Sailing Into Oblivion - Authentically

Jerome Rand and his Westsail 32 - Mighty Sparrow

There are a few podcasts that have really 'pulled me in' this past few years. The commonality with them is real authenticity. Authentic is a word I will overuse in this article but it fits.

It's all to easy to find content (Youtube, Podcasts, etc) about sailing but quite honestly so much of it is self-serving and inauthentic. Whatever the desire is; more clicks for more money or to feed an ego, it is obvious and all too abundant. So, unfortunately, it's rare to find content that serves the content creator as well as the audience in a deeper more connected way.

And so I'd like to tell you about someone you should know, Jerome Rand. I don't personally know Jerome but I've started to feel like I do, and that is a testament to the way he shares his stories in his writing, podcast, & online videos.

Jerome is a single-handed sailor, author of the book Sailing Into Oblivion, and creator of the podcast with the same name.

Jerome in the cabin of Mighty Sparrow

Jerome took the audacious adventure of sailing his 1974 Westsail 32 around the world non-stop & single-handed via the 5 Great Capes. He left Gloucester Massachusetts in October of 2017 and spent 271 days circumnavigating the planet via the foreboding Southern Ocean. This is well chronicled in his book Sailing Into Oblivion from managing storms with waves that have virtually unlimited fetch to dealing with zero wind.

I learned about Jerome from Matt Rutherford (who also has a podcast I am addicted to).

Listening to Jerome talk about sailing and interview others in his sphere is definitely the value of his podcast, but the true gold of spending your time in this one-way conversation with Jerome is truly that. Jerome has a way of speaking to the listener as a friend that he is catching up with. A friend on board his Mighty Sparrow. You feel that you have been with Jerome, and he has shared his experiences directly with you.

Jerome also brings interesting people in his life into the podcast to discuss various things, not solely focused on sailing. From family members, to fellow sailors he meets at the dock, Jerome's personal method of having a good conversation with his guests (or by himself) brings us the listeners into the mix.

The gift that podcasters like Jerome, Matt, and a few others have is the ability to share authentically. It is not self serving, it is not fake, or derivative.

Jerome is continually in awe that people actually listen to his podcast and therein lies one of the reasons we listen. His authenticity and honest charm is why I, and a quickly growing group of others are always waiting for his next podcast episode to drop. It's a conversation with a friend we look forward to.

In a world of YouTube sailing channels that stoop to putting half-naked pictures for their video thumbnails, or titles such as "We almost sank" or "Did we get boarded by pirates?" as click-bait BS, connecting with authentic content that is stimulating for the mind, and comforting like a good phone call from a friend is where I want to invest my time. And a conversation with Jerome is that.. authentic and worthy of my time.

Photos in this article courtesy of Andrew Noel & Tegan Butler

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SAILING INTO OBLIVION

WEBSITE: https://www.sailingintooblivion.com

PODCAST: Sailing Into Oblivion *SailJunky is proud to support this podcast via Patreon

YOUTUBE: Sailing Into Oblivion

PATREON: Sailing Into Oblivion

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Mike D. is the founder of Sail Junky Magazine. Striving to find more purpose in life, Mike writes and shares about his journey to rediscover his passion for living a fulfilled life, especially through the medium of sailing. mike@sailjunky.com