7,000 miles and lots of whales
Earlier this year, Aaron Wolfe realized that spending 15 years in an office developing website applications was killing him, physically and spiritually.
Not wanting to die at his desk, the 59-year-old Cold Spring resident made a radical decision: He would sail across the Atlantic Ocean — alone.
His course: a 7,000-mile loop, with stops in Newfoundland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, the Canary Islands and the Caribbean.

He considered a more traditional restorative adventure, hiking the Appalachian Trail, but determined sailing was a natural fit. He'd been sailing since age 8, at camp.
Wolfe set sail on June 2 from the Chelsea Yacht Club, north of Beacon, aboard Badger, a 27-foot Vancouver cutter. After anchoring near the Statue of Liberty, he passed under the Verrazano Bridge. At that point, "you're not quite in the ocean, but almost," he said in an interview by phone and over Facebook.
He traveled up the East Coast to Nova Scotia, the farthest he had ever sailed. Then it was on to the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, before heading east to Newfoundland.
"My plan was to get that far and see how I felt," Wolfe said. "It felt obvious that if I was to do it, now was the time. I loaded up with food and water and went."
Before long he encountered an iceberg. "I sailed safely to within a couple of hundred yards," he said. "There were whales all over the place; it was an amazing day."
He averaged about 5 miles per hour; it took 17 days to reach Dingle, a town on the southwest coast of Ireland.
Wildlife kept him company along the way. "There were seabirds all the way across," Wolfe said. "I swear, one bird followed me most of the way — a Northern fulmar, I think."
Several types of dolphins made regular appearances, as did humpback and pilot whales. "A fin whale came up to breathe, slowly circled Badger, then went on," Wolfe said. "It was bigger than the boat. That was impressive!"

An olive shop in Mohammedia, Morocco

An onboard party in Portugal

Badger

Fishing boats in Morocco

Sailing under spinnaker

Portside dolphins
Boat traffic was almost nonexistent. During his crossing, Wolfe saw only two commercial ships, both as he neared Ireland. Fishing boats were common just before he spotted land.
The North Atlantic can be rough, but Wolfe said he enjoyed favorable sailing weather. "It was a very safe trip, with no storms," he said. "The wind was strong a few times, but nothing to worry about." By contrast, conditions in the Irish Sea were "hair-raising," he said, but served "to escalate my experience" as a sailor.
Most days in the Atlantic were cold, foggy and drizzly. "I don't think I had a night where I could see the full sky and stars," Wolfe said. Night sailing is peaceful, he said, allowing him to get several hours of sleep at a time. But when near shore, especially in areas with fishing boats, he had to wake every 20 minutes or so.
He did not go hungry. "My food's been pretty good," Wolfe said. "I have an ice box and a little freezer, so I kept fresh food for quite a while." A Fogo Island fisherman gave him fresh cod. His staples were duck-flavored ramen, pasta and rice.
When not being treated to wildlife sightings, he had a good supply of books, podcasts and music. "I sometimes read a book a day," he said. "And it was good to hear someone's voice on an audiobook."
While at sea, Wolfe spent little time at the helm because Badger has a self-steering wind vane that keeps it on course. "I steered by hand for about half an hour," he said.
Did he wonder about Magellan, Sir Francis Drake and the other great explorers as he plied the Atlantic? "I certainly considered how much harder it would have been for them without any electronic navigation equipment," Wolfe said. "The charts now are incredible."

Once he reached the coasts of Portugal and Spain, with fishing boats and changing water depths, he sailed by hand. He also added two crew members, a young man and a woman, who agree...

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