Ted Thornton
On Board Since September 2008
OCSC: Why do you sail?
TT: I love to share and experience the changes that people go through when they connect with the wind, the tide, the crew and the vessel. The change that navigates us all away from being concerned about the things in life that hold us back, and really are not that important, to being ‘at one’ with our craft and the team of people on board.
I live for the feeling of making landfall at night, seeing the millions of bright stars at night slowly dim against the city lights and realizing that my crew and I have been blessed with experiencing one of the true wonders of the world.
I truly sail to meet you, and people like you. To give to you the tools and skills given to me so you too can go on new adventures, discover new lands, meet new friends and participate in a sport that will change your life – It has never stopped changing mine.
OCSC: What do you enjoy about working at OCSC?
TT: OCSC is a special place, although it is a business it is more of a family. A family that looks out for one and other, a family who can laugh and play together, a rare family that have found the secret to always be at peace and have empathy for each other.
OCSC: What's your sailing background?
TT: I have sailed in many places around the world. Places in the Pacific like Japan and the West coast of America. Places in the Atlantic like racing across the Bay of Biscay skippering a 60’ Ketch on the European Tall Ships Race. Inhospitable places like taking a crew of novice sailors across the North Sea from Scotland to Norway in winds over 50 knots to places many people only dream of, like sailing up the coast of St Lucia where the wind is warm and the ocean is so inviting that one cannot help but lay down the anchor and dive with the fish that are as inquisitive as we are.
It all started nearly 20 years ago when I qualified as a Dingy Instructor and volunteered my time to teach Sea Scouts how to sail on an estuary in my Home town of Edinburgh, Scotland, under a bridge that looks just like our Golden Gate. As soon as I was given the basic starting tools and skills I started to pass them on and I have never stopped learning and sharing since.
OCSC: When you're not sailing, what can we find you doing?
TT: I love being with people, whether it is travelling and exploring new cultures, going out to the theatre and listening to live music, climbing a new mountain, walking along a coastal path or enjoying the new growth in my garden - people are always there with me to share the wonders of the world – and often a glass or two of Margaritas
OCSC: What are your top five sailing books of all time?
TT:
Ice Bird: The Classic Story of the First Single-Handed Voyage to Antarctica by David Lewis
David Lewis and his small yacht, Ice Bird, set sail from Sydney, Australia, on a search for high adventure. The voyage, full of drama, emotion, and pain, takes place in the least hospitable and most fascinating part of the earth, the Antarctic.
No one had ever sailed a yacht single-handed to Antarctica until David Lewis' attempt. Along the way, he would not touch land for more than fourteen weeks, facing mountainous seas, constant gales, snow storms, and freezing temperatures. Twice his small yacht was capsized and once it was dismasted 3,500 miles from help. His survival was a miracle of fortitude, skill, and some luck.
Ice Bird is one of the great true sea stories of the twentieth century. It is also a tale of human endurance, a testimony of one man's will to overcome almost anything and everything-physical and psychological-to stay alive.
Close to the Wind by Pete Goss
On 25 December, 1996, Pete Goss turned his 50-foot yacht Aqua Quorum back into a hurricane-force headwind to rescue French sailor Raphael Dinelli. He risked his life and any chance of winning one of the world's great yachting challenges--the Vendee Globe nonstop, single-handed, round-the-world race. Instead, he was awarded France's highest honor, the Legion d'Honneur.
Close to the Wind is Goss's story. He starts the book with his years of preparation as a merchant seaman and skipper on one of the 10 yachts in Chay Blyth's British Steel Challenge. He describes how he attempted to get sponsorship but was constantly rebuffed, and he discusses the hardships he faced--nights before business meetings spent sleeping on platforms because there was no money to spare for a room, for instance. The drama of the Vendee is recounted in detail, down to Goss's having to operate on his elbow without anesthetic and with only the assistance of faxed instructions. And will he race again? In fact, he plans to set off on in a 115-foot catamaran in The Race, December 2000
Gipsy Moth Circles the World: The story of the first solo navigation of our planet by Sir Francis Chichester
When 65-year-old Francis Chichester set sail on his solitary, eastward journey around the world in 1966, many believed he wouldn't return alive. But when the old man returned in his 53-foot ketch Gypsy Moth IV nine months later, he had made history's fastest circumnavigation. Gipsy Moth Circles the World was an international best-seller when it appeared in 1967. It inspired the first solo around-the-world race and remains a timeless testament to the spirit of adventure. The Sailor's Classics presents the best writing about the sea as observed from the perspective of a small boat under sail. The stories range from pensive cruises in sheltered waters to tales of endurance and high adventure and each one features an introduction from Jonathan Raban, whom The Guardian has called the finest writer afloat since Conrad.
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
The story follows the Walker children (John, Susan, Titty and Roger), who sail a borrowed dinghy named Swallow, and the Blackett children (Nancy and Peggy), who sail a dinghy named Amazon. The Walkers are staying at a farm near a lake during the school holidays and want to camp on an island in the lake; the Blacketts live in a house nearby. The children meet on the island which they call Wild Cat Island, and have a series of adventures, involving sailing, camping, fishing, exploration and piracy. The story, set in August 1929, includes a good deal of everyday Lakeland life from the farmers to charcoal burners working in the woods; canned meat, which the children fancifully refer to as pemmican, and ginger beer and lemonade, which they call grog, appear as regular food stuff for the campers; island life also allows for occasional references to the story of Robinson Crusoe. "Captain Flint", the Blackett's uncle James Turner and sharing the same name as a character in Treasure Island, appears in some ways to be modelled on Ransome himself.
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
This is the true story of Shackleton's amazing voyage in 1914 to cross the Antarctic overland. His ship, the Endurance, was beset by ice in early 1915 and then crushed ten months later. Shackleton and his men were 1200 miles away from the nearest outpost of humanity. The fact that the crew managed to survive, once Shackleton and five others made a perilous 800-mile journey to get help, is the stuff of legend. Lansing includes the perspectives of other crew members drawn from diaries, private papers and personal interviews. It is a fantastic story, brilliantly told.