Cole Brauer // The First American Woman to Race Around the World

On the Wind Sailing

Andy Schell

Sports, Wilderness, Places & Travel, Society & Culture

4.8 • 593 Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cole Brauer made history in 2024 as the first American woman to race solo, non-stop around the world. She crossed the line wearing a hat that read Wild Feminist — a bold and powerful statement from a sailor who'd once been told she was too short for the Southern Ocean. Clearly, she proved them wrong — and along the way, captured the hearts and minds of over 450,000 fans by sharing raw, vulnerable glimpses into her life alone at sea. We caught up in Cowes at the end of July, just before the start of the Fastnet. It's not often I get to sit down with another woman my age competing at this level — so I loved this chat with Cole. And, I have a feeling you're going to enjoy it too.

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This episode is sponsored by Orca. Visit getorca.com to modernize your onboard navigation with the Orca Display and Orca Core. We've got them on SPICA & ISBJØRN and so far are LOVING the experience of proper tablet navigation, waterproof wireless charging, logged passages and slick charts and instruments.

Transcript

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0:00.0	a lot of things that had happened in my past and they're like they're like little tick marks you know
0:04.3	you know life life is really short and you only get one of them and so why care about that one person
0:12.4	that doesn't love you or doesn't care about you or talks crap about you you know why care about that
0:18.8	when you have a thousand other people that love
0:21.5	and care of and support you? And that's kind of been my mentality about everything, especially
0:26.7	with the race around the planet. On the Wind is presented this season by Orca. Check out
0:32.8	getorca.com to look at navigation for the modern boater. I have been advocating tablet navigation, iPad
0:41.8	navigation, since at least 2017, but there's not been a good solution because the iPads,
0:48.9	there's not a great charging solution to keep them waterproof outside. There's no way to mount them
0:53.1	properly.
0:59.5	And finally, somebody has almost answered my prayers. I've been working with Orca now on Spica for my trip I did last week. And they have a really awesome maronized tablet that has an induction
1:08.2	charging mount that plops right at my helm station on Spica. If you're going coastwise,
1:15.2	like, this is it. This is the way to do it. And check it out. So go to getorca.com. Highly recommend
1:21.8	them. And I'm very excited to use it more on East Bjorn Falcon and Spica. So, Nikki, Cole Broward this week,
1:29.6	this is like a big one that I'm very excited to listen to as a fan of the podcast. But I was thinking
1:35.3	about this because, like, I know you, right? Like, we're friends. Cole is like kind of this larger
1:41.0	than life personality to most people, but like you're also this larger than life personality to most people, but like you're also this larger than life
1:45.8	personality to most people. What do you feel like when you interview somebody like this?
1:50.2	Do you feel like a, yeah, how do you feel like a, yeah, how do you feel? I won't put words in your
1:55.3	mouth. Well, that's a big question, but I think, you know, it's exciting to interview someone who is,
2:06.6	you know, a similar age and demographic to me. So you always wonder, you know,
2:15.6	are we actually as similar as sort of the data suggests and are we
	...

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