How To Sail Around the World

Dan Bova (0:00)

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And I have to ask you about the moment where you go flying across, and I think you cracked a rib or two.

Cole Brauer (2:50)

I was in a pretty gnarly sea state, and the boat approached, and the breaking wave pushed the boat over 90, and I was thrown across the boat.

We had the footage of me being flung across the boat, and every time I watched it, I would be like laughing, but also crying, because it looked fake. And the boat's just sailing a lot, like as if nothing happened. The boat's like, okay, you're fine, like I'm gonna keep sailing. And I'm over here, like, can't, I pulled a ligament in my wrist, so now I'm like, oh wow, I am broken. And this is only like the first month.

Dan Bova (3:44)

Hey, everyone, welcome to How Success Happens. I'm Dan Bova, writer and editor at entrepreneur.com.

And I want to be a little honest with you. Entrepreneur Media just had a three-day event in the mountains of Utah. I got home back to New York at midnight last night, feeling a little tired.

But then I thought about today's guest, and I realized, you don't know what tired is. Cole Brauer is the first American woman to race a sailboat solo, nonstop, and unassisted around the globe. She is now the co-skipper of off-road racing team Malaysia, and she has a new memoir out about her epic journey called First Light, which is out September 15th. Welcome, Cole.

Cole Brauer (4:34)

Thank you for having me. Wow, what an intro. Love it.

Dan Bova (4:39)

So we were talking before we started recording, you actually should be on a boat right now, but you elected to get on dry land to talk to entrepreneur.

Cole Brauer (4:51)

Yeah, I felt like maybe introducing you to all the pirates that I work with probably wasn't the best way to start. Maybe we get through this podcast together successfully, and then maybe I introduce you later. But I didn't want to scare you.

Dan Bova (5:04)

Yeah, okay. I am easily scared. You picked up on that correctly, so that's great.

So a lot of the people that I talked to on the show talk about their metaphorical journey in the business world, but there is nothing metaphorical about your journey. When did you realize this was something you wanted to do?