Nikki Johnson, Sam Simmons, Alison Bernhart, Karen Thompson, Becky Spivey, Kelli Lazzaro
Serving the Entire WILMINGTON REGION
SOLD
NEW
1525 Pointer Lane • $295,000
SOLD
LANDFALL
1914 Hallmark Lane • $589,000
LANDFALL
1709 Pembroke Jones Drive • $1,089,000
QUA I L WOODS
LANDFALL
312 Moss Tree Drive • $777,000
1720 Drysdale Drive • 910-256-6111 • www.landfallrealty.com
30 august 2022
WBM
WBM: How do you navigate?
KW: I use my iPhone’s GPS
primarily. I also have a handheld
Garmin GPS (Foretrex 101). It
spits out coordinates and tells
you how fast you’re moving.
That’s my backup. Twice a day I
plot my course on a paper chart.
I keep specific coordinates in a
log four times a day. My wind
speed, my direction. I also record
how the boat’s performing, what
birds I see, what dolphins, what
boats. I am learning the sextant.
I am learning the stars. I know
the Atlantic; you can only go so
far east and west. I can use dead
reckoning if I had to.
WBM: What’s the worst thing
that has happened?
KW: I lost my mast crossing
the Atlantic in 2019. It was at
sunset, day seven. It was a stupid
accident. Before the Portuguese
telephone pole for a mast, it was
a radio tower crossed galvanized
steel pole, and it came crashing
down onto the doghouse. For
three days we had no wind. We
were 350 miles southeast of
Bermuda, going in tandem with
Hans, just enough to see each
other at times. It was my first
crossing. When this happened,
the weather was pretty rough.
He rowed over and helped me
clean up. In the morning it
calmed down. Hans told me
I could abandon the boat, he
could tow me, or I could just
jury-rig and sail it to Portugal.
I sailed in one day after him.
WBM: You said you prefer to
sail by yourself, what do you
enjoy about being alone on the
ocean?
KW: It’s magical. It’s the most
wonderful feeling in the world. I
call it passive adrenaline, it’s just
you and this boat.