From the late 60s through the early 70s my passion was both climbing and long-distance sailing. In 1970 I got a job as deckhand on a 98-foot ketch called Astral, paid $400 a month in crisp Ben Franks. We left Honolulu heading to Papeete, and after gunkholing across the Society Islands we sailed to the Marquesas, back then a remote archipelago. The owner’s wife then decided she wanted to spend Christmas in Mexico (“I SO love Christmas pinatas”). The trouble was, that meant we had to sail nearly 5000 miles against the wind while the owner and his wife flew home to join us later. From Mexico we sailed to Panama where I got arrested and thrown in jail in a scheme that went bad to trade ammo for emeralds. But that’s another story. Fast forward 47 years and one morning reading the paper there was the Astral, now converted to a rescue vessel to save refugees fleeing wars in Africa and crossing the Mediterranean to seek a better life. I originally told the Astral story in an earlier edition of my new memoir Life Lived Wild, but it didn’t make it into the final book. I have just published it on my website, however, in case you want to check it out. Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty Images. @PatagoniaBooks. #LifeLivedWildBook