Bill Pinkney // Solo Circumnavigator, Captain, and Author Returns to the Podcast
On the Wind Sailing
Andy Schell
4.8 • 593 Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2022
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
#361.
Captain Bill Pinkney returns to the podcast to chat with Emma about his life, career, and new book. In 1992, Bill became the first black man to circumnavigate solo, sailing via the five Great Capes. He made the 2 year voyage around the world on his Valiant 47 COMMITMENT. In addition to it being a remarkable sailing trip, Bill's circumnavigation was an educational opportunity for thousands of school kids who followed his journey. Pinkney also oversaw the building and subsequently captained the replica schooner AMISTAD, and spent years as a board member with Mystic Seaport Maritime Museum.
Born in Chicago's Bronzeville community, Pinkney is a US Navy veteran with eight years service as a Hospital Corpsman. He spoke with Emma for On the Wind from his home in Fajardo, Puerto Rico.
Visit Bill's website captainbillpinkney.com
Buy Bill's new book in the Ship's Store on his website, here: http://captainbillpinkney.com/ships-store.html
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It is currently six in the morning and I'm in an airport hotel in Oslo. This morning I'm going to meet |
| 0:08.8 | August and get on a plane for Svalbard where we're going to join East Bjorn to have an Arctic |
| 0:16.1 | adventure for the next couple weeks. So I'm super excited for that and excited to share some of those |
| 0:24.1 | experiences with you all when we get back. I just wanted to say that this episode concludes |
| 0:30.0 | our current season of On the Wind and we'll be taking a summer break from publishing episodes. |
| 0:35.7 | So you can use this time to catch up on, you know, |
| 0:39.1 | the 360 past episodes of the podcast. Andy, August and I have been in the thick of the |
| 0:46.8 | 2022 sailing season and we've been enjoying the travels and experiences and friendships that come |
| 0:53.6 | with ocean sailing. So you can expect |
| 0:56.1 | us to return the second week of August with new episodes. And until then, hold fast. Today's |
| 1:03.5 | episode is with Captain Bill Pinckney. I got to talk to Bill over Zoom now a couple of months ago. |
| 1:11.8 | And he is now headed to the U.S. for a book tour and to receive a whole long list of |
| 1:19.5 | awards for his achievements. |
| 1:22.1 | Just a quick note that when we recorded, Bill had a cold that turned into COVID, but last I heard he is recovering |
| 1:30.8 | smoothly, but you'll hear his voice and that he coughs a couple times. And the connection |
| 1:37.6 | wasn't always perfect, but it was a fantastic conversation and an honor to have Bill on the show. |
| 1:45.9 | As we trade time on land for adventures at sea, athletic greens travels with us. I'd been looking forward to using AG1 on an |
| 1:52.3 | ocean passage and finally got the chance last month while sailing ice bear across the Atlantic. |
| 1:57.9 | As the first mate, I'm responsible for provisioning the boat with enough food and |
| 2:01.9 | nutrients to last our eight crew for the length of the passage ahead. Our trip from Bermuda to |
| 2:07.0 | the Azores took 12 and a half days, and the fresh vegetables typically don't last beyond |
| 2:12.3 | day five or six. We had apples and oranges and onions and potatoes until the very last day, but we certainly didn't have many greens. |
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