Not sure if this is the place to post, but am just going for it. Today, I listened to the latest episode of the Offshore Sailing & Cruising podcast featuring the guest Andrew Evans. Andrew is the gentleman who wrote the book 'Singlehanded Sailing: Thoughts, Tips, Techniques, and Tactics (an excellent book, btw!). In the interview, Andrew talks about his fairly recent 2025 voyage from Victoria, BC, in which he single-hands his Olson 30 down the coast to CA where he planned to, from there, participate in the 2025 Transpac offshore race to Hawai'i. You would not believe the string of catastrophic events that Andrew endured during this voyage!!! To name a few -- he falls overboard for the first time, ever, experiences a complete electrical failure ship-wide (including all back-up devices!) due to his boat taking on water, and experiences all kinds of crazy hallucinations induced by lack of sleep and also because he became severely ill onboard. You've got to listen to this -- it's an absolute must for lessons learned the hard way -- and this is, again, one of the gurus of single-handed sailing -- though everything he describes could also happen onboard with crew. But, still -- being alone facing all of the challenges he had to face -- my goodness -- it's absolutely unbelievable what he went through! Here's a link to the episode:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/offshore-sailing-and-cruising-with-paul-trammell/id1521702830?i=1000739082796 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/offshore-sailing-and-cruising-with-paul-trammell/id1521702830?i=1000739082796)
I finally listened to the podcast. OMG!! Amazing that he is alive. Sail on (I think...) Al
Quote from: alsantini on December 13, 2025, 11:14:36 AMI finally listened to the podcast. OMG!! Amazing that he is alive. Sail on (I think...) Al
Totally agree, Al — absolutely one of the craziest stories I've ever heard! It really gives you pause, too, that this all happened to the guy who wrote the famous book about single-handed sailing! It's a testament to how we can find ourselves in desperately threatening situations, even despite years of experience and knowledge to try to prevent such things from occurring in the first place.