Q&A with Kiana Weltzien
WBM: How long have you been sailing?
KW: Since 2018.
WBM: When doing a solo crossing, when do you sleep?
KW: If I am near shore or in a shipping lane, I sleep between
10 and 30 minutes, then I sit up and I just look around. That
look around can take 30 seconds to a minute and then I am back
asleep. I set an alarm, but I always wake up before the alarm goes
off. Out at sea when I’m not worried about any shipping, I’ll
sleep two hours at the most under sail.
WBM: Describe the sequence of the places you have sailed.
KW: Panama to Colombia, north to Haiti, east across the north
coast of Hispaniola, to the Dominican Republic to the British
Virgin Islands, then to the Azores an archipelago 1,000 miles
west of mainland Portugal. After the Azores to the mainland
of Portugal, the Algarve on the south coast of Portugal. From
there to Morocco. I left Morocco on Christmas Day 2019,
sailing to the Canary Islands. That’s where I met Lærke, on
Fuerteventura.
ALLISON POTTER
ALLISON POTTER
28 august 2022
WBM