The Skipper

Sailing Experience

Hi y’all, I am an award-winning filmmaker, TV producer, writer and USCG certified Captain. I have over 11,000 nautical miles of Pacific Ocean beneath my boat and I sailed more than 9,000 of those miles solo. I didn’t grow up sailing, I grew up landlocked in Little Rock, Arkansas, but after college I moved to Rockaway Beach, NY and got turned on to sailing. I fell madly and deeply in love with it to the point of obsession. I started sailing every chance I got; delivering boats, racing boats, and I became a skipper for an international charter company. I eventually bought my own boat, Juniper. She’s a 34 ft. Ta Shing Panda and she’s haunted by a dead man’s ghost. 

For the past four years I’ve been sailing Juniper across the Pacific. I started my voyage in San Diego and sailed solo to Hawaii. It took me 23.5 days to get there. Prior to that journey I had only sailed solo for 6 hours and I’d never been alone in the ocean at night. In Hawaii I picked up two mermen and together we sailed down the Hawaiian chain and onward to French Polynesia. From there I sailed solo to Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. 

Beyond sailing, I am also an ethnographic filmmaker. My last film, Sailing A Sinking Sea, is about the mythology of a nomadic seafaring community in Thailand and Myanmar that all survived the Indian Ocean Tsunami. It premiered at SXSW, won the Singapore Film Festival and screened at the Smithsonian Institute. I am racing to raise awareness about indigenous communities whose homes are in jeopardy due to rising sea levels. 

I love the sea because she keeps me wide-eyed, honeycombed and wild and I am excited to be a part of the 2026 Golden Globe Race! 

Why the GGR?

Why on earth did man want to walk on the moon? Why does a bird have wings? Why does grass grow green? The answer is not simple. Because this race sounds really romantic to me. Because solo sailing is the dreamiest. Because I like to push myself inside the depths of my soul. Because I need a new challenge. Because the race is all I have thought about and dreamt about since I first learned about the race – it’s like I’m possessed. Because I love to have some big adventure to sink myself into. Because I like to feel my fate in the teeth of every known and unknown God. Because I like to push myself beyond my current limits until I can grow tree high. Because the heart of nature is my greatest teacher. Because I am on a never-ending hunt for self-reliance. Because I love to get lost and found in the wilderness of waves. Because I can’t think of anything more poetic I’d rather do. Because I’ve always wanted to sail around the world guided only by the sun and stars. Because I grew up landlocked and the sea has always been a mythical thing for me. Because the thought of the race is simultaneously electrifying and terrifying. Because crossing the finish line would feel like a fairytale. Because the idea of this race was like some song stuck in my head that wouldn’t shut up until I sang along.

Best and worst aspects

Best = The challenge of it 
Worst = Not being able to write regularly to my sailing blog

The Boat

Links

Website: www.wildernessofwaves.com / www.oliviaowenswyatt.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/olivia.o.wyatt

Instagram: www.instagram.com/wildernessofwaves/