On The Wind Sailing

#134. Happy New Year! Welcome to the first episode of 59º North in 2016!  Episode 134 is Jesse & Samantha Osborn. You won’t have heard of them, but they’re some of the most interesting and accomplished cruising sailors I’ve ever come across. Matt Rutherford introduced me to them last fall and they ended up sleeping aboard Isbjorn during the week of the Annapolis Boat Show, bunk-mates with the legendary Don Street, who also took up residency aboard. Jesse & Samantha sail a one-off, steel-hulled gaffer called Empiricus and recently completed the Northwest Passage, and only just, narrowing avoiding getting frozen in for a long winter. Empiricus remains hauled out in Iceland, where they’ll be continuing their adventures in the Arctic next summer. Amazingly, the couple had little prior sailing experience before their adventure in the Arctic. In the offseason, Jesse & Samantha live a sort of home-steading lifestyle in Alaska. Samantha is a veteran bush pilot, flying into and out of remote regions in Arc