Hooked On The Horizon. Sailing Blue Eye Around The World With Tom Dymond
Can we ever be satisfied with life if we are always ‘hooked on the horizon?’ Tom Dymond talks about some of the highlights and challenges of sailing around the world — as well as the mindset issues around living for a future state, and returning to real life after years away. Tom Dymond is the author of Wrongs of Passage and Hooked on the Horizon: Sailing Blue Eye Around the World. Show notes * Preparation for the circumnavigation — and when you just have to get going * Life aboard a 32-foot yacht * High points and memorable places on the journey * Challenges along the way * Traveling with a friend for several years * Wanderlust — and being ‘hooked on the horizon’ * Re-entry to ‘real life’ after years away * Recommended travel books You can find Tom Dymond at tsdymond.com Transcript of the interview Jo: Tom Dymond is the author of Wrongs of Passage and Hooked on the Horizon: Sailing Blue Eye Around the World. Welcome, Tom. Tom: Hey. Thank you for having me. Jo: It’s great to have you on the show. Let’s start out with a big question. Why did you want to sail around the world and what drove you to the sea? Tom: Well, I was already on the sea, actually, in one form already. I was working on a superyacht as a deckhand on one of these great big things that are owned by the millionaires. And so I was already getting my taste for the ocean and what it offered, but I didn’t have as much freedom, I suppose, as I would’ve liked. It was a hard-working job. It was a great job, but it was hard work. And at the same time, serendipitously, two of my best mates from school who were back in England had thought to buy a boat of their own and do their own travels on that. So as soon as they told me what they were doing, I twisted their arms and made sure that I was allowed to be involved. There was never a moment, I don’t think, where I wasn’t keen to do it. So it all came about not really because of me but the stars aligned and I jumped at the opportunity. Jo: Well, then we have to go back even further. I always feel like there’s something that drive people to the sea. It’s a certain, I don’t know, character thing. How were you working as a deckhand? Tom: I had no experience of the sea up until then. It was just a bit of nepotism, really. The opportunity came to my door, and it wasn’t one that I wanted to shirk away from having just come out of university and knew I wanted to do some traveling. Being a deckhand or a stewardess for young people is a great way to earn a bit of money and see a bit of the world. It was a really wonderful opportunity and I loved it. Jo: You mentioned there that the superyachts, obviously, were really, really massive, but I don’t think that’s the size of the boat you were sailing in. Tell us about the boat, Blue Eye. Tom: That’s right. Blue Eye was a Nicholson 32, which means that she was a Nicholson design and was 32 feet long, which is roughly 10 meters for those who don’t know. So when she was built in the ’70s, that was a reasonable size, but nowadays, cruising boats tend to be much, much bigger, and certainly, in comparison to the size of the boat I was working on, it was a very different life. But she was great for the work. James and I, James was my friend who owned the boat. For the purposes that we needed her for, she was perfect, really, because she’s really, really sturdy. Nicholson is a very reliable design. In the ’70s, they were building them with fiberglass and they hadn’t been using it for too long. So their philosophy was just stick on as much fiberglass as possible so she won’t break, which was brilliant.