Latest / The Discussion Podcast / The Lunch Discussion - Around the World on Stormbird: Nick Hine’s Three‑Year Sailing Odyssey

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The Lunch Discussion - Around the World on Stormbird: Nick Hine’s Three‑Year Sailing Odyssey · The Discussion Podcast

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This is the Late Late Lunch Show with Rod Maxwell, supported by...
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So on the Late Late Lunch Show today, we're going somewhat global and we're
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going to see, because I'm talking to a man who's in the middle of an around
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the world yacht adventure, where,
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he has different people joining him as the crew at different legs of it.
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His name is Nick Hine, and he is the skipper of a Stormbird,
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I believe, is the name of the boat. Nick, how are you?
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Yeah, very well, thank you. I'm a sunny Cape Town.
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You are in Cape Town at the moment.
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So let's talk about this whole adventure. You are sailing around the world.
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She's 62 feet, is she a Stormbird? That's correct, yes.
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She's shy of 19 meters. So she's a big boat,
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and that requires you to have a reasonable crew, and essentially as you've been
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sailing around the world, different people have joined you to be your crew,
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I guess who've had different levels of sailing experience?
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Yes, that's true, yeah.
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So... Some are very experienced, and some have done little, but they've all
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been interested in joining my adventure, and so...
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As long as they know one end of the boat from the other, I can teach them the rest.
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And to get round the world, you set off, was it last December, January?
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No, no, I set off in July 23. Oh my goodness, okay. So I've been going now just over three years.
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It's taken me this length of time to get to Cape Town. So let's go back to basics, right?
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What was behind the whole idea of you sailing around the world and doing so
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with people who were volunteers?
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And some of them, I believe, have been your family as well. But what was the
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whole background to doing the whole trip?
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Okay. When I was about eight years old, I was rowing a little rowing boat in Dartmouth in Devon.
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And this man on the shore said, excuse me, young man, will you row me to my boat?
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And I said, yes. So he got in, he rowed me, I rowed him to his boat called British
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Steel 3 in the middle of the dart.
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And he told me he was going around the world against the prevailing winds.
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And he showed me around the boat and told me his plans. And I thought,
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hmm, a little sort of, I'd like to do that.
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Anyway, his name was Shea Blythe, a very famous sailor.
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So I then read all the sailing books and a dream formed in my head that one
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day I would like to sail around the world now it's took me taking me a long
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time to get to that stage so I suppose I left when I was 61 but that dream didn't go,
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and so I planned my life and set off in July 23 and I'm now about to go back
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to the UK probably another 7,000 miles to sail,
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but I've fulfilled my dream over the last three years. Wow.
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Now, was sailing something that's been with you all the way through your life?
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Yes. Well, it's something I've always loved.
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My grandparents lived in Dartmouth, and my grandfather had a boat.
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And in fact, I've got a picture of his boat on my yacht, so I believe he's coming
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with me. I think he'd enjoy that.
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And basically, he taught me to sail and I always loved it. And you know how
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life takes certain avenues.
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You know, you get married, you have a family, there isn't much time for those
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sort of things, but it never left me.
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So as time went on, I tried to do as much as I reasonably could.
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And then in 2011, I decided to get my day skipper qualification and carried
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on from there. I then did a yacht mast.
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And then in 2019 on another boat I owned.
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We did the Atlantic. We sailed the Atlantic before of us. So I got that out
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of my system, and that was a precursor for this.
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And I always wanted to do this, so then I planned my life. So I sold my other
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boat, and I bought this boat in the Caribbean.
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It was sailed back by a delivery crew to the Azores, and then I sailed it back
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to the UK from the Azores, prepared edit over the course of a year,
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and then left in July 23 on my voyage.
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Now, of course, you are using wind power, essentially, Although you will have
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a motor on board the boat, you're using wind power.
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Have you gone against the prevailing wind then as part of your route?
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Not really, because what you do is, if you read into it, you tend to sail with
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the prevailing winds, the trade winds, because they help you around the world.
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So mainly from the east to west is the route that you follow.
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Of course, there are times when the wind's against you and the wind doesn't
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always go in the direction you would like.
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So sometimes you have to perhaps sail a different course or a different angle,
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or if there's no wind, you have to motor sometimes.
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I'd say probably 25-30% of the time, you may have to use the engine.
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Okay, okay. Unless you've still got enough wind in certain parts of the world.
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Yeah. But generally, I've sailed as much as I can, and yeah, I love it.
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It's nice to be out there. Well, we'll take a break, and then we're going to
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be back with Nick talking about this adventure on board Stormbird with different
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people who've joined them all the way across the world.
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And you're just about to get ready to embark on, well, I guess it's the last leg then, Nick.
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It is really the last leg, yes. Well, we'll be going from Cape Town to Santa
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Elena, which is a British island off the African coast, then close to Ascension
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Island, which is another British island,
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and then we'll probably have to stop in Cape Verde, which are Portuguese. Not a bad place to stop.
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Refuel and get some more provisions, and then from there head to the Azores.
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And then from the Azores back home so we can use the trade winds then,
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the southwesterly winds, to head us back towards Falmouth and the UK coast.
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Well, we'll talk more about your adventure and the route you've taken and more
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about some of the challenges.
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And I've done a little bit of sailing with one of your current crew,
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actually, Mr. Smith. And there's nothing quite like it, actually,
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I've got to say. But let's take a break. We'll be back with the kind in a couple of minutes time.
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You're listening to The Late Late Lunch Show. Back to the Garden Childcare,
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where little explorers grow naturally. So today, my guest is a man called Nick
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Kind, who is embarking on the last part of a round-the-world trip.
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You said Nick started in 2023, 2024? 23, July 23. Wow. So I retired on the 30th
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of June 23, and on the 15th of July, I set off from the UK on my adventure.
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And was this always their plan hit retirement and just go off and explore well
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the plan was to stay around the world so i had to it took me about five years
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to put the right things in place,
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to be able to set off in july 23 and the plan was also to do it and to.
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I couldn't carry on working running a company whilst doing this trip so i wanted to,
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sever that enjoy it and not have any ties like that which would interfere with
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it good so let's just talk about the logistics of something like this to begin with because you are,
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some people have managed to sail say 36 foot boats solo type thing 72 foot,
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not a chance it's a huge vessel i mean it's it's a many seals you got there
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you got there you did and you've got what two main seals or what do you got
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well you have your Your main sail, Genoa, which is a four-sail.
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Then you have a stay-sail.
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And then also I have a thing called, I call it the Blue Baron.
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It's a parasail, like a big spinnaker at the front, but it has a sort of parachute opening.
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So, yeah, the reason for a Genoa and a Staysun is a bit like changing down gears.
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You've got extra gears to play with. So if the wind is stronger,
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you move down a gear and you put out the Staysun at the center of the Genoa.
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And you can shorten your, you can reef the sails, as they call it,
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and you shorten your sail plan to adapt for the wind strength.
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And what sort of speed, what sort of knots are you getting up to when everything's going well?
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Well, I think the average around the world has been 7.3, but quite often we're
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doing eight or nine knots.
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But you don't necessarily have the wind 24 hours a day, but we've done 227 miles
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in 24 hours. That's my record.
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272 miles in 24 hours? 227 in a 24-hour period. Wow.
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And that was down the African coast with the Aguila's current under us.
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But if you take the current away my best 24 hour run was 208 miles wow excellent
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that's and and i mean there's,
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the it's a strange thing sailing i've done a little bit just a little bit but
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you can be going quite slowly so you know eight or nine knots,
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but it feels different to what it would be if you were in a motorboat or whatever
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it's the wind power and it's the
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it's the the challenges of of of managing that wind in in the right way,
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and and some way the speed is not comparative to other forms of movement no
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it seems sounds quite slow but eight to nine knots is quite fast for a sailing boat yeah,
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and there is actually believe it or not a formula which determines what your
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maximum speed of your boat is it's the length it's the length of the water line,
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that determines it right but
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you you know with currents and things like that as well they can speak so,
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yeah it seems slow but it's actually not not that slow and it's very nice it's
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all quiet and you're swooshing along the water and,
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the boat's creaking and you know everything's you know it's just and i i never
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lose i never get bored of looking at the ocean because it's a bit like.
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I i put it you sit down next to a log fire you never seem to get bored looking
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into a log fire burning yeah and so for me the sea is like that
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and and you're always adjusting well not always adjusting sails because i guess
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you you're going to have longer periods but there's always something to look
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at with the seal setup and some little movement that you can make to get it
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absolutely rigged perfectly,
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yeah trimming trimming what i also use is a thing called wind vane mode so,
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i have an autopilot on the boat so i can switch that on so the boat sails itself
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but if i put it on wind plane mode, as the wind changes direction slightly, sail it as the boat.
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So you trim the sails to that. And then as the boat, as the wind moves,
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you're maximizing the trim as you're going along. So you're not having to necessarily,
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trim it up regularly, but yes, things do change. You change course, things like that.
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And we're always on watch. So we're sailing 24 hours a day,
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We have different watch systems. The two people are on watch at a time.
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They're running the boat and trimming it and making sure we're going in the
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right direction. Well, we've got to take another break.
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We'll talk about the route, and we'll talk about crew because you're relying
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on volunteers, and I'm interested in the dynamics because even though it's a
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big boat, you're in a small area, and you've got to get on. You've got to take your roles as well.
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Even over a weekend sailing around the Lake District, that can be a challenge
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at times. So we'll be back with Nick Hine talking about his round-the-world
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adventure currently in Cape Town. We'll be back with him in a couple of minutes' time.
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You're listening to The Late Late Lunch Show. Back to the Garden Childcare,
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where little explorers grow naturally.
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So, Nick, you set off, and was it Farmer's you set off from?
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No, I set off from the Hamble, which is obviously near Southampton,
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as part of the Solent, as we would know it. Okay. And.
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You knew your route, I guess, or how much of the route did you know in advance?
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Pretty well all of it. Well, sort of all of it. I knew which route I was going
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to go, but obviously different islands when you get there, that changes.
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But I knew the essential route. The only bit that was in doubt was whether I
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could go through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal back.
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And as time went on, things did not improve in that area of the world.
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So in the end, I knew I had to go around the bottom of Africa,
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which is what I'm doing now. So that's purely for geopolitical reasons then?
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Well, there's piracy in Yemen, Somalia.
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There are problems. Obviously, the latest war with Iran has proved to be difficult.
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And my insurance company for the yacht said, no, you can't go through the Red Sea.
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So I would have liked to have done that, but unfortunately I couldn't,
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so I've had to come a different route.
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And what challenges does the Red Sea specifically bring?
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Well, the challenge is when you go into the Red Sea, you've got Yemen and Somalia either side.
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Therefore, the risk is that pirates will come and board your boat.
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There is already an international community of military nations which actually
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police the Red Sea and are policing the cargo ships and tankers that are going up and down it.
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Some of them actually have armed guards and things like that.
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So it's a problem in that area. and the Hooties are there as well and things
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of that nature. So the risk is piracy getting in.
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Once you're in, it's also quite a challenging sail because the wind normally howls down the Red Sea.
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So you're having to what we call beat into the wind. You tack your way up.
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So it's actually quite a hard sail up to the top.
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But once you're there, and also where you can stop on the way because there
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aren't that many countries that are safe and things of that nature.
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So all in all, it's quite a challenging bit of water.
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So when you set off, you set off down the west coast of Europe and then essentially
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went right across the ocean through to this Pacific.
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Yes. So what we did was we go down to Spain and Portugal, crossing what we call the Bay of Biscay. Yeah.
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And then I had some family come out and we had another bit of a holiday there.
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Then from Spain, we went off to Madeira and then to the Canaries.
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The reason to go to the Canaries is that that's a good stepping stone point
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from which to go across the Atlantic from east to west.
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So in January, 24, we left the Canaries, headed across to Barbados and then
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other parts of the Caribbean, and then from the Caribbean went across the Caribbean sea over to Panama.
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And checked in there, but we also went for about three weeks to what we call
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the San Blas Islands, which are a lovely set of islands about 90 miles west
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of Panama, with a typical sort of sandy palm tree type island.
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Imagine those sort of remote islands that people sort of cast away type stuff.
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And they have coral reefs and things like that. And they're a beautiful set
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of islands owned really by the Gunnar Indians.
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And we had some nice experiences with them.
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But a lovely place to spend three weeks before going back to Panama.
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Then we went through the Panama Canal, which was quite a challenge with cargo
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ships and tankers. I can imagine.
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And then from Panama to, across to Galapagos, which was an amazing place. Wow.
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All the wildlife there. And then from Galapagos, we did the longest trip from
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there to the beginning of French Polynesia called the Marquesas Islands.
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That was 3,415 miles non-stop.
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It took us 19 days. We didn't see any ship for 19 days or anything, hardly.
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Anyway, the Marquesas is lovely. It's got three different sets of islands,
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the Marquesas, the Tuamotos, which are like coral atolls, and the Society Islands,
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which is where Tahiti is part of them.
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So through, I spent probably four or five months going through all of those.
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Wow. Then from Tahiti to Nui, which is a very unusual little island,
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Tonga, and then all the way down to New Zealand, where that was the end of year
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one. So it was about 40,000 miles. Wow.
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And then in New Zealand, my wife came out. We had a good holiday going around the two islands.
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And then 7th of January 25, we headed off from New Zealand to Sydney, Australia.
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And we arrived just before a storm. And at anchor, we had 52 knots blowing in a great rainstorm.
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Wow. That's a full 10 at anchor. So 52 knots. Would that be about 40 miles an
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hour, something like that?
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Yeah, it was a force 10. Wow.
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And the anchor held, so that was okay.
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Anyway, really, I spent about six months going out of the eastern Australian
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coast, and the Whitsunday Islands, and the Great Barrier Reef,
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et cetera, and then into Indonesia, where I joined a rally called the Indonesian Rally.
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I went three months through Indonesia, then to Malaysia, and then to Thailand, the NW2.
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Spent a bit of time around Thailand. And then year three, went from Thailand
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to Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka to India, India to the Maldives.
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And then I got a permit to go to Chagos, which has all been in the news recently.
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Chagos to Mauritius, Mauritius Reunion, Reunion to Durban, Durban to Port Elizabeth,
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Port Elizabeth to Cape Town.
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Right. And that's where you currently are. So I noticed from your website,
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which is stormbridgegoesglobal.co.uk, that this is called the Alan Phillips
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route. Why is it called that?
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Well, there's a book written by Alan Phillips, and he calls it The Milk Run
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Route, which he says is the nicest, warmest, easiest way to sail around the world.
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That was his idea. And have you found it to be that?
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Well, it has been a nice route, yes. But it's quite hard work,
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because it's almost like having a full-time job, in that I have to think ahead six months.
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So I'm organizing all these crews you've talked about. So I've had various,
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probably up to about 40 people have come and join me over the three-year period.
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So I have to organize that. There are repairs and things that need to do into the boat all the time.
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Then I need to think ahead of marinas to book into, where I get works done,
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all the sort of provisioning.
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I had to think about all the spares I needed to carry before I left.
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I mean, it's just every day there's something going on.
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But that's part of the journey, really. You can't expect that not to happen.
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So it's how you deal with those challenges and how you.
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Enjoy it as you're as you're going around well let's let's talk about some i'll
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take a break and i want to talk about the crew and talk about the the dynamics
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of that and what you've learned from that and what you've drawn on from your
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own professional experience as well,
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i'm intrigued by that so today i'm speaking to nick hein and if you go to his
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website it's called um storm bridge goes global.co.uk and,
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sorry sorry stormboard goes global.co.uk and send the story of his his creme
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his sail around the world with a number of different crew and currently he is,
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in cape town with somebody from altergan actually um dave smith somebody who
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i've sailed with a couple of times but nothing like this on the the quiet calms
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of lake lake um Windermere
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we'll be back with Nick in a couple of minutes time,
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You're listening to The Late Late Lunch Show. Back to the garden childcare,
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where little explorers grow naturally.
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You know, Nick, when I look at this and I think of the logistics and I think
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of planning and I think of all the things that are unpredictable,
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which you get with this type of trip.
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What have you drawn on from your previous life, your professional life?
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And what has surprised you about doing the trip that you maybe didn't think
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about as much previously?
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I suppose I've always been quite organized.
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I started off in merchant banking. I was then a policeman in London for seven
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and a half years. I met, did my degree part-time, and then I transferred to,
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become essentially a lawyer.
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And I was a barrister to start with, and I became a solicitor,
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and I was a solicitor the rest of my career.
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So I'm always used to sort of managing and organizing cases, if we put it like that.
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And then the last 10 years, I ran my own law firm, which specialized in employment law.
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So really, my organizational skills were fairly fine-tuned, I suppose.
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And therefore, I planned probably five years ahead for this voyage.
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And I had to work out a whole load of things that I needed to do in order to
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achieve it. And I put those things in place.
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So I think organization-wise, it's a lot of work, but I can cope with that.
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What surprised me, I suppose what surprised me was how much.
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DIY I had to do. The things go wrong on the boat and you have to fix it.
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So for example, I have a generator, which I have on the boat as well as an engine,
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but the generator charges the batteries when we need to charge the batteries
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because we've got two fridges and a freezer going all the time.
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When we're running sailing, we've got all the instruments on.
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So it's drawing quite a lot of power and therefore twice a day,
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I generally have to charge the batteries.
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But i have a water maker so we can be totally independent so i can make from seawater fresh water.
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So my water maker runs but i can only use it when the generator runs,
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so one time i had a problem with the generator so,
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if i can't charge my batteries i suppose i could choose the engine but i can't
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run the water maker so i can't make water so there we are in the middle of an
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ocean the six of us, you know, we're using water all the time.
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Have I got enough water to get me to anywhere safe?
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You know, because it's a life-threatening thing.
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So anyway, we had to work it through and I worked out what the problem was and
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then we've managed to solve it.
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And then we'll see that then means we can use the water maker again.
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Things happen which you don't realize because things break you don't think they're
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going to break but they do so you're always having to,
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mend things and fix things and work out oh okay from what i've got can i make
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this work again and so that surprised me it was more work than i thought on
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in that direction and do you find yourself having to work with.
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Imperfect solutions and you have to get used to that that you know you can't
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get everything right yeah the other thing is You can plan to the nth degree,
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oh, we're going to go there and we're going to do this, this,
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and then something happens.
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So I've learned that don't over plan, have an idea what you're going to do and
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where you're going to go, but things change so quickly that you just have to
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throw away that plan and make a new one.
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So be prepared to be adaptable and flexible. And it doesn't really matter if,
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you're going to go there, well, we can't go there because of the wind or because
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we've got a problem, we've got to go there. So you just have to be flexible and adapt.
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And of course you i mean the beautiful thing about sailing is you're working with nature
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the winds and and you can't control that you've just got to basically galvanize
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them as best you can if that's
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not the best word but you've also got things going on across the world i mean
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we've got you know streets of hormones and whatever and that's also causing
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you to readjust as well Has it made you feel different,
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about the world in terms of its size or the characteristics or the commonness of it?
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What is your reflection as you've been sailing around the world?
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Well, my reflection is it's been great to see different parts of the world and
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the people in those different countries, because I haven't been to some of them
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before, and to realize how they live and operate.
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And some, for example, in Indonesia, for example, they've got nothing.
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They're very poor. Thank you.
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But they're so welcoming and friendly, and they want to share what they have.
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And it's that sort of attitude that you think, hang on a minute.
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Think of all those people in the UK.
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They're all on benefits. They
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all expect to be paid. They all expect the government to pick up the tab.
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Hang on a minute. There are places throughout the world, wake up and smell the coffee.
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They've got nothing. There's no social security. They're not working.
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They're not earning anything.
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We were so lucky in many respects, and there are so many parts of the world
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where people really have nothing, and they've got no backup.
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And that's one of the things that travel of a different kind allows you to do.
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I mean, I've been lucky enough to be in the Serengeti, in the middle of nowhere,
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and you're talking to people who are looking after you there,
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and you realize sometimes how much they appreciate the simple and basic things of life.
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I can imagine when you're in the middle of the atlantic or the middle of the
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the pacific and there's nothing else around you and you've got the the sky,
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it draws all sorts of emotions as well as when you meet people about how
25:49
i don't know how small you are in the world maybe i don't know well that's true
25:53
and how how beautiful the ocean and the world is yes and how badly we are treating it as a people.
26:02
You know, the rubbish and the plastic and everything like that.
26:05
And you just realize that, you know, we've got to do something about this.
26:09
People have got to make more of an effort.
26:11
Otherwise, we'll lose all this beauty. So you've seen that. You've seen the
26:16
effects of modern life on the oceans. Well, Indonesia is a classic example.
26:21
There's no real waste management there.
26:23
And the amount of plastic and rubbish in the ocean is terrible.
26:27
That's something And they really do need to resolve and sort out.
26:31
Okay. I'm going to take another break. And I am going to come back and talk
26:34
to you about the team. Because there's a number of people have sailed with you
26:38
across a couple of oceans. And it looks like there might have been a couple of returns as well.
26:43
And that draws on a whole different set of skills.
26:47
I'm delighted today to be speaking with Nick Kine. He is almost on his last
26:51
leg of a round-the-world journey on board Stormbird.
26:56
And you can follow him on stormbirdgoesglobal.co.uk You can hear the story,
27:02
you can see fantastic photographs as well and know more about it.
27:06
We'll be back with him in a couple of minutes time.
27:10
You're listening to The Late Late Lunch Show with Ritual. Back to the garden
27:14
childcare, where little explorers grow naturally.
27:17
So Nick, I am going to ask you about the crew, because as somebody who has worked
27:22
in teams in my professional life before, and often I work with different teams
27:26
every time I did a project, there is something very interesting about,
27:32
creating, forming a team and working with people of different personalities,
27:36
for example, and with different motivations.
27:40
What was your thinking going into this because you obviously need a crew you're
27:44
not paying them they're they're volunteers as such they're in it for their own
27:47
adventure they've got their own objectives as well as their time
27:52
but you are the captain you are the leader what was your thinking going into
27:56
this in terms of how you would work with that dynamic and how you would run it
28:01
okay i wanted a large boat in order to be able to have enough cabins to take people with me.
28:07
And therefore or hence why I bought Stormbird.
28:10
And the idea is that I love to share what I am enjoying, as it were.
28:15
So what I did was I put a...
28:18
I was a member of the Cruising Association, which is a sailing organization
28:22
based in London, and I'd tell them what my trip was, and I had a whole load of people contact me.
28:28
And I have a sort of crewing section there, and they contact me and were interested
28:31
in joining me. So to start with, I had a whole load of people,
28:36
and I had them down for training weekends in the Solent.
28:39
So I invite them down for a weekend. They can see what I'm like.
28:42
I can see what they're like. And they can see whether they like the idea of it or not.
28:47
But also I'm very clear with people what I expect and I go through the boat
28:53
inside and out, explain to them all about the boat.
28:56
I am very conscious of safety and I make people wear their life jackets,
29:01
for example, and I have a whole load of safety procedures, which I email them
29:04
in advance so they can read.
29:07
And then we go through those procedures before we go out to tour.
29:09
So everyone knows what I'm about and what I expect from them.
29:15
So I could see what they were like. So that's to start off with.
29:18
But as time's gone on, I can't do them training weekends.
29:22
So what I tend to do is I will ask them to do a sailing CV, which I need to
29:27
send to my insurer anyway, so I can see what sailing they've done.
29:30
And I send them mine so they can see and format it on that basis.
29:34
And then I arrange a call with them, like a call like this, a Zoom call or a WhatsApp call.
29:40
And I'll chat with them and explain what I'm about and what I'm doing.
29:44
They can ask me any questions and i begin to perform my sort of to what i think
29:48
the person will fit or not,
29:51
and then sometimes you have to make a decision relatively quickly i think that
29:55
will fit i can teach them the rest and they come on board so again when they
30:00
come on board i go through the boat with them i tell them what i expect etc,
30:04
but we're about to have fun and enjoy the sailing, but at the same time,
30:09
we had to follow the rules as it were.
30:11
So I had three watches essentially.
30:16
We do three four-hour watches during the day between eight in the morning and
30:19
eight in the evening, and then four three-hour watches at night.
30:23
And I will allocate, well, normally I have three watch leaders myself and two
30:28
others who are probably the more experienced sailors.
30:30
Some of them have been back six or seven times, actually. They've enjoyed it so much.
30:35
And then I allocate a person to them, so they work together.
30:39
But at first, it's all a bit strange for them, but what I'm looking for is people
30:44
get stuck in, volunteer, help out the cooking, the washing up,
30:48
all the things we have to do.
30:51
Most of the time, it's all worked quite well. And you have, I think,
30:54
all the sort of storming, forming, norming, as the business would speak.
30:59
And it takes probably five or six days. But by the six days or seven days,
31:04
we're all working as a team. There's generally little problems.
31:07
If there are, I will take them aside and have a word with them.
31:11
But I also ensure that we have a supper together as a team every night.
31:16
And there is a moan section. So if anyone's got any moans or concerns,
31:21
they can race them there and we'll talk about it and deal with it.
31:24
Well, we can always come to see me anytime, but I've hardly had many moans at all.
31:29
So people generally get on, they all start getting to know each other and it gels.
31:36
And I've had very few people that haven't worked out.
31:40
I had one guy in Australia who fell ill and I had to get him off the boat because
31:45
he had an infection i didn't realize i'm lucky i did get him off the boat because
31:50
i think he might have died if i hadn't,
31:52
taken that action yeah another guy came and.
31:57
I noticed a few things about he wouldn't wash up very much and what he would
32:01
do is see someone making supper and he would then say oh let me cut some carrots
32:06
up for you or something like that and then he thought he was making doing past
32:09
the mill therefore he didn't have to wash up.
32:12
And then he would go down and help himself to seconds without asking anyone
32:16
else whether he would like some more, anyone else like it more. Yeah.
32:19
And then one time he was on watch with me and I was downstairs sorting something
32:23
out and he's supposed to be on watch and he starts lying down on the couch in
32:27
the cockpit and tended to go to sleep.
32:31
So I had to say to him, no, watch, you're on watch. That's what it means, get up and watch.
32:36
He was a nice guy. He was a professor, geology professor, but there were a few
32:40
things I just had to sort out.
32:42
And that's the thing. I mean, even though it's a 72-foot boat and it's got double
32:48
galleys or double cabins and that, it's always more cramped conditions than you expect.
32:54
And it takes everybody to know their role and to chip in, whatever that happens to be.
33:00
Yes, that's true. But most sailors realise that the skipper is the skipper. Yes.
33:05
And therefore he makes the decisions yes they respect that and they're used
33:11
to that so you know they call me skip or skipper you know most of the time so you know and,
33:17
i explain why i make certain decisions on things we're doing and 99.9 percent
33:23
of the time there's not any problem and everyone gets on we all enjoy it and
33:27
we all have a good laugh and we we enjoy the experience and that's what it's about.
33:32
You mentioned you have your team meetings and you get things out and that type of thing.
33:38
What have you drawn from your own experience? What has surprised you about what
33:43
you've needed to be as a leader or captain, a skipper on this?
33:47
Because you've got technical needs, the ability to navigate.
33:52
You've got the management of the boats. You've got the logistics as well of
33:57
just living, and then you've got the team environment as well.
34:02
What has surprised you about yourself and what you've learned from us? Well...
34:07
I find it, I suppose, easier than you might think, because I'm so used to doing it now.
34:14
Yes. It's kind of second nature to me. Yes. But the other thing is I'm very
34:18
calm, and I don't show concerns.
34:23
Yes. So if people look at me, they'd think, well, there's a calm guy,
34:27
he knows what he's doing, and we just get on with stuff.
34:31
I don't want them to worry at all.
34:34
And i'm the one who really knows the boat all the technical stuff and everything
34:38
and they look up to me to do it but they also want to learn and and so i suppose,
34:44
yeah i suppose i've enjoyed doing that's all part of it and i don't know whether
34:47
you've read any of the clipper books there was a book by i can't remember the
34:51
name of it now of a skipper of one of the clipper races,
34:54
and he said really 85 90 of his job was man management yeah just a bit was the
35:01
sailing and kind of you know,
35:04
so i don't find it difficult to have a word with people or to say look by the way.
35:12
And then they all get it and they all understand it my guest today is nick kine
35:16
he is a man who since 2024 did you say nick you left 23 2023 you you left in england then
35:24
and you've been sailing around the world with various different crews and this
35:27
is now your last stretch really isn't it once you set off from cape town you'll be
35:32
back in and going straight back we'll be hopefully back in the uk by the second
35:36
to third week of october okay that's not that long to go actually we'll take
35:41
a break and then i want to wrap up with nick in a couple of minutes time,
35:45
you're listening to the late late lunch show with back to the garden childcare
35:49
where little explorers grow naturally.
35:52
You were talking there about the sailing, Nick, and from the limited amount
35:56
of sailing I've done, what I've actually always found interesting is sometimes
35:59
it's the beginning and the last bits that are always the most challenging at times.
36:04
It's like coming into a jetty and making sure that everything's right.
36:09
People know the rules and you're roping up correctly, etc.
36:12
And you've got a very big craft coming into a small space.
36:15
It's also the same sometimes when you're setting off and you're trying to get
36:19
the winds and navigating other traffic as well.
36:23
What's it like when you're out on the ocean and you are the only boat around
36:29
and you might have the moon, for example?
36:32
It must feel quite unbelievable.
36:35
Oh, yes. And the star constellations are lovely. You know, you go past the world
36:40
where there's little pollution.
36:41
Yeah. And the moon and the stars are lovely.
36:45
And it's nice. You see the sunrise and you see the sunset and you just think
36:49
wow is this magical isn't it great to be out here,
36:53
and all your worries at home and all the politics and things going on in the
36:57
parts of the world you tend to sort of put those aside and forget them,
37:00
and you just enjoy the moment as best as you can and i can imagine it's not
37:04
not exactly the same but a little bit like the apollo crew when they were up
37:09
on the moon you know it's sort of you see the world from a different perspective
37:12
you can appreciate it differently,
37:15
Oh yes, I think that's not a bad analogy.
37:17
Not that I'd like to be on the moon dancing, but there you go.
37:24
It's very nice being out there and you know you've got an achievement to make.
37:30
You know where you're getting to, you're working out your mileage,
37:33
you're working out the weather, and the communications is very good because
37:37
these days you can actually have internet all the way around the world.
37:44
So I have access and you need that in order to be able to.
37:49
Get the weather information to work out whether you need to change course or
37:52
how you're going to manage it.
37:53
Well, what has been the most interesting, maybe surprising part of the trip,
37:59
even from a geographical point of view or a human contact point of view?
38:04
What is, or maybe what has surprised you? Which part of the trip that you've
38:08
done has surprised you the most?
38:10
Well, I enjoyed the Galapagos because of the wildlife was absolutely fantastic. Yeah.
38:15
I enjoyed particularly Indonesia and one of the, I mean, there's many different
38:21
aspects that I've enjoyed.
38:23
It's very difficult to pick one or two, but I also think that the coral atolls
38:28
in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are absolutely amazing.
38:31
And you have to go into these. So what's happened there is that the mountains
38:36
that were there and the reef that was grown around them, the mountain has actually
38:41
sunk into the ocean, leaving the reef there. So it's like an internal sea.
38:46
And there are little gaps through the reefs in which you can go and so literally
38:50
you're in this in the middle of the pacific ocean you're in this sort of little,
38:55
sea with a little island around it,
38:57
with the reef that's absolutely amazing and obviously they have sharks and lovely
39:03
sea life and things like that so it is an amazing place and i mentioned in different
39:08
parts of the trip you have had companions of the sea lion type, have you?
39:12
Oh, yes, yes. The sea lions come on board in the Galapagos.
39:18
Obviously, we fish where we can and catching fish is very nice.
39:21
So you have fresh fish, sashimi, birds, the Galapagos, the blue-footed boobies and boobies come and,
39:30
sit on the pushpit at the front to have a little rest, particularly a night.
39:36
Unfortunately, they leave rather nasty deposits on the day after the next day,
39:40
which we have to clean off. But yeah, lots of birds, sea life, whales.
39:45
They're amazing to see whales as well as you're going along.
39:49
And yeah, dolphins. I mean, everyone loves a dolphin, don't they?
39:53
A lot of dolphins and brings a smile to your face, doesn't it?
39:57
And thinking about the world, and you talked about actually how small it is
40:02
now with internet connectivity, and you mentioned the pollution as well,
40:07
which is shocking in different parts of the world.
40:11
But has the journey...
40:15
Given you any fresh hope about the future of the world or any any change your
40:20
perspective on the world at all oh yeah i think there is hope i mean you know
40:25
you in indonesia it was lovely because,
40:28
they wanted to study and they wanted to learn i mean one lady who showed me
40:33
around her village she'd.
40:35
All she'd done was go on tiktok or something like that and learn english from it wonderful,
40:41
i'm watching films things like that's astonishing yeah and they want to learn
40:45
and they want to study and they love to know about our country and where we're
40:49
from and things like that yeah so yes it's so
40:52
nice to see people like that really wanting to expand and unfortunately for them,
40:58
it's difficult for them necessarily to,
41:01
be able to advance because they haven't got the money.
41:05
And you know i i often think curiosity is a great skill,
41:10
and and and i think about that woman that you were talking about and and the
41:13
questions she would have asked but when i think also about the people who first
41:17
circumnavigated the world and they,
41:22
they had curiosity and they had bravery as well
41:25
and yet they used what limited technology there was at that time to to the the
41:31
maximum them that they could have done have you reflected on the other people
41:36
who've made this journey in times gone by with less technology less,
41:40
equipment if you like oh it must have been,
41:44
horrendous i mean there where there's old wooden cult boats they were going
41:48
in they're very slow probably doing four or five knots they didn't have much
41:53
of a keel so they probably rolled like a pig in the swell,
41:56
they didn't have water makers so they used to take water in barrels oh yes they
42:01
used to get scurvy as you know because they didn't have enough fruit and vegetables,
42:06
how they made those long passages but they did,
42:09
and in fact it was here in the late sort of,
42:13
16th century that they discovered going around Cape Town, and the trade routes was then formed.
42:20
So they were one of the first people to sort of sail around.
42:23
And then, of course, more modern day age, you've got people like,
42:27
well, Sir Francis Chishiser, Robin North Johnson, things like that.
42:32
Shea Blythe was part of the same race. That was the, I think about 1968,
42:38
68, 69, when the Sunday Times sponsored around the world race.
42:42
And yeah, I mean, they, the things that they had to put up with and they didn't
42:46
have what, half of what we've got now.
42:48
So sextants, for example, I have a sextant on board so I can take sightings
42:53
of the sun moon, but I don't use it because modern technology means that I know,
42:59
where I am at any one point in time.
43:01
So I have utmost respect for those who.
43:05
And the hardship they must have had. I mean, they had no instruments like we have.
43:10
They used to take sun sightings, and they would roughly work out where they
43:13
were, and they knew what direction they were going in.
43:16
They may have had some old charts, things like that, but that's about it.
43:19
It's quite incredible. Yeah.
43:22
It's quite incredible. So you say you'll be back in England in the south coast,
43:28
in October time, did you say?
43:30
Hopefully, yes. That's the plan. And I'm not going to ask what you're most looking
43:34
forward to, But I'm going to sort of, what's your plans then?
43:39
Because having done this once, is the temptation to do something similar again?
43:45
Or what are you thinking?
43:47
Well, my crew keep telling me to don't stop for long, just keep going and do
43:51
it again because I come and join me.
43:55
But I don't think my wife and family would like that very much.
43:58
I'm not surprised. I'm looking forward to seeing them. I don't know what I'm going to do.
44:03
I don't think I want to go back to law because I realized, having stopped it,
44:08
how stressful that must have been for many years.
44:11
It was almost like a sort of rucksack being taken off my back.
44:16
So I might try and teach sailing. I might get involved in the sailing business.
44:20
Or perhaps I could set up a consultancy business advising long-distance sailors
44:26
who are proposing to do journeys like mine or at the Atlantic or,
44:30
just part of the world, what sort of things they need to think about on a boat
44:33
having done it, I can really advise them the things they need to think about
44:38
and what they need to prepare for.
44:39
And after all these days at sea, do you still feel the same privilege that you
44:45
felt when you first set out?
44:48
Oh, yeah, I appreciate it. I mean, people don't think, well, three years on a boat?
44:52
How long does it take you to get three years? They can't believe it.
44:55
Anyway, I've got used to it, and, you know, I love it.
44:57
And I think probably I'll have to sell the boat because obviously it's too big,
45:01
really, to keep in the UK. So that'll be a great shame. But hopefully she'll
45:06
go to a nice owner who will use her for a purpose, which is doing long-distance sailing.
45:11
Well, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you. I'm so glad that I managed
45:15
to hook up with you and through David.
45:18
David, is he any good in the galley, Nick, Smitty?
45:22
Well, it's a bit early yet because we've been eating out most nights,
45:25
but I sense that he is, and he and another crew member have pre-made some meals to get us going.
45:33
So I think he will be good in the galley. And his scouting skills and whittling
45:37
skills could be handy if you need to do a repair, actually.
45:41
Yeah, exactly. Well, there's always stuff to do. Every day there's stuff to
45:45
do, I can tell you that. Well, I'm just glad to see him not being a skipper
45:48
for once and having to take some orders from somebody else.
45:51
So that's good it's been an absolute privilege to speak to you when do you leave
45:58
Cape Town once the departure?
46:00
Well we're hoping to leave tomorrow morning but we have had the mast off various
46:05
repairs being done and a complete service of the mast and rig.
46:09
That went back on yesterday and went out for a test sale this afternoon and
46:13
you wouldn't believe it but the Genoa foil came apart and has made a cut in the sale,
46:19
so that as we speak they've taking the sail off they're repairing it and they're
46:22
also repairing the foil so i'm very much hoping that we will,
46:27
still be able to leave tomorrow but we'll see well we wish you the very best
46:30
of luck and of course if you want to follow more of the journey it's stonberggoesglobal.co.uk
46:36
you can even look for nick hein there's great information some fantastic photographs there
46:42
and you can really get a sense of the journey nick it's been a privilege to
46:46
talk to you thank Thank you very much for your time. My pleasure. Thank you.