IN THE MEDIA
interviews, features, and editorial reviews
Meet the Crew of Ocean Passages
At first glance, Nathan Zahrt and Vivian Vuong might have seemed like unlikely types to go to sea. The young married couple, hailing from the deserts of landlocked New Mexico, didn’t grow up on the water or around boats. And yet, an adventurous spirit and a willingness to take chances in life led them to the ocean, then to distant shores, and eventually to their own business training fledgling offshore sailors. Vivian says: “What drew us to sailing was simply our friends asking if we were interested in moving across the country to buy a boat and live on it. We knew nothing about boats, but we dived in headfirst!”
The Offshore Skills You Need to be Bluewater Ready
You might have a departure day circled red in the diary and be furiously working through a to-do list to get there. Or maybe you’re considering a bluewater sailing adventure in the future and starting to think through the preparations you need to make. You might even have postponed your big trip, and be considering how to make the most of an extra sailing season at home.
Either way, in between the jobs lists of boat upgrades and household admin and everything else, it can be easy to overlook one area of preparation: yourself. How ready, really, are you?
Ep. 691: Learning to Live Aboard a Sailboat - Nathan Zahrt and Vivian Vuong
After starting out delivering other people’s boats, and then training them, Vivian and Nathan began to realize there may be something there and started offering offshore sailing adventures aboard our 47′ sailboat, Ultima. Ultimately, they’ve turned their passion into a career giving them a great mix of travel, excitement, endurance, and a sense of satisfaction helping others achieve their sailing goals.
Q&A With John Kretschmer
Ocean Cruising Adventure is a 45-year Vancouver tradition featuring engaging presentations of exciting world travels, independent adventure and a good dose of practical advice about sailing offshore. It is presented by the Vancouver Chapter of the Bluewater Cruising Association (BCA), a not-for-profit organization.
How to Find the Right Boat - An Interview with Nathan Zahrt
On this episode, Nathan from s/v Ultima joins Josh Allsop, host of Salty Journals: the podcast, to talk about buying boats, getting started in sailing and his influences. We touch on a couple of stories about John Kretschmer and discuss how to get on board with Ocean Passages.
Out The Gate Sailing with Benjamin Shaw
John Kretschmer is a philosopher sailor and a great storyteller – in the vein of Bernard Moitessier. As a sailor he’s logged more than 300,000 offshore sailing miles. He’s taught thousands of people about ocean sailing, imparting his knowledge in person and through his writing. He’s the author of At the Mercy of the Sea, Flirting with Mermaids, Cape Horn to Starboard, and most recently Sailing to the Edge of Time – which just last week came out as an Audio book. I sat down with John when he was in town to speak at the St. Francis Yacht Club.
“Write-Stuff” Series – John Kretschmer
A live national broadcast of RMWorldTravel with Robert & Mary Carey and Rudy Maxa, author John Kretschmer visited to discuss his “do’er” mentality and “Sailing To The Edge of Time” in his personal account of the good life that remains available to you at sea.
Rudy Maxa Webcast Interview with John
Some people like to take a sailboat out on a lake for the weekend. But then there’s John Kretschmer, who sails the world’s oceans. He’s cheated death twice–once after capsizing in a storm, another by sailing into the middle of a revolution in Yemen. Join him to discuss his around-the-world sailing adventures (and learn how you can join him in 2021).
Sailing in the age of climate change—w/ John Kretschmer
John weighs in on how climate change has impacted the way he plans and conducts passages, offering insight on how the trade winds and the Gulf Stream have changed in the last 30 years. Listen in to understand how sailors cope with volatile weather and find out how climate change has influenced the expeditions John is planning for 2021 and 2022.
Jeffrey Interviews Nathan & Vivian on Shooting the Breeze Sailing Podcast
Jeffrey Wettig from The Escape Pods interviews Nathan & Vivian on his sailing podcast. They talk about their pre-sailing days, how they got a start in sailing, what they’ve done professionally, and more. Nathan talks about his experience living in West Africa for 2 years serving the Peace Corps. and Vivian talks about her life traveling.
SisterShip Magazine Interviews Vivian Vuong by Erin Carey
SisterShip sailing magazine is published by women and featured Vivian on the cover. Erin interviews Vivian and dives into her turbulent past and how she overcame some struggles that ultimately make her who she is today. Buy the August issue and support this great magazine emcompassing great women in sailing.
Bradford Rogers Interviews Nathan & Vivian on YouTube
Join us for Captain’s Hour as we kick back with Bradford Rogers and chat about Ultima, business during the pandemic, Vivian’s photo and film webinar and more! If you’d like to listen to Bradford’s HNTS Podcast, click here.
Big Sea, Small World by Erin Carey
Another nice article by Erin Carey, in the Jan./Feb. issue of Good Old Boat magazine. Erin is a terrific writer and a good friend who we met in St Martin last year. She can even make an old guy like me sound good. Good Old Boat is a magazine that I really respect. Their focus is on the kinds on boats I’ve been sailing and writing about my entire life.
SAILING THROUGH THE WILDERNESS: INTERVIEW WITH JOHN KRETSCHMER
I’ve been sailing since I was 20. After I dropped out of college for the fourth time, my mum urged me to try sailing. So, I bought a little 27ft boat and have been making my way as a sailor ever since. After completing a classic Cape Horn voyage, which helped to put me on the map, people began asking me to deliver boats all over the world. One included sailing from Newport in Rhode Island to Stockholm in January. There were moments on that trip when I questioned my sanity.
Book Review: Sailing to the Edge of Time by LYDIA MULLANJAN 2, 2019
An accomplished sailor and writer, Kretschmer tells the poignant, yet relatable tale of a lifetime’s love of sailing in his new book Sailing to the Edge of Time. Beginning with his first fateful trip around Cape Horn in a 32ft sloop named Gigi, Kretschmer takes readers with him as his adventure unfolds, covering hundreds of thousands of miles in the company of everyone from friends to celebrities to teachers and kids. As he does so, he also seamlessly weaves in plenty of practical sailing advice with his sea tales, making this book as useful as it is entertaining. There’s no shortage of joy, peril and watershed moments as Kretschmer tells an insightful and quietly triumphant story of how he experiences life to the fullest by leaving onshore toils behind…
SAILING MILLENIAL FALCON: Adam Interviews John
While in Grenada, we also visited with our dear friends Adam and Khiara.They’re young Australian cruisers and have a popular YouTube channel, Sailing Millennial Falcon. Adam and I had a long chat about offshore sailing, and well, life in general. Check out the 2-part videos here:
Bradford Rogers Christmas Gifts for Sailors: John Kretschmer's Sailing a Serious Ocean
Included in the list of Best Books for Sailors on “How Not to Sail’s” podcast by Bradford Rogers. How Not To Sail is an entertaining and real life account of Bradford’s solo sail around Florida. His podcast is well produced and a great listen for those looking for insight and a laugh on sailing mishaps and adventures.
Take a look at Bradford’s list of best books for sailors on his YouTube video here!
Book Review: Sailing to the Edge of Time by CHRIS SZEPESSY FEB 2019
Packed with advice on seamanship learned over three decades of voyaging, along with a seabag full of humor), Sailing to the Edge of Time embraces the premises that living adventurously is living more fully, and that casting off the shackles of land is perhaps the finest way to make the most of one’s life. “This is the book I’ve been writing my entire life,” he says. “A memoir that is a mix of sea stories and sailing insights, it’s a deeply personal account of what it means to go to sea.”
A familiar storyteller and seaman goes deep in his latest book. 2018 December 14 By ERIN L. SCHANEN
SAILING readers will be more than a little familiar with Contributing Editor John Kretschmer’s vast collection of sailing stories; you’ve been reading them on the pages of this magazine for decades. They are alternately funny, terrifying and tear-jerking.
With several books under his belt, Kretschmer’s style as a storyteller is well defined, but in Sailing to the Edge of Time, readers will find hints of a new side of the sailor, one that contemplates bigger questions.
Although they might be a bit more introspective, the nature of Kretschmer’s stories hasn’t changed much. They are still fast-paced, full of characters you long to meet and laden with enough rich detail to make you taste the salt on your lips and feel the wind in your hair. Thanks to a life at sea he’s got enough of them to always bring something fresh and, in the case of Sailing to the Edge of Time, he also brings a healthy dose of practical information on choosing and refitting a boat and basic tenants of seamanship….
For the Times-Union By Tim O’Connell / Nov 25, 2018 at 2:01 AM
If you have ever sailed out to sea in a small boat, you will find this memoir by professional sailor John Kretschmer evocative and profound. If you are thinking about doing it and/or looking for a sailboat, you will find it indispensable. If you are just seeking a story of an adventurous life well spent, you will find it fascinating.
In “Sailing to the Edge of Time,” the lifelong sailor’s sailor tells his story in vignettes about his trips, his boats, his philosophy and his many friends, all the while dispensing the invaluable knowledge gained from 300,000 offshore sailing miles, including 20 transatlantic and two transpacific passages.
With his many friends and fellow adventure seekers, the captain takes us across the Gulfstream to Bermuda, crisscrosses the Caribbean, from Hawaii to Seattle, north to Newfoundland, and across to Ireland, Scotland and the Mediterranean.
A must-have for any sailor’s library.