John Kretschmer

John Kretschmer has been in the breezes, as Joshua Slocum put it, most of his life. A professional sailor and writer, he is an accomplished ocean voyager, having logged more than 300,000 offshore miles. He led a long ago record- breaking voyage from New York to San Francisco by way of Cape Horn. He has made 26 transatlantic crossings, and numerous long passages in all the world’s oceans. To put that into perspective, his sailing miles translate into about 10 trips around the world, or sailing to the moon and a 1/3 of the way back.

He has blended his passion for history with sailing by organizing voyages that helped clarify the first landfall of Columbus, retraced the route of Odysseus, followed in the wake of the clipper ships and examined the maritime heritage of the Maya.

He has written 7 books and hundreds of articles. His book, Sailing a Serious Ocean, was an international sailing best seller, and At the Mercy of Sea, was chosen as one the best nonfiction books of 2007 (US). Flirting With Mermaids is an enduring favorite among sailors and has just been republished as a Lyons Press, “Maritime Classic.” He has been a contributing editor to Sailing Magazine for 25 years.

John’s latest book, Sailing to the Edge of Time, was just released by Bloomsbury. “This is the book I have been writing my entire life,” he writes, adding, “sometimes it seems like it took that long to finish it.” It’s a memoir that mixes sea stories and sailing insights. It’s a deeply personal account of what it means to go to sea, to be at sea and features hard-won lessons about making the most of our lives. 

The premise is simple, it’s all about time, how we spend our time defines our life. Time spent sailing, especially deep ocean sailing, is time well spent. At sea we find out who we really are, and what we are capable of, far from the shackles of land we find an elusive place where time changes shape – days may merge into one another, but minutes are memorable.

John has conducted over 130 offshore training passages and has introduced hundreds of people to ocean sailing. He continues to take people to sea each year by captaining challenging offshore sailing passages. He also conducts workshops and lectures all over the world. He has given entertaining presentations at venues ranging from the US Naval Academy, the Explorer’s Club in NYC, and Royal Cork YC in Ireland, the world’s oldest club, the Royal Geographical Society in Hong Kong, and the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club amongst many other venues. To live adventurously is to live more fully, and that is the life John Kretschmer lives.