The Mara Noka motored to Masonboro Inlet, Wrightsville Beach June 22, 2022, headed north to wait for favorable wind. After spending almost a
week in Beaufort, N.C., then she headed out under sail on June 28.
ALIZÉ JIREH
32 august 2022
WBM
WBM: What is the favorite place you have
been?
KW: Right now, here, Wrightsville Beach.
This is one of the most beautiful places I have
been, and the people are so friendly. But other
than that, Haiti maybe. I was there for two
months. The people are amazing. They have no
gas, no food, no water, and they are happy and
every day they’re on the beach, in the water.
WBM: Have you ever gotten sick during a
sail?
KW: No. There’s no option, there’s no getting
sick, no getting hurt.
WBM: Have you had pets on board?
KW: Not on the boat. There was Chicken
One and Chicken Two. One lasted half a
year. Dinner is the goal. I need to get another
one.
WBM: What about safety?
KW: A big mean dog would be good. If you
have a dog on board, you are so much safer.
In Brazil the people were extremely afraid of
dogs.
WBM: This trip when you sail away from
America, what is your destination?
KW: Portugal, the Azores. The principal
purpose of this project, Women in the Wind,
crossing the North Atlantic, is not just to
show you can, or pay homage to the boat,
or what a woman can do. I want to use that
momentum to plant a little seed. A lot of what
we want to do is to show the treacherousness
of this plastic we use every single day. The first
time I crossed the Atlantic I saw trash every
single day. The ocean is our life source, our
oxygen. Without our reefs, our oceans, we
can’t live here. We’re taught about plants, the
rainforest, but we are not taught about the
ocean and what it does for us.
WBM: What’s next after Portugal?
KW: I need to get to Brazil this year. I’ll be
leaving for the Cape Verdes between 320 and
460 nautical miles west of continental Africa
in November 2022.