Ahoy! Welcome to I’dRatherBeSailing, it’s your Friday roundup of the best sailing news and stories from this week.

Today we have for you:

• 5000 Miles to Lombak: A surf couple’s year long sailing trip.

• The Chicken & The Sea: Single Hen-ing it to Greenland.

• PFD Plea: Wear them wherever you are.

• Sailing ‘Round the Web: A tree climber branches out into sailing/ Orcas attack again in Morocco/ a new wind shipping project.

A Year Sailing the Dream

Aiyana Powel is a surf pro who spent the first 10 years of her life growing up on a sailboat. Torren Martyn is a surfing virtuoso, best known for his surf style in remote locations, gracefully eating perfectly peeling waves on funky mid-lengths. When they met, they discovered they shared the same dream: set sail in search of uncharted waves.

A year and 5000 miles later, the couple share their adventure of a lifetime that took them across Southeast Asia and Indonesia, with more than a few close calls as they learned the humbling art of sailing and remote survival.

When they started boat hunting, Calypte (which means Hummingbird) was an opportunity too good to pass up. She had been owned by Martyn’s father for the past 14 years, and he gave them the opportunity to buy it. In boat terms, she was located close to where they wanted to go. She was not without her typical old-boat-quirks, but, was mostly already set up for cruising. Martyn found in Calypte’s log book that she had survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand.

The six months leading up to their trip they did it all to get ready. Sailing books, quizzes, courses. He jokingly admitted to Surfer Magazine that the only courses he actually finished were “How to Deploy a Life Raft” and “Identifying Fires and How to Put Them Out”. The real lessons were about to come.

When they finally set sail, they were still rookies, but not naive. They had help from friends for the first couple thousand miles. Only a few weeks in, their first incident happened 10 miles off-shore in the South China seas. An engine cooling hose clamp broke off, pumping water that was supposed to be going over board straight into the bilge. Their friend on board at the time, George, was a mechanic who diagnosed and calmly solved the problem before the engine or battery got swamped.

Without him there it could have been a very different ending. Over the next few months more friends came and went to help out as they made their way from Malaysia, up the Malacca Strait, and through the islands off Sumatra.

The adjustment to the isolation and vulnerability of sailing left Martyn feeling years older. They’d be without phone signal for weeks at a time, and rarely went to shore. Sailing and surfing would seem to be the perfect match, but they could be subtly contradictory. A great anchorage protects from all the elements that make great surf. Finding a balance between the two, in a part of the world notorious for its consistent waves, and nowhere near hospitals, was a calculated balancing act.

But the payoff was un-named perfect waves that others could only whisper about. In a line-up of two, and the only boat in sight for days. It was all worth it. That feeling of catching a perfect wave, and looking back and seeing the boat - that’s the feeling, says Martyn, of life being complete.

The trip film should be coming soon, but with a year of footage, it might be awhile. And in the meantime, Martyn and Aiyana are flying down to Guatemala to look at another boat for their next adventure. It’s an old boat, and needs work, but it’s safe, built to last, and her family has been keeping it down there for the past 14 years. And the boat? It just so happens to be same boat she grew up on.

PFD Plea

The Chicken & The Sea

A Sailor, A Chicken, An Incredible Voyage: The Seafaring Adventures of Guirec and Monique

No one said sailors were’t crazy, but maybe sailing with a chicken isn’t as crazy as it sounds. Afterall, she does lay eggs. Guirec tells the tale of him single handing, and single Hen-ing, his way from the Caribbean to Greenland in his new book. An excerpt from is below.

Dark thoughts are the last thing you need when you’re up shit creek. If you start to lose hope, that’s when you’re completely screwed. Success is dependent on attitude. You have to stay positive. Right now, the plan has to be to somehow get back afloat and get the hell out of here.

Holed up warm and cozy inside the cabin, Monique and I can hear the wind whistling outside. The boat heels to the side, then rights herself before heeling over once more. Everything is shaking. Books are falling from the shelves and dishes are rattling in the sink.

Through the cabin windows, we see vast sheets of water and ice crashing over us. It’s terrifying. The sound is deafening. It pains me to think what this is doing to the boat. I’m sure everything must be getting completely trashed.

In my lap, Monique isn’t moving a muscle. She looks up at me, and I can tell she’s worried too. She knows something isn’t quite right. I give her feathers a gentle rub and tell her that everything is going to be alright, that we’re going to be just fine.

By reassuring her, I’m reassuring myself too. Oh, poor Momo, what have I roped you into? She’ll never survive if we have to abandon ship.

The book is available on amazon here. We just ordered it for our next sailing trip, we’ll bring a full report back soon. Enjoy!

Sailing ‘Round the Web

Crashed Boat Free: Michigan resident James Golembiewski is a professional tree climber, but wanted to branch into sailing. Read the story of how his boat wound up wrecked on the beach here.

Orca’s Attack, again. British couple records the hour long attack on their sailboat off the coast of Morocco, during a sailing course. Report and video here.

Sinking Sailboat Crew Rescued by Coast Guard off Carolina coast. 74 miles off the coast, 20 knot winds, and 6’ seas. No further information.

Sailboat Market Trends: Breaking news! sailing is awesome, and people will keep doing more of it. Numbers and official sounding words here.

Liveaboard in Philly: He lives aboard his boat in the marina and runs a non-profit. The views are great he says, until the nor’easters come-a-knockin’. Check out his story here.

Wind Shipping Project: Team Malizia from The Ocean Race partners with Windcoop, a new company aiming to bring sail assisted cargo ships to the notoriously dirty shipping industry. Read the first reports here.

Reader Submissions: Do you have the inside scoop on some hot local dock talk? Send it to us at [email protected] to be featured in the weekly newsletter.

That’s it for today, we’ll Ketch you next week.

Stay safe out there you salty dogs.