This collection of my logs was originally published as daily blog posts on my satellite tracker page during my solo ocean crossing from Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii. The passage lasted thirty-two days and spanned 2300 nautical miles with the last 1000 miles being without the use of a rudder to steer my boat.
At the time, I had no idea how many people would regularly access the updates and watch my progress. For the first half of my passage, only the handful of my closest friends and family followed along as I slowly moved across the largest ocean on our planet and making way for the shores of Hawaii. My heart was beyond crushed and I was in a state of shock and disbelief at the very abrupt ending of my marriage only two weeks prior to my departure.
For me, there is something extremely liberating about the ability to record thoughts and feelings during a time I was so mentally and emotionally fragile and without the usual back and forth dialogue that comes in this time of social media. I share my life freely and openly on YouTube and Instagram and enjoy the interactions with strangers and regulars alike in this age of real-time correspondence. But the format of posting via satellite where I could send but not receive and share my thoughts and ship's business, allowed for a solitary experience and one that reflected my reality and my time at sea alone.
I have no idea how many people followed along with my journey in real-time but judging from the amount of people who contacted me after making landfall, it was far more than I ever expected. Those who are my close friends as well as complete strangers reached out to me and most described the same experience: they found themselves obsessively checking and refreshing the tracker, day and night, looking forward to my morning reports, noon position updates, golden hour reports, and evening thoughts entries. My old friend Carlos mentioned it was like reading a pulp serial that was being played out in real life and another close friend, Dane, said he figured the attraction was because the ending was completely unknown. He pointed out the moment of when I was adrift 1000 miles from Hawaii and no one, not even myself, knew what would happen. Everyone seemed to stay tuned-in day after day to see how it would turn out.
After I made landfall and Triteia was safely tied up at the dock in Honolulu, Captain David Stovall suggested I publish these logs into a book. I have long had a habit of journaling and documenting my life and my first book, American Idle, was a collection of journals from my time as a taxi driver in Los Angeles. My next book, published in 2019 and my first writings about the sea, is a collection of my ship's logs from my first solo sailing adventure and the first step down the path that finds me today, sitting onboard the good ship Triteia in Ala Wai Harbor, Oahu.
I have included photographs and images for every entry giving the reader a visual reference for life at sea that was absent when when these were published in realtime on the satellite tracker page.
Thank you for joining me on this wild ride.
James Frederick
Captain of The Good Ship
S/V TRITEIA
