky has fluffy clouds, and the sea, cresting with an occasional whitecap, is a deep blue glittering with sunlight. Does the ocean look polluted? No, it looks beautiful. But just because...
