Episode 16 - Lee Gallacher

This week’s episode is a special one. Lee is out in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, recording dockside at the Muelle Deportivo, where he is joined by Jim Stephen, skipper of the 54 foot Orion’s Light, who is taking part in this year’s ARC+ 2026, sailing from Las Palmas via Cape Verde to Grenada.Jim came to the Atlantic by way of the Great Lakes. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, he is a lifelong sailor with decades of racing and cruising behind him, including the famous Chicago to Mackinac Race aboard various iterations of his yacht Lancashire Lass, and plenty of time in the highly competitive Etchells class. Now based in St Augustine, Florida, he and his wife have spent years exploring the American East Coast aboard Orion’s Light, crossing the Atlantic eastbound and cruising European waters before turning for home.Joining him on board is his daughter Chelsea Stephens, an artist who brings her own creative perspective to life at sea.In this episode they talk about the competitive waters of Lake Michigan, cruising the European coastline, and the experiences, challenges and rewards of crossing an ocean in both directions. It is a lovely combination of generations, sailing experience, family and adventure.

This week on the podcast, Lee is joined by fellow South African Kirsten Neuschäfer, who has quite literally sailed into the history books. In 2023 she became the first woman to win the Golden Globe Race, sailing solo around the world aboard her 36 foot yacht Minnehaha, relying on traditional navigation rather than modern electronics.There is a great deal more to Kirsten than that victory. From her early life in South Africa to cycling solo across Africa, sailing some of the most remote waters on the planet and building a career at sea, she has taken a rather unconventional route to becoming one of the world’s most recognised offshore sailors.In this episode they cover her background, that remarkable solo cycling trip across Africa, and her experience as a woman in an industry that remains largely male dominated. They also get into electronic navigation, the importance of traditional seamanship, and whether our growing reliance on technology is changing the way we navigate and make decisions at sea.And naturally, they talk about the 2022 Golden Globe Race itself, the challenges of sailing solo around the world, and one of the defining moments of that edition: Kirsten’s decision to break off from racing to rescue fellow competitor Tapio Lehtinen, whose yacht had sunk in the Indian Ocean.Because the measure of a sailor is rarely the result. It is what they do when things stop going to plan.Watch the full episode on YouTube now.🎙 Oceans Unplugged Podcast

This week on Oceans Unplugged, Lee is joined by Caterina Rota, the Italian sailor who swapped a career in intellectual property and patent law for yacht deliveries, offshore racing and sail training.Caterina came to the water the long way round. She trained and practised as a lawyer in Italy, specialising in IP and patents, before changing direction entirely and building a professional career at sea. She and Lee first met between UK lockdowns, at a point when thousands of sailors were stranded around the world as borders closed and ports restricted access, and Caterina had just landed back in the UK off a delivery. An odd introduction in an odd time, and the start of a lasting friendship.Building a career in the marine industry is rarely the straightforward path it looks like from the dock. Deliveries, offshore racing and sail training are demanding and often unglamorous work, and the miles are earned rather than given.In this episode Caterina talks about leaving the law behind, the realities of making a living on the water, the seamanship she has gathered along the way, and the opportunities the industry holds for anyone thinking of doing the same.

This week on the podcast, Lee is joined by Joss Creswell, the British offshore sailor who has just completed his first full solo season on the Figaro Bénéteau circuit out of Lorient.Joss came to offshore racing the long way round, as First Mate aboard Perseverance in the 2022 to 2024 Clipper Round the World Race, finishing second overall after 48,000 miles. Since then he has gone from a crewed 70 footer to racing a Figaro 3 alone, coached through the winter by four time Vendée Globe finisher Sam Davies, taking his first podium on the circuit with third on a leg of L’Aventura, and finishing 29th overall in La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec.Solo offshore racing in France is about as hard a school as the sport has. The boats are identical, so there is nowhere to hide, and the fleet is full of professionals who have been doing it for years.In this episode Joss talks about the step from crewed racing to sailing alone, what the Figaro class asks of you, and what it actually takes to build a campaign from the outside.Because in a one design fleet, the only variable left is you.

This week on the podcast, Lee is joined by Matt Barraud, director of the Morvargh Sailing Project, a Cornish charity that has been taking young people to sea under sail since 2010.Matt came to this work through his own sail training week with the Rona Sailing Project, and it changed his direction entirely. He now runs Morvargh alongside his wife and a team of volunteers, and still sails on every voyage. The charity operates TS Helen Mary R, a Bowman 57 launched in 1986, out of Fowey, working with schools, youth groups and community trusts across the South West.The idea is a simple one. Young people from 11 upwards join as crew rather than passengers, taking on real responsibility for the watches, the navigation and the running of the boat. What comes back is confidence, resilience, and quite often a different view of themselves. Six of Morvargh’s twenty or so current volunteers started out as trainees.In this episode Matt talks about the charity, the boat, and what happens to a young person who is given genuine responsibility a few miles offshore.Because sometimes the most useful thing you can give someone is a job to do and a crew who are counting on them.

This week on the podcast, Lee is joined by Kelsey Pfendler, the American ocean rower who this summer became the fastest person ever to row solo from California to Hawaii.Kelsey's route to the Pacific started on a river rather than an ocean. She took her first whitewater trip at 18, qualified as a guide in the Adirondacks, and spent the best part of a decade running multi-day expeditions through the Grand Canyon. Ocean rowing came later, after she met an Atlantic crew while sailing in 2019. Her first Mid-Pacific crossing was as part of a team of four, complete with a capsize, freezing nights and the loss of her only pair of shoes.In May she left Monterey alone in a 24 foot rowing boat and reached Honolulu 43 days and 17 hours later, taking almost nine days off the outright record and becoming the first American woman, and the youngest person, to row the Mid-Pacific solo.In this episode she talks about the preparation, the long days on the oars, and what it's like to be out there alone for six weeks with nothing but water in every direction.Because rowing an ocean is mostly about the hours nobody sees.

This week on the podcast, Lee is joined by Guy Waites, the North Yorkshire solo sailor who took his Tradewind 35, Sagarmatha, around the world singlehanded in the 2022 Golden Globe Race.Guy's route to the start line was anything but conventional. Two Jester Challenges, a 55 day Atlantic crossing in a 21 foot Corribee that capsized on the way, and two Clipper Races, the second of them as skipper. He bought Sagarmatha in Panama and sailed her home via the Caribbean and the Azores to complete his qualifying miles.The race itself didn't go to plan. Barnacles slowed the boat so badly that Guy described it as trailing a drogue, and the haul out in Cape Town to deal with them cost him his place in the standings. He kept going anyway, and crossed the line at Les Sables d'Olonne in June 2023 after 287 days at sea. Not as a ranked finisher, but as a man who had sailed around the world on his own.In this episode he talks about those months alone, the decisions that shaped them, and what kept him going once the race had stopped being a race.Because for some sailors, the point was never the placing.

This week on the podcast, Lee is joined by Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan Maclean — the Scottish brothers behind BROAR, who have rowed two oceans together and set world records on both.In 2019 they crossed the Atlantic from La Gomera to Antigua in 35 days, becoming the fastest and youngest team of three to row it, and the first set of brothers to row any ocean. Last year they went considerably further, rowing unsupported from Peru to Australia in 139 days, the fastest crossing of the Pacific. Both rows were done to raise money for clean water projects in Madagascar.In this episode, the three of them talk about what it actually takes to spend months in a small boat together. The rowing, the sleep deprivation, the weather, the repairs, and the business of being brothers in a space that small for that long.Because the ocean is only half of it. The rest is the three people in the boat.

This week on the podcast, Lee is joined by Rhia Pritchard, a tugboat captain whose working life is spent on a very different kind of vessel to most of the boats we talk about on this show.Tug work is one of those corners of the maritime world that most people never see up close. It's demanding, highly skilled, and it goes on quietly in ports and harbours every day of the year.In this episode, Rhia talks about her route into the job, what life on the water looks like from the wheelhouse of a tug, and the people and moments that have shaped her time at sea.Because every career on the water starts somewhere, and the best stories are usually the ones you don't hear about.

This week on the podcast, Lee is joined by Nick Taliadoros, one of the people behind the scenes at Oceans Unplugged.Nick is usually on the other side of the camera, so this time the roles shift and he takes the guest seat. The conversation covers the show itself, how it came together, and Nick's own relationship with boats and the water.It's a relaxed, honest chat about what pulls people towards the sea in the first place, and why the stories that come out of it are worth sitting down and listening to properly.Because behind every episode there's a team who care about getting it right.Watch the full episode on YouTube now.🎙 Oceans Unplugged Podcast