Are you wondering if its sunny or rainy in Timbuktu? Now you’ll know.
One rainy Saturday, I sat down and designed a tool that lets me check the weather anywhere in the world, from places I’ve visited to places I explore in my imagination.
I enjoyed this tool so much that I figured you’d get a kick out of it too.
“It’ll crawl!” — Thomas Fogarty’s illustration from Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World. Joshua Slocum was the first person to sail alone around the world on Spray.Why they thought it would crawl
Sea G Rhydr is heading through America in her tiny yellow wagon the Mustard Seed, pulled by her Shetland Theodore, her miniature horse Franklin and her Corgi Thick.
Sea G Rhydr heading up the road with her ponies Franklin and Theodore pulling the Mustard Seed. Look closely and you can see her Corgi Thick sitting next to her. (Sea G Rhydr photo)
She recently caught up with me straight from the wagon to talk about the first 200 miles of her voyage: the runaways, the wagon pole bent like a hump back whale and the field interviews she is doing with people across America.
Thies Matzen took this photo while becalmed with his wife Kicki Ericson on Wanderer III in the trade wind belt between southern Chile and the Tuamotus. He says “I call it the whale picture because it looks a little bit like the boat is disappearing behind a wave which has the shape of a whale.”
Twenty years ago, I (Bernie Harberts) hitched my mule Polly to a handmade wagon in Neptune, Saskatchewan and headed south. Three hundred and ninety-five days later we reached the Rio Grande at Fort Hancock, Texas. I filmed every mile of it myself — no crew, no drones, no AI. Just paper maps, two movie cameras, and a charming mule to keep me company.
The Lost Sea Expedition premiered on Rocky Mountain PBS and won the WINNIE Award at the EQUUS International Film Festival. For years the only way to watch it was chopped into four pieces to fit the broadcast format.
Today, for the first time, the full uncut feature-length version is free on YouTube.
Hugo Vihlen’s Atlantic crossing routes: April Fool (1968, 6-foot boat, 85 days) and Father’s Day (1993, 5’4″ boat, 105 days). Map from Hugo’s book, The Stormy Voyage of Father’s Day.
At 62, Hugo Vihlen sailed across the Atlantic in Father’s Day—a boat just 5 feet 4 inches long. He hand-steered through a hurricane, ate quarter rations, and lost a kidney somewhere between Newfoundland and England. His record still stands 30+ years later.
Listen now.
Hugo Vihlen’s Atlantic crossing routes: April Fool (1968, 6-foot boat, 85 days) and Father’s Day (1993, 5’4″ boat, 105 days). Map from Hugo’s book, The Stormy Voyage of Father’s Day.Transcript
Sea G Rhydr is heading across America by covered wagon with Shetland ponies and a corgi named Thick — and she had questions. I had answers, from crossing cattle guards to whether your horse needs a diaper.
The Spray. From a photograph taken in Australian waters. From Sailing Alone Around the World by Captain Joshua Slocum, The Century Co., New York, 1901More on the spray
