“There’s the emotional side—moments of terror, tedium, anxiety,” says New-York based artist and casual sailor Zoë Sheehan-Saldaña, 49, about her first taste of the Race to Alaska, a 750-mile mad dash from Port Townsend, Washington, to Ketchikan, Alaska. The race is designed for boats propelled by wind and muscle power only; no outside assistance allowed. “Then there were moments that were so beautiful, you can’t believe you are in this. But being so close to the water, I felt vulnerable by the intensity. If anything happens, whether it’s a challenge or a scare, you are in it. There’s no boundary, really.”
While campaigning a small, self-built, plywood trimaran with three sailing rigs and miniscule accommodations, Sheehan-Saldaña and her soul mate, Joachim Rösler, braved mountainous seas, rapacious currents and fickle breezes that oscillated from nothing to gale and back in the blink of an eye. The couple rowed like mad and sailed like kings. They weathered torrential rain and basked in glorious sunshine. They found themselves in solitude and in the company of whales, all while surrounded by snowcapped mountains, dark forests, and the sometimes placid, sometimes wild waters of
