Latest / Adventure Sports Podcast / Ep. 1132: ALL THE WAY AROUND by Human Power with Erden Eruc

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Ep. 1132: ALL THE WAY AROUND by Human Power with Erden Eruc · Adventure Sports Podcast

0:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You're listening to the Adventure Sports podcast.
0:08
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk with adventurers from around the globe to bring you the inspiration and motivation you need to get started in the outdoors or to keep you moving if you're already there.
0:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Now here's your host, Kurt Lindville.
0:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey friends, welcome to the Adventure Sports podcast.
0:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Today I am thrilled to visit with Erden Arruch, a true pioneer in human-powered exploration.
0:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Erden is the first person to complete a solo, circumnavigation of a globe entirely by human power.
0:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I've interviewed a lot of people that have viked around the world, even people that have walked around the world.
0:45
[SPEAKER_01]: But Erden added in, rowing across the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Indian oceans.
0:52
[SPEAKER_01]: He cycled across continents and he hiked vast terrains, set 18 Guinness World Records in the process.
1:00
[SPEAKER_01]: This journey covered over 41,000 miles.
1:04
[SPEAKER_01]: He's now preparing for the 2026 Golden Globe Race, which is a solo non-stop sailing challenge around the world using only traditional navigation.
1:16
[SPEAKER_01]: This is going to be fun, put on your seat belt, and let's hear how Erden did this.
1:23
[SPEAKER_01]: So Erden, you clearly have an adventure career now and adventure focus life, but there was a time before that.
1:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And let's go back to there.
1:33
[SPEAKER_01]: What came before adventure for you?
1:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I am an engineer, I was trained as an engineer and I have two master degrees in engineering and an MBA.
1:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I was working in a software development world until 2000s, when the software, the dot bomb happened, dot com in the street king.
1:54
[SPEAKER_02]: crash in Seattle.
1:56
[SPEAKER_02]: We were all laid off.
1:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I was looking for the shuttle work outside of Seattle with not wanting to compete with all the others who were in the same situation.
2:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I was interviewing with IBM Global Services, Deloitte Intosh and such for consulting work where I would travel
2:19
[SPEAKER_02]: changed paths.
2:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, this is not going to work.
2:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So let me become a firefighter for the Seattle Fire Department, or become a mountain guide with American mountain guides association.
2:30
[SPEAKER_02]: So I started those processes.
2:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I lost a friend while rock climbing together in September of 2002.
2:37
[SPEAKER_02]: His name was not on crop.
2:40
[SPEAKER_02]: He had bicycle from Sweden to Nepal in 1996 towing his climbing gear and climbed it solo.
2:47
[SPEAKER_02]: He was famous for that and I had read his book and we were able to connect on that faithful September 30th of 2002 to climb together for the first time and I was his billayer and on that day he fell and he died on a short pitch of rock climbing.
3:10
[SPEAKER_01]: you say it became a turning point.
3:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, experiencing something like that is traumatic.
3:15
[SPEAKER_01]: But it sounds like what you're saying is, if forced the decision feeded redirect your life in some way, could you explain how that went?
3:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
3:25
[SPEAKER_02]: When I was in Silver Spring, Berlin's working in an IT software development lab, there was this map on the wall with America's on the right Pacific and in the middle, old world on the left,
3:36
[SPEAKER_02]: and I would end in front of this thing between coding sessions and I would trace my finger from DC across the bearing straits to Turkey.
3:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I was born in Cyprus, he's in Turkey, and in the U.S. forever, it seems.
3:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And one day I asked, what if could I do this?
3:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Could I do this by human power?
3:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And then that became a quiet obsession.
3:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I learned quickly that I should not be sharing this with everyone, because I'm wondering if I had done anything like that before.
4:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So I decided I should read more books than talk to people and one of the books that I read was named Altman High.
4:19
[SPEAKER_02]: It told a story of his Swedish adventurer Yoran Krop who had bicycle from Sweden to Nepal in 1996 and he was famous and well known for that.
4:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I got to know Yoran.
4:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I got to meet him in person in
4:34
[SPEAKER_02]: the summer of 2001 when he came to Seattle for a presentation and I was on the organizing side for the cascade section of the American Alpine Club at that time and I got to meet him before the spectators, the audience arrived and I shared with him my ideas which by then had evolved into, well I won't stop in Turkey, I'll continue west to where I started,
5:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I shared this idea with him and then he asked tough questions to me when are you starting do you have sponsors?
5:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah.
5:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
5:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And then of course I had no answers.
5:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And February of 2002, I, we ran across each other again, I was there to do some ice climbing during the ice climbing festival that they hold in Uray Colorado, and he was part of the, uh, he was with his sponsor in their under their tent, uh, answering holding court, I should say, and some questions to,
5:37
[SPEAKER_02]: his fans.
5:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And I walked up to him and he said, haven't you started yet?
5:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, well, you know, September 11 just happened.
5:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Is the world a safe place?
5:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I had excuses, of course.
5:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I hadn't committed since 1997.
5:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And then when
5:52
[SPEAKER_02]: out of the blue, I got an email from him in late September of 2002 saying that he was in Seattle and that we should go climbing together.
6:05
[SPEAKER_02]: By then he had moved to Isakua, he's side of Seattle.
6:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we promised each other, he had just come back from another center of Everest, his then fiance Renata.
6:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was the fateful day.
6:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I was his bilerer, we had done multiple lines.
6:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Next to each other, these are basalt columns, half rope length in height.
6:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And on that last climb, he had a catastrophic failure of his protection that he had placed along the climb, out of all the placements that he had,
6:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was nothing to do, and we were airlifted to Yakma Memorial Hospital.
6:52
[SPEAKER_02]: He was taken to the morgue, I was taken to the emergency room.
6:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I had a rope strangulation injury in my left arm.
6:58
[SPEAKER_02]: After the fall, it was quite chaotic when it happened, everything fell apart.
7:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Sure.
7:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, that was the turning point for me.
7:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I came home, my wife, Ben Sianse.
7:11
[SPEAKER_02]: and see was on a business trip.
7:13
[SPEAKER_02]: He came back and we said across the table and I said, I have to do this now.
7:18
[SPEAKER_02]: She said, you will.
7:19
[SPEAKER_02]: You must, and we never looked back.
7:21
[SPEAKER_02]: That was for me September 2002.
7:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and you have done some remarkable things since then.
7:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it just a matter of life as short I don't want to waste it?
7:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Was that is that too simple of an explanation?
7:36
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it was more I think I am a physical person.
7:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I like physical challenges.
7:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I had been an outdoors person for a good long while.
7:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Break away from the office life and as a weekend warrior doing these things is not easy One needs time one need financing and the financing doesn't happen unless one works and then you've got merged to pay also or so so commitments
8:12
[SPEAKER_02]: They create these chains that hold us back and dreams come and go, focus on what's in front of us, and we are in the trench, fighting to make progress in the ways that we know.
8:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And then of course the routine is established, habits form and takes a while to break out of that.
8:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And life happens.
8:39
[SPEAKER_02]: We have dreams that are coming and going, these ideas that we dismiss, whether by our own reasoning or by the others who pulling ideas somehow, these things get put away.
8:54
[SPEAKER_02]: So I often say when I talk in front of children that dreams are like,
9:00
[SPEAKER_02]: seeds in the fertile ground and when they sprout and then they start rising out of the ground we need to protect them because there will be those who will want to come and stomp on those and kill those ideas and we need to put a fence around it, we need to protect it, we need to give a water, we need to feed it, we need to let it gain some height and strength in gear so that it will
9:29
[SPEAKER_02]: and then a seedling that grows out of the ground that we have planted.
9:33
[SPEAKER_02]: So if we think of it that way, then I think dreams become these ideas that need nurturing.
9:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And knowing that I can then plan my future better.
9:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I fail to every now and then, I talk myself out of a lot of things.
9:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I have big ideas, grand deos ideas.
9:54
[SPEAKER_02]: but that they challenge me financially and of course time-wise and I'm not getting younger.
10:01
[SPEAKER_01]: All of those things conspire against them sometimes you're kind of inspiring that thought for me Which is it's easy to say well?
10:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't really do it right now because and you can always come up with a lot of different reasons But another approach of whatever the big dream is another approach is okay I have to find a way that's a different approach than saying will not yet because right it's a combination of the two, right?
10:27
[SPEAKER_02]: our planning
10:29
[SPEAKER_02]: versus preparation are two different things.
10:31
[SPEAKER_02]: If you plan planning things to be orderly, you have a sequence of events prepared, and the opportunity meets preparation, then we are lucky, right?
10:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the difficult one.
10:50
[SPEAKER_02]: is to know how to prepare, how to be ready, and sometimes it just happens that we are the right person at the right moment to grasp an idea and run with it.
11:03
[SPEAKER_02]: The difficult part is to recognize that opportunity.
11:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes we are so focused on everything else going on that we have these
11:11
[SPEAKER_02]: you know blinders on and opportunities come and pass they walk right past us and we don't notice and we don't take action and then we move on and we look back.
11:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Hindsight is 2020.
11:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Could I have
11:26
[SPEAKER_02]: common in our ways of explaining life as time just keeps running.
11:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
11:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think part of the challenge I always have that regret sometimes, that I didn't start earlier, and it took a tragedy for me to take action.
11:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
11:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I took action, I made choices.
11:48
[SPEAKER_02]: As I made choices, the path appeared ahead of me because I had this overarching goal.
11:52
[SPEAKER_02]: How I was going to get there, had a lot to do with improvisation.
11:57
[SPEAKER_02]: It had a lot to do with resources.
12:00
[SPEAKER_02]: being reassigned, it had to do with re-ordering our lives with my now wife Nancy, and you know, we had a, just as an example, we had to find the funds.
12:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I contacted Yoran's former sponsors, I didn't get a response back, and
12:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It was, but I was not going to stop.
12:23
[SPEAKER_02]: That would have been enough to stop me back then.
12:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So we rearranged our lives.
12:28
[SPEAKER_02]: We had a lake view condo in Seattle with the views of downtown Seattle and we sold that move to a condo farther away.
12:36
[SPEAKER_02]: so that we could live on one salary.
12:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I cashed out my retirement funds and we had two cars sold one et cetera.
12:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, these are details, but choices were made.
12:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And then as I was able to raise funds with friends donating or miners, some sponsorships, I should say,
12:56
[SPEAKER_02]: that were not anywhere near what I needed to undertake this big idea of a circumnavigation by human power.
13:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I was able to cover the costs as we went.
13:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So the marginal costs were easier to cover than finding this big lump of cash that would have made it all possible and would have convinced me to start finally.
13:22
[SPEAKER_02]: When I gave up that idea that it wasn't going to happen,
13:25
[SPEAKER_02]: that this was such an outlandish idea that one could go around the world by human power, then it became a battle against the next step, setting up these, going past these obstacles, figuring out the next, next logistical step, and just keep on, keep on.
13:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And I pushed the journey around the world,
13:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And by the time I came back from this circumnavigation by human power, I had registered 15 Guinness road records and had become the first person to have wrote three major oceans and the circumnavigation took five years eleven days.
14:06
[SPEAKER_02]: It still stands as the fastest circumnavigation by human power.
14:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
14:11
[SPEAKER_02]: First person to have achieved a human-powered circumnavigation is the British adventure Jason Lewis, and he took 13 years to accomplish it.
14:20
[SPEAKER_02]: He had to come back, work, save money, go back to it, go down your head and let off.
14:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I had to come back due to seasons and such, but I was a bit more fortunate that I could keep going.
14:30
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I had to become the person who could set 15 years for all records.
14:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I had to become the person who could draw the three major oceans,
14:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, it wasn't easy.
14:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't know whether I could finish this journey when I started, but I had to establish these historic firsts to be able to become the first person again, another historic first, right?
14:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So a little circumnavigation by human power.
14:55
[SPEAKER_02]: So now, it is hard to justify this and explain this and convince potential sponsors to be part of this
15:07
[SPEAKER_02]: and then you look at themselves and say, well, I couldn't do this, so you can't be done.
15:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what they're thinking, really.
15:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I have never figured out my shortcomings in sponsorship search, why it's not happening.
15:21
[SPEAKER_02]: But in the end, I've basically decided, hey,
15:26
[SPEAKER_02]: maybe I need to stop explaining and just do it and by now my last ocean crossing was during the pandemic and less rebind.
15:38
[SPEAKER_02]: After neurons accident I flew to his funeral in Stockholm,
15:43
[SPEAKER_02]: in November of 2002.
15:44
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's X and a half at 30th of September.
15:48
[SPEAKER_02]: November 8th I think it was, his funeral was held in Stockholm.
15:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And on the way back from his funeral on the plane, I drew the world map on a piece of paper, proverbial back of the envelope.
16:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I marked the highest summits on each continent except Antarctica, which I'd
16:05
[SPEAKER_02]: deemed, well, I can't go to that by human power.
16:09
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just too silly.
16:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, I'm going to go around the world and I'm going to climb the highest summit at each continent as I do it.
16:17
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was the original idea, a six summit project.
16:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So accident happened September.
16:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I decided in November.
16:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I was writing my bicycle out of Seattle from the doorsteps of our home on the first of February of 2003.
16:34
[SPEAKER_02]: It was asked, have you bicycle that far before when I share this idea?
16:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And people were doing their own cynicism, imposing their cynicism on me, seeing what I do through their own mind's eye.
16:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course, I knew what had to be done if I...
16:52
[SPEAKER_02]: bicycle 50 miles a day I would reach Anchorage by April 15.
16:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So I kept the pace even when I had to wait for storms so that the snow could get packed by the 18 willers that then I could ride on those icy roads with studded tires on my bicycle.
17:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I got to Anchorage April 11th
17:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I connected with two friends so that we could start walking the length of the Kahiltna glacier starting on May 1st.
17:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Two other friends flew in to Kahiltna base camp.
17:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And 15th of May we started walking toward the summit.
17:32
[SPEAKER_02]: We reached the summit 29th of May.
17:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I had to hurry off the mountain,
17:41
[SPEAKER_02]: to meet my then fiancee and we got married across hydrolask you know squeezing a lot in here with a
17:54
[SPEAKER_02]: native ceremony had to make 500 prayer ties ahead of the ceremony with individual prayers in each one.
18:02
[SPEAKER_02]: We ran out of prayers at about 350.
18:04
[SPEAKER_02]: We were eating next 10 is for a world peace since such we were tying these little prayer ties which formed the small area in which we held the ceremony.
18:17
[SPEAKER_02]: We were
18:23
[SPEAKER_02]: uh, and in a peot man and uh, hi the simgian lady where the pipe carriers for other people and they held the ceremony for us, we will cherish that day forever with Nancy.
18:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And then she flew home, my bicycle back.
18:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
18:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, was it trying to remember the date 2010 climbed Kuziosko, early 2010 in Australia, and then rode across the Africa and climbed Kilimanjaro.
18:57
[SPEAKER_02]: It was in 2011, I believe.
19:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I hurried across to finish the circumnavigation.
19:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I bypassed Everest, Elbrus,
19:13
[SPEAKER_02]: The Royal Economic Crisis Financial Crisis happened in 2008, 2010 and everything was tight and there was no time to stop and negotiate these things so I kept going.
19:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Nancy and I re-ended up holding the bag at the end of the hall.
19:29
[SPEAKER_02]: endeavour turned into a half million dollar undertaking and half of that came out of our own funds and despite that we raised about $110,000 for educational projects through our non-profit around and over.
19:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I established around and over before I bicycle up to Alaska and early 2000 effective January 1st of 2003 we have this non-profit.
19:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, we did educational projects, sent funds to boarding school students in rural Turkey.
20:01
[SPEAKER_02]: For example, I used to be a boarding school student myself in middle school.
20:06
[SPEAKER_02]: So I understand their challenges.
20:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And we partnered with a nonprofit there to deliver those services.
20:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And I connected with them using a satellite phone from around the world.
20:18
[SPEAKER_02]: during their evening sessions when the snob profit went to their schools to visit them.
20:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, it was what it explained for us just so I understand around and over is the non-profit that's helping on these, is it helping the boarding schools or it's helping the students have a better experience at the schools?
20:41
[SPEAKER_01]: What
20:41
[SPEAKER_02]: What the assist is, this non-profit is focused on these boarding schools and what they do is they take college students with them to these boarding schools.
20:59
[SPEAKER_02]: They can be a elementary school or middle school age coming from various villages to a central location and then they would
21:08
[SPEAKER_02]: encourage them to read, they would take books, establish libraries, sometimes deliver, I mean winter conditions and they come from villages and they don't have proper boots and clothing and such, sometimes it goes down to those very basics too, which is meeting the immediate needs.
21:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, it is.
21:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't necessarily question who gets what, I trust their work and therefore,
21:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I am willing to be their spokesperson and fundraiser for them, and they basically became a partner in my desire to help.
21:44
[SPEAKER_01]: That's cool.
21:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go back to this circumnavigation.
21:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you roadbikes, you hiked, you climbed peaks, but you also rode ocean.
21:54
[SPEAKER_02]: I rode oceans, and I had to see kayak along the shores of
21:58
[SPEAKER_01]: pop on again in Australia where I didn't have access to roads for example so it was a multimodal human power project right well I think about so many things when I think about rowing notions we've interviewed several people who have road in ocean here or there right but you've done three big oceans and I just think how long does it take and I think about the solitude of it
22:24
[SPEAKER_01]: and how that could impact a person.
22:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think about the physical exertion, and I think about storms, and I think about Navigation, I would just go on and on and on, and so, what was it like to roll across an ocean?
22:37
[SPEAKER_02]: My last ocean crossing by a robot was during the pandemic.
22:42
[SPEAKER_02]: When I decided, okay, I got six summits to go climb and I've bypassed Everest in Albrus and I'm not going to sit around and wait in curfew while the world finds its way past the pandemic.
22:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a boat.
22:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I can be alone on a boat loaded up with food and I can go.
23:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So I left from California by way of Hawaii Guam.
23:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I made it all the way to Philippines.
23:08
[SPEAKER_02]: that became the first row across the Pacific Ocean ever.
23:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And my total days at sea, career total reached 184.
23:18
[SPEAKER_02]: This since rowed solo reached 26,700, I believe it was.
23:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And the first crossing as such.
23:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the total number of records went up to 18.
23:30
[SPEAKER_02]: I couldn't get a visa from China,
23:35
[SPEAKER_02]: after that despite trying multiple times.
23:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So I couldn't launch on the South China Sea and had I rode toward Vietnam.
23:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I wouldn't have been able to get around Myanmar because there was a there is currently a civil war there and they declined my attempts for a visa they said we can't guarantee your safety.
23:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So my path was just blocked.
24:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had to give up on my robot
24:04
[SPEAKER_02]: and find a different path and now I'm pursuing Golden Globe Race.
24:07
[SPEAKER_02]: We can talk about that separately, but the thing that I found in Ocean Rowing was that when I launched on any Ocean, I found peace, I found solitude, I enjoyed that, I
24:26
[SPEAKER_02]: liked being one with the ocean.
24:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And to be able to just get out there and demonstrate mastery became the satisfaction that I derived from the whole exercise.
24:37
[SPEAKER_02]: It was physical, it was demanding, uh, and...
24:42
[SPEAKER_02]: with proper preparation and well-designed route.
24:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And with lately in the last crossing, for example, I had regular updates from a friend of mine who's a weather guru that we could actually find our way across these big oceans.
24:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And it became such a satisfaction to see the results of my work.
25:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I wasn't charged as much as the ocean allowed, but if I decided to work with the ocean not against it,
25:10
[SPEAKER_02]: and take advantage of what it offered, then I could actually achieve these things.
25:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's a great amount of satisfaction that storms did come and go, but I had to be on the water outside of storm seasons.
25:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So part of my planning has to do with taking into account storm seasons, storm tracks, and where they happen, what should my route be, how do the currents run, how does the trade winds, how do the trade winds grow, and where do the swells come from,
25:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Will these vectors act on my rowboat and then engineering challenge isn't it?
25:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, certainly is and one needs to sit with these climatological data that are available going back a couple of decades now and digest it all and then come up with that plan.
25:56
[SPEAKER_02]: The storm season star tracks all of that determine the season to row to be in reasonable conditions if a storm comes it won't be that bad So it'll be survivable then it'll pass and then things will come back to what's statistically normal
26:13
[SPEAKER_02]: which means that the boat will be carried by the ocean in a certain direction.
26:17
[SPEAKER_02]: If things happen where the boat is being pushed around in directions, I don't want then I can slow that down by deploying a paranker or staying outside over time, rowing, doing my best to influence the fate of this vessel, because I'm the engine.
26:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And to
26:35
[SPEAKER_02]: If I slow the negative influences of any weather systems and if I take advantage of any ways that the ocean will help me and in the end I generally had in one direction that I want to go.
26:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So if I have the ocean then coming back to the normal that I determine the head of
27:01
[SPEAKER_02]: crossing 30 miles a day, a thousand miles a month kind of pace, and I've thought about what the conditions will be at a given point on the ocean at a given time of the year.
27:13
[SPEAKER_02]: then I can statistically carry that boat across.
27:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And the, as the ocean then tries to push me around, my battle is to stay on the route that I had designed ahead of time.
27:27
[SPEAKER_02]: That makes sense.
27:29
[SPEAKER_01]: It does.
27:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
27:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, so it's not accidental that I get across.
27:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I do get warnings and, okay, watch out storm coming, batting the hatch is kind of thing from my weather guru, friends.
27:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I also had to design this head of time, run it by my friend and say, hey, this is what I'm planning, what are you thinking?
27:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And at the end, I had spent enough time on the oceans that I got a sense of what it took.
27:55
[SPEAKER_02]: So in that way, I was able to make it across all the way to Philippines, for example, was willing to keep going.
28:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And that to me is satisfying, that to me is mastery.
28:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Right there.
28:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
28:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you reach a point during these rows where you just thought, man, I would really like to have someone here to visit with.
28:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I would really like to have a steak dinner, I would really like, you know, all the things.
28:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, one Mrs. Company, certainly, I do miss my wife, I do miss my dog.
28:31
[SPEAKER_02]: and they put a smile on my face when I think about them, but it's a small boat and being in charge of one's destiny and being the captain of one's vessel means that I'm making life, my life depends on it, on the decisions that I make and the actions I take are
28:52
[SPEAKER_02]: important and their critical to my safety and if I have to, my record is, for example, just to stay on the correct side of a current as I was approaching the final port legaspi city in the Philippines.
29:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I had to get past a strong burnt that was happening in the
29:14
[SPEAKER_02]: San Bernardino Strait between Luzon Island and the Somar Island just south of it.
29:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And the north equatorial current comes from east to west and runs into this set of islands, the archipelago of the Philippines, and then it turns northwest and runs toward Taiwan
29:35
[SPEAKER_02]: passes east of Taiwan becoming the strong crochet a current all the way to Japan and so forth.
29:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So getting sucked into these big strong currents running like a river between these islands was a real threat.
29:48
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have to stay awake and row in my record is 42 hours.
29:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Goodness.
29:54
[SPEAKER_02]: That's way 42 hours.
29:56
[SPEAKER_02]: trying to stay out of that current or stay on the outside margin of this thing so I could peel away and get into what was all by golf at the West End of Witch's Legusby.
30:09
[SPEAKER_02]: So once in the golf then I was able to rest.
30:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So I took an hour off depending on what the boat was doing.
30:19
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was able to sleep an hour, set the two alarms, wake myself up after all that effort, and then look at what the boat was doing, sleep another hour.
30:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I erode another 11 hours until I could drop anchor.
30:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I found the bottom at just about 50 meters and before I pulled into legaspi.
30:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So I slept hours there, and then he went to finish.
30:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's exhausting, Erden.
30:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's what it takes, and that doesn't happen.
30:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't demand that of anybody else.
30:53
[SPEAKER_02]: But I then have to be confident that, yes, when the time comes, by the time I get there, I will be in good enough shape, and mentally, I will be ready for this sharp enough that I can
31:07
[SPEAKER_02]: execute this decision and do what it takes and there is no quitting is not an option I could lose the boat I could not accomplish my goal all of these things after having rode 230 eight days to get there on the last day I cannot just quit and say okay so I give up come to me no that was not an option quitting is forever fatigue is any motion so now
31:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Boredom is an emotion, it's an idea, it's not come of the situation.
31:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So if I can then step back and say, why am I feeling this way, I can start finding solutions and I can say you're tired, you're going to get more tired, keep going.
31:51
[SPEAKER_02]: or yeah you're tired you need to sleep here's your break the ocean is doing what you want therefore you can take it off and then of course if I took a day off I'd get bored by noon and I'd get out and start running again because it's typically hot in the cab and if I am near the tropics so
32:07
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a different existence and after every they say takes 21 days to establish new habits That is true on the ocean so once I launch for two weeks or so I'm still attached to what's going on on shore
32:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And then after three weeks and I am one with C, I enjoy the company of birds and fish and observe wildlife as they do their thing and I become one with the setting.
32:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And of course I need to deal with boredom.
32:40
[SPEAKER_02]: The boredom is the biggest thing that desire to let go, desire to just quit.
32:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And if negative thoughts crop up, I can control that, I can suppress that, I can redirect that thought, I can find other things to think about.
32:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I can, so when we have that monkey brain, right?
33:03
[SPEAKER_02]: If you try to meditate, the mind will start doing its thing and one needs to
33:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I am working hard and I am doing a physical thing, focusing on my breathing is, yeah, you can do that, but then it gets old, but I have other things, I can focus on, I can basically what you're doing by centering yourself and focusing on the breathing is to give the mind a task that it is so basic, that everything else falls away, appeals away from that moment,
33:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So I can pick Edward in the crowd of birds out there and say, I'm trying to listen to that one bird, what is it saying?
33:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's a juvenile asking for food from Mama Bird, just above it.
33:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, are they?
33:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at them go.
33:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Or this one fish that is tucking under the boat and then coming out again,
33:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that the same fish that I saw two days ago?
34:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, let me pay attention to that one.
34:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
34:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds like the amount of mental self-discipline was extraordinary actually.
34:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And also, yeah, discipline is a big part of this.
34:31
[SPEAKER_02]: The child and me wanted everything right then and there, I wanted that chocolate.
34:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted that dinner right then.
34:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted that, you know, iPod, the music right then and there.
34:42
[SPEAKER_02]: On my last crossing, I didn't take an iPod.
34:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I just said that's it.
34:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not listening to anything of this stuff.
34:48
[SPEAKER_02]: But what I had to do was to tie it to the results of an effort.
34:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I use those as a reward.
34:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So you want that can of sliced pineapples?
35:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you need to go another thousand miles before you do that.
35:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I had that.
35:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So if I could then tame that child within the adulten me disciplining that child,
35:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I could then complete these miles.
35:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was just one day after another, stroke after stroke that one weaves a path across an ocean.
35:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I would like to visit about your next goal, the Golden Globe race, but before we do, how do you think you grew?
35:29
[SPEAKER_01]: How did this circumnavigation change you?
35:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, in the circumnavigation, I think the end result was five prepare well.
35:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And if I surround myself with the right people,
35:42
[SPEAKER_02]: to make it possible.
35:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Then I can be the person in the arena battling for the mission to make it possible.
35:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think setting myself up for success was important here.
35:54
[SPEAKER_02]: The lesson I learned is nothing happens for free.
35:58
[SPEAKER_02]: One has to pay a price, one has to be ready to pay a price.
36:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I dedicated years of my life to this.
36:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I let go of a career and engineering.
36:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I had to stay away from home.
36:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I had to dedicate our funds to this.
36:16
[SPEAKER_02]: The routine that I had, relationships that I had, things that were evolving while I was at home, close to home.
36:25
[SPEAKER_02]: We were no longer there when I came back.
36:27
[SPEAKER_02]: they changed.
36:27
[SPEAKER_02]: They evolved in their own way.
36:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I changed in my own way and then I had to meet new people, new faces, create new relationships and forge a new path.
36:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's a price paid.
36:39
[SPEAKER_02]: There's nothing, it's not a comment against
36:42
[SPEAKER_02]: those relationships or those commitments or that path that I had, it is just a fact of life that if we choose a new path, there will be new faces appearing around us.
36:54
[SPEAKER_02]: As Joseph Campbell said in the heroes journey,
36:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Once we commit to our dream, there will be those ahead of us opening doors that we didn't know existed.
37:07
[SPEAKER_02]: The path is laid in front of us.
37:10
[SPEAKER_02]: We come at obstacles and sometimes we just breeze through them.
37:15
[SPEAKER_02]: We are in the zone.
37:18
[SPEAKER_02]: We happen to have all the right skills to get past that obstacle.
37:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you look back and say, how did I succeed?
37:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I should have failed.
37:26
[SPEAKER_02]: in one surprise is one self in these moments and you're looking back you say wow it's not a testament to how great Allah is or anything.
37:37
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just a matter of how things came together to conspire toward my success.
37:44
[SPEAKER_02]: That brings gratitude for the experience too.
37:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I was trying to come up with a thought about what you're describing is you had to begin the process of doing it and you had lots of obstacles and at some point you said I just have to start doing it and then as you did the path became more clear and I was thinking about coming off of notch mountain many years ago in the dark clouds moved in and we didn't have any lights and we had a long hike from above tree line back to
38:15
[SPEAKER_01]: where we were going and we couldn't see anything.
38:17
[SPEAKER_01]: It was one of the darkest nights I've ever experienced, but as we would take a step, we could feel if we were stepping on the trail or off the trail.
38:26
[SPEAKER_01]: With our feet, the only way to get to where we had to go was to take one step at a time and make sure it was a good step and not a bad step.
38:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And we couldn't see where we were going.
38:36
[SPEAKER_01]: We didn't know what the future held.
38:37
[SPEAKER_01]: All we knew is that if we kept on feeling our way, we eventually should arrive.
38:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a strange story, but somehow what I'm gathering from you is that that's kind of how taking on these big adventures sometimes might feel.
38:53
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, okay, I started.
38:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to figure out the next step.
38:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And I may not see where I'm going until I take that step.
39:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And then maybe the door will open and I'll understand the next step.
39:03
[SPEAKER_01]: am I often left field there or is that someone right?
39:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I know that there's truth to that and the other lesson was for me personally that I had to wait until I faced tragedy to get going on this sort of medication and part of me had regret.
39:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I said I should have started earlier a while away for a try.
39:26
[SPEAKER_02]: and that was one of the reasons why I launched on the Pacific in during the pandemic.
39:30
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, what am I waiting for?
39:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Am I waiting for another tragedy?
39:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So I could carry on toward Everest.
39:36
[SPEAKER_02]: In the end, China didn't give me visa, all sorts of other things happened, and I said, right, that I've done enough three summits out of six is good enough.
39:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me focus on something else here.
39:46
[SPEAKER_02]: don't rely on visas and politics and logistics as much.
39:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's why I turned all the way in a different direction toward Golden Globes.
39:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think one step in front of the other takes us down
40:02
[SPEAKER_02]: and LA, sometimes it's at that end, and we have to have the wisdom to say enough, right?
40:09
[SPEAKER_02]: One needs to be able to know how far do I push this, because that's what has to do with one's risk tolerance.
40:17
[SPEAKER_02]: So what would be absolutely dangerous, unserviable and impossible for others?
40:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, look totally possible and doable to me.
40:27
[SPEAKER_02]: because I had a different set of skills, different understanding and different level of preparation.
40:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So when I was on the ocean, I could get things done, I could navigate these routes that I had planned.
40:43
[SPEAKER_02]: and that's part of it's the risk tolerance and saying yes I can do this and pushing beyond that is often fatal so being an adventure being a person dealing facing nature often at its harshest I am well aware that yes I was pushing my limits but risk has to do with
41:11
[SPEAKER_02]: like the threat and the likelihood of facing it.
41:15
[SPEAKER_02]: So when you take those two factors together and that defines risk.
41:20
[SPEAKER_02]: So how likely was I to face a hurricane?
41:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, is the hurricane risk there?
41:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, if I am on the ocean outside of the hurricane season, then that factor diminishes.
41:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Then how likely am I to face it?
41:35
[SPEAKER_02]: that likelihood goes down as well.
41:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And then of course what do I do when I do face such conditions and that that's a whole separate series of actions one needs to take to prepare.
41:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So putting it all together thank gives us a sense of possibilities.
41:55
[SPEAKER_02]: How far can I push the limits of human achievement?
41:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was able to push it myself.
42:02
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lesson in there for us.
42:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I would like to kind of just encapsulate this whole conversation.
42:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there was the idea of a dream and that it was like a seedling that had to be protected, nurtured, watered, otherwise it gets dumped on and that would be that.
42:18
[SPEAKER_01]: It required kind of a tragic, but a wake-up call-life experience that gave you perhaps the motivation to say,
42:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a dream I need to start working toward it.
42:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you can't see the future.
42:33
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know where you're gonna end up when you head down some of these paths.
42:37
[SPEAKER_01]: But as you head down the path, the way becomes more clear.
42:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes you have to turn around and try something else.
42:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
42:43
[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about that.
42:45
[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about knowing human limits in your own limits, evaluating the risk, and being able to say if I exceed this point, I'm likely to really get hurt.
42:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And I may not survive it.
42:54
[SPEAKER_01]: But if I can stay within these limits, I can accomplish this thing.
42:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And I, you know, that's a Tomat Noche, sort of a no thyself approach, right?
43:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we shouldn't try things that are impossible, but understanding what impossible is is a whole other dynamic you talked about.
43:10
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people telling you, have you ever done that before?
43:12
[SPEAKER_01]: That may not even be possible, right?
43:14
[SPEAKER_01]: But in your mind, I think you're able to say 30 miles a day, a thousand miles a month.
43:19
[SPEAKER_01]: That's possible.
43:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
43:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Or on the bicycle, you know, 50 miles a day.
43:24
[SPEAKER_01]: It's possible.
43:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I think when you put all these things together, it starts to make something this sounds impossible.
43:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you eat an elephant one by at a time, right?
43:33
[SPEAKER_01]: But you have to start eating.
43:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the part I think that most people never ever do.
43:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Erdon, what would you say to people about getting started?
43:43
[SPEAKER_02]: If we have an idea dream, dreams don't become reality until we set goals.
43:53
[SPEAKER_02]: into short-term goals and then start taking steps.
43:58
[SPEAKER_02]: When we achieve the first short-term goal, we taste success and we do that again and then success becomes habit along the way.
44:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we start feeling better about our long-term goal.
44:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me say, well, maybe I'll get there.
44:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, yeah, I'll take a few more steps to get there.
44:14
[SPEAKER_02]: But then every goal that we achieve,
44:17
[SPEAKER_02]: sets us up for success in the next stage in the next short-term goal that we set in that direction.
44:25
[SPEAKER_02]: We also have to remember that we have the right to change our minds as
44:30
[SPEAKER_02]: circumstances change as finances, family commitments, and our health, our age, everything changes.
44:37
[SPEAKER_02]: We need to be able to adapt and we need to be able to keep the scope of the project within our means.
44:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And for example, I had made a promise to my wife before I started.
44:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, I'm not going to die.
44:53
[SPEAKER_02]: We're not going to go bankrupt and I'm not going to lose you.
44:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Those were my
44:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And then during the journey on ocean crossings, I had to save my boat number one.
45:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I had to bring my boat, keep myself healthy.
45:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I had to bring my boat to a point on the ocean where I had the ability to continue the journey.
45:16
[SPEAKER_02]: So it didn't matter that I wanted to go in a certain direction to a certain destination, but if things changed, then those were my priorities.
45:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I had to stay alive, save my boat,
45:26
[SPEAKER_02]: and get to a point where I could continue the journey.
45:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And executing these priorities, kept me alive, kept the journey on the move, kept me married.
45:36
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, so we're all human, we have commitments, we are not.
45:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to remember that I'm not just an adventurer, I am a husband, I am a son, I am a brother, I am a prince, and yeah, I think it's complicated.
45:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, well hey, before we run out of time, let's shift gears for next year's adventure, the Golden Globe Race.
46:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I already mentioned that it was a race around the globe in a cellboat doing things the old way without modern technology, but explain that to us in a way, because that's really all I know.
46:15
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot more to it than that.
46:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the first person to sail around the world was Joshua Slokum, 1896, started from Boston, Gibraltar, he went westbound.
46:25
[SPEAKER_02]: He did it with his stages.
46:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And then Francis Chichester attempted to go non-stop, started from England, following the Clipper routes around to Australia.
46:36
[SPEAKER_02]: He had to stop at Sydney to fix his wind vein.
46:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Re-stocked his supplies kept going, became the first person to finish with one stop in 1967.
46:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So then the race was on to answer the question, who's going to do this non-stop solo?
46:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So nine skippers were preparing, pulling it, you know, their cards close to their chest.
46:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright.
46:59
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to be the first, we don't need to alert anyone else kind of thing.
47:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And so nine skippers were going to start this, Sunday Times newspaper out of England, decided we're going to...
47:11
[SPEAKER_02]: turned this into a race, they got the word, and they said, the first person to return, you can start anytime, that means such and such months in 1968, you can start anytime, but you need to start from England, and the first person to return is going to get a cup, and the fastest person to return is going to get £5,000 British pounds worth of cash reward, and at the time, that would have bought in the U.S.
47:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was significant, and out of the nine,
47:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Robyn Knox Johnson finished and Matt S.E.A.
47:45
[SPEAKER_02]: the Frenchman.
47:47
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, I don't want the crowds.
47:50
[SPEAKER_02]: He kept sailing.
47:51
[SPEAKER_02]: He turned east after turning Cape Horn and carried on until Tahiti.
47:55
[SPEAKER_02]: He went another two-thirds of the way around.
47:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And
47:59
[SPEAKER_02]: precious boat over.
48:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Donald Crowhurst famously was reporting he had problems with his boat the deck bus, leading from the hall and he hadn't finished his preparations and he was reporting over radio, HF radio, fake positions and while he was lingering in the South Atlantic by the Brazilian shores, his fake positions had reached New Zealand.
48:24
[SPEAKER_02]: He was leading the back.
48:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh no, he wasn't even there.
48:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and eventually they found his boat.
48:30
[SPEAKER_02]: He wasn't in it.
48:31
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a mess inside.
48:32
[SPEAKER_02]: His journals and such suggested that he committed suicide.
48:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no.
48:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it was an interesting race.
48:39
[SPEAKER_02]: This original Golden Globe race in 1968.
48:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's the same year that astronauts landed on the moon.
48:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And when this was accomplished, Robin Knox
48:54
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was Chichester by the Queen, they were denied it, they became Sir Chichester and now we call Sir Robin.
49:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Robin Knox Johnson, and they were honored by their accomplishments and that accomplishment was mentioned in the same breath as the lending on the moon.
49:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
49:16
[SPEAKER_02]: It was significant.
49:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Those were the golden years of sailing, and in 2018, Don McIntyre, he's an Australian sailor, adventurer himself, accomplished in his own right.
49:30
[SPEAKER_02]: uh, decided we're going to run this again on the 50th anniversary of the race.
49:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And Sir Robin Knox Johnson became the patron of the race, and the starting point was selected as less subled alone on the west coast of France.
49:45
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the same port that hosts a rendez-globe on their techniques, turns out all these important offshore races are from there.
49:53
[SPEAKER_02]: It's an interesting town.
49:54
[SPEAKER_02]: You walk the streets and you've got
49:56
[SPEAKER_02]: the murals of skippers painted on the walls of these buildings.
50:04
[SPEAKER_02]: They honor that offshore legacy.
50:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, yeah, that's where we are.
50:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's stop it along as the hub.
50:11
[SPEAKER_02]: of this race and they repeated that just like other significant races every four years.
50:17
[SPEAKER_02]: May 22 was the second race and of the three races that were held until today, 1968, 2018, and 2022 out of all the entrance, only nine were able to finish.
50:32
[SPEAKER_02]: only one in the first one and then only three properly finished non-stop solo around the world unassisted in the 22 race.
50:42
[SPEAKER_02]: The race is restricted to vessels that were built before 1988 standard vessels you can't modify them significantly.
50:52
[SPEAKER_02]: For example if it doesn't have a
50:57
[SPEAKER_02]: to change the sail plan for example the significant change and any change has to be submitted as a refit plan but what they're trying to do is keep the design restrictions such that the boats are of that era these need to be full kill boats with the rudder attached at the end of the
51:17
[SPEAKER_02]: uh... they we don't have modern electronics to navigate for example we can't use GPS truck plotters we can't you have these salination units to make water we start with the water on board and
51:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Jerry cans of water, whatever we have and then collect rainwater along the way to extend our range.
51:38
[SPEAKER_02]: The food is on board.
51:39
[SPEAKER_02]: We don't go stop somewhere and stock some more food.
51:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything on board fuel.
51:46
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a full tank to start and at the end we have up to 30 liters free that we can use but then after that every liter costs us three hours of penalty.
52:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so the vessels have to be 10 to 11 meters long, 32 to 36 feet.
52:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and we have to use sextants since we can't use GPS and charge batteries.
52:10
[SPEAKER_02]: We have to use a sextant paper charts and know how to use these traditional methods of determining our location, be good at coastal navigations, celestial navigations.
52:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course, survival techniques, storm techniques,
52:25
[SPEAKER_02]: at sea to be able to deal with all of this because it's going to be a non-stop race.
52:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Once we start, the weather will come and go.
52:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you need to be able to deal with all the changing conditions at sea, and we need to be masters of that medium and learning.
52:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi Southern Latitudes as well.
52:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Correct.
52:43
[SPEAKER_02]: We have limits to how far south we can go.
52:45
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the things that happens is we're one is tempted to go further south because the closer we are to,
52:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Antarctica, the shredder of the ghostens that we will sail, and faster it will get done worse, a weather.
52:59
[SPEAKER_02]: But we will be exposed to a harsher weather, and also we will risk hitting ice along the way.
53:06
[SPEAKER_02]: So there is an ice limit south of which we will not go.
53:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is determined on the Indian Ocean as well as the South Pacific, where we are limited at how far south we can go.
53:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And if we drop south of that latitude, then we will get time penalties again.
53:28
[SPEAKER_02]: how we navigate and where we go in that sense otherwise but it's all for safety and as much as we are limited in all the modern conveniences we are required to carry an e-purb we are required to carry an hf radio and know how to use it we will have a satellite phone that we will use to call in and
53:57
[SPEAKER_02]: something on the cloud, we will have messaging abilities with our trackers, yellow brick trackers, and that'll allow us to the audience to follow the race to know where we are and how fast we've gone.
54:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So what is the start date for the race?
54:18
[SPEAKER_02]: The start date is 6th of September, and with all these electrical electronic help,
54:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure that we communicate, tell the story, but all the GPS information on these devices have been restricted, new firmware, all so forth.
54:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So you have safety devices, the E-PURb and what have you?
54:38
[SPEAKER_01]: The radio, the rest, yeah.
54:40
[SPEAKER_01]: They're all.
54:41
[SPEAKER_01]: But you're not able, you're not allowed to use devices to assist in the journey itself.
54:46
[SPEAKER_01]: It's more like, I can report back where I am, I can leave messages, and if something goes really, really
54:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Correct.
54:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
54:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, we are using a log that we pull behind the boat that's a spinner that analog dial tells us how far we have traveled and knowing the time difference we can calculate average speed.
55:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So we don't even have that paddle wheel underneath to tell us digitally electronically what the speed is.
55:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So I mean, these things it's it's interesting.
55:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Very restricted in certain ways, but then for safety reasons and communication we are able to communicate with the race committee.
55:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And we are restricted on where who gives us information, what information is given.
55:29
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why it's restricted to talks with the race committee, HF Radio calls and such are monitored as best they can.
55:37
[SPEAKER_02]: and we are supposed to report any encounters with vessels.
55:41
[SPEAKER_02]: If we are able to ask any vessel, we encounter the cargo vessel, whatever, to verify location and get weather report.
55:49
[SPEAKER_02]: For example, and time.
55:51
[SPEAKER_02]: But then we have shortwave radio.
55:53
[SPEAKER_02]: We can listen to certain broadcasts, then other places that will give a time signals.
55:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And we have to take into account how far we are from them.
56:02
[SPEAKER_02]: calculate the delay, correct our clocks and keep going so it's just amazing to me it really does sound amazing to me so Erden we don't have a lot of time left but you've written some books you know I have a writer of books I have a coffee table book that's a simple book
56:30
[SPEAKER_02]: That is to give an idea, especially I want to make it readable by young students as well.
56:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Then there's a book that was written in Turkish that's available in Turkish in Turkey.
56:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's been tough for me to sit down and write a comprehensive story of what I have achieved so far.
56:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Many reasons for that.
56:58
[SPEAKER_02]: a lot of it has to do with my internal struggle after returning and some of which I don't want to share and hasn't been pretty after I returned home.
57:11
[SPEAKER_02]: The adjustment after the circumnaviation was difficult and so much had happened and I didn't feel like I succeeded if you
57:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what I mean.
57:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I call it post-exposition blues, right?
57:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I've experienced that on some longer trips.
57:32
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the return back that sometimes is harder, you know, and we'll talk about culture shock or that sort of thing.
57:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the return home sometimes that is the biggest shock.
57:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone had moved on and I wasn't able to adjust well when I tried to get speaking engagements,
57:50
[SPEAKER_02]: videos of me doing presentations prior and it's like I have a new story I want.
57:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's carry on and it was, and I had basically what happened is I had all these obstacles that I couldn't negotiate in the city.
58:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I had, I was able to negotiate everything while during the, while I was on the journey.
58:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And that frustration, not being able to adjust and meet the demands of society frustrated me.
58:19
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to leave again, but I had spent all our money and I felt trapped.
58:27
[SPEAKER_02]: not being able to go was a downward spiral and was a very dark period.
58:33
[SPEAKER_02]: It took lasted about a year and a half or so until I picked up sailing, became a sailing instructor, got a captain's license, I started delivering boats, I started racing,
58:45
[SPEAKER_02]: and so I found a new medium where I could be and enjoy the ocean.
58:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Well thank you for sharing that.
58:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I really appreciate your candor there because so many people they think of the big adventure but maybe not what lies beyond.
58:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And your willingness to share that is meaningful and that I think it helps us to realize it's not just about the one thing.
59:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all the things.
59:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
59:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
59:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Back to see all the things.
59:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Price me pay.
59:10
[SPEAKER_01]: It is for sure.
59:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And so next year you're going to be doing this amazing adventure, the Golden Globe Race and people can can track with the race.
59:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
59:23
[SPEAKER_01]: View.
59:24
[SPEAKER_02]: The Golden Globe Race.com has a live link at the very right of the top menu options and there
59:35
[SPEAKER_02]: YouTube videos generated by the Race Committee, there will be SoundCloud recordings, there will be Twitter feeds, all the social media, it's a professionally run race.
59:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So the tracking and also keeping up with what's happening in the race will be possible through that.
59:52
[SPEAKER_02]: The race should take about eight months to complete if everything goes well in the boats that we have.
59:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I should return April of 20.
1:00:02
[SPEAKER_02]: 27.
1:00:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Closing ceremonies will happen toward the end of June 27.
1:00:07
[SPEAKER_02]: The vessel I got, Clara, is the vessel that got line honors in the 22 race.
1:00:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Simon Kerrin, the British sailor, was sailing Clara very well.
1:00:19
[SPEAKER_02]: He's a very capable sailor.
1:00:21
[SPEAKER_02]: He was leading the back for about 150 days and on the approach to Cape Horn, he was knocked down at a big roadway of Cape took out his winvane So he had to divert to the Chile for at the months and his wife
1:00:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Claire flew in with the replacement part.
1:00:36
[SPEAKER_02]: He did the repairs and then rejoined the race.
1:00:38
[SPEAKER_02]: He lost 10 days in the process.
1:00:40
[SPEAKER_02]: He turned Cape Horn in fourth place and despite that caught everybody and arrived.
1:00:45
[SPEAKER_02]: The first one day ahead of Kirsten, no shade for the South African woman skipper, who became first in her own right to win any such race in history.
1:00:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So she was a very capable sailor prior to that.
1:01:00
[SPEAKER_02]: and having spent time on the Southern Ocean's chartering and cruising.
1:01:05
[SPEAKER_02]: He, she was the official winner because she did it completely to non-stop.
1:01:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Non-stop, right?
1:01:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Indian, Skipper, Opilash, and Austrian, I believe, Skipper, Guggen, Captain Guggen.
1:01:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Those were the non-stop finishers, and then two,
1:01:23
[SPEAKER_02]: stop it with one finish.
1:01:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So what I'm getting at is I have a good vessel that's race tested and if I become the skipper she deserves then I might have a chance at the podium.
1:01:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Well we wish you all the best and congratulations on
1:01:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Another attempt at something amazing, I'm going to say it that way, and thank you for sharing so much wisdom with us about what it takes to take on the really big goals and outline steps, really, you know, so that other people can follow in your path if they have those sorts of dreams as well.
1:01:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So I really appreciate your time today.
1:02:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you again for sharing with them.
1:02:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I appreciate that.
1:02:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for the opportunity, sir.
1:02:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you bad?
1:02:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And for everybody out there, wow, huh?
1:02:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I just can't imagine what it takes to accomplish things that large.
1:02:13
[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, maybe Erden here planted some seeds for you.
1:02:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, until the next show, dream big, but don't forget to nurture those drink.
1:02:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Take care.