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In April of 2012, a small 27-foot-long sailboat, the St. Brendan, cruised in the Chesapeake Bay.

On board was Matt Rutherford, a 31-year-old American from Ohio.

When Rutherford stepped on to the docks at Annapolis to the cheers of hundreds, it was the first time he had stood on dry land in 310 days.

What Rutherford had done was one of the great modern feats of exploration and adventure.

He had completed the first non-stop solo circumnavigation of the Americas.

That's North and South America both. He did it alone, he never stopped, never visited a port, never dropped anchor.

It was just him and a 40-year-old 27-foot-long sailboat, or 8.2 meters, covering an astounding 27,000 miles, or 43,500 kilometers, through some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

Today on the Explorers Podcast we are going to detail this remarkable story, a few notes about this episode.

First, I have put a map on our website, Explorerspodcast.com, if you want to see the exact route Rutherford took on his journey.

But I'll be honest, it's not hard to imagine. He's going to go up the North American coast through the Northwest Passage, and then all the way from Alaska to this other tip of South America, and then back north to his starting point at Annapolis, Maryland.

Second note is about our source material, which is unique for us on this show. We have two primary sources about Rutherford and his journey.

First is a documentary about his voyage, called Red Dot on the Ocean. I don't usually get video of our subject nor their voyage, but this time I did, and it makes for some great stuff.

The second other amazing source I have for this series is our subject, Matt Rutherford. He was introduced to me about a year ago by a friend of the podcast, Nick Radke, who suggested that Rutherford would be an interesting story to cover, and Nick was right.

Matt's story is great, and he has been more than generous with his time, answering emails and doing an extensive interview with me. He even went into my script and corrected stuff that he knew was wrong.

So this is, as I said, really unique. I love this access into the mind of our Explorer, something that I've never really had before.

Third note, I want to let you know that this story will consist of three episodes.

Parts 1 and 2 will be me telling you about Rutherford's voyage, just like I do with all my subjects.

Part 3 will be a long interview with Rutherford, which will follow our two-part telling of his journey.

And the interview, by the way, is fantastic. Rutherford told me so many stories and gave me so many insights into himself and the voyage.

It's such a rare and unique opportunity to look into the person, their motivations, and the actual journey.

And so today we begin the story of Matt Rutherford and the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the Americas. Let's go.

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