The Grit #5: Southern Ocean Celestial With Thies Matzen and Wanderer III

Hi there,
Bernie here with your latest issue of The Grit.

This week on the Travel Grit podcast, I’ll introduce you to a man who has sailed to some of the remotest places on earth using a compass, a sextant, paper charts and forty years of experience won at sea. He’s my dear friend Thies Matzen.

Thies and his wife Kicki Ericson have spent 45 years sailing Wanderer III, a 30-foot wooden sloop that is one of the most famous small boats in sailing history. They have spent years exploring and documenting the Southern Ocean’s sub-Antarctic islands, including spending two years visiting South Georgia Island, making them among the few sailors in modern times to spend extended time there. They sailed to Antarctica on the smallest traditionally planked wooden boat to ever make that voyage. And they did most of it navigating by stars, long before GPS made finding yourself at sea a matter of glancing at a screen.

In this conversation Thies talks about dead reckoning through three days of fog toward South Georgia, what the Polynesian navigators of Micronesia taught him about reading the ocean through birds and wave patterns and stars, and why he believes a small boat keeps the world big.

Thies gave me a treasure in this conversation. I am so proud to pass it on to you.

[LISTEN HERE]

Wagon Rambling News

Long Rider Sea G Rhydr, who I interviewed on Travel Grit about her 5,000 mile ride across America, has begun her wagon ramble with her Shetland ponies, Franklin and Theodore, her dog Thick and her yellow wagon the Mustard Seed.

Sea and I had a great chat on Travel Grit’s Gritty Bits about how she was prepared before she hit the road. Have a listen to hear how she prepared for her trip.

Sea’s interviewing folks met along the way and posting their conversations on her Who is my Neighbor? channel on YouTube. You can’t get closer and grittier when it comes to putting your finger on the pulse of the wide range of folks that call the United States home. Have a look.

Swarming on the Homestead

In homestead news, my wife Julia and I have had an exceptional swarming year. I catch feral bees as a hobby and keep them in insulated hives that mimic how wild bees live in the wild – think jerry-rigged cavities in massive trees.

I currently have five hives and the bees that occupy them are casting two or three swarms each. While this would freak out conventional beekeepers because it cuts into honey production, I embrace it because it’s a natural and vital way for feral bees to maintain healthy populations while getting rid of parasites.

I catch swarms of wild bees in bait hives that I build in our barn and hang in trees. Imagine my surprise when I caught a big swarm of bees in one of our bait hives while it was still sitting in the barn before I ever got to hang it in a tree.

I hope things are going well for you and that late spring isn’t throwing too much hot, cold, rainy or dry weather your way.

Until next time, stay gritty.

Bernie

Back to more issues of The Grit