Welcome to YARNS: Conversations With Cruisers. My name is James Frederick and I am currently solo-circumnavigating the world onboard my vintage sloop. I departed Los Angeles in 2021 and have sailed close to 9000 nm through the Hawaiian Islands, French Polynesia, American Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand. I realized I wanted to document other cruisers stories whom I met in far flung anchorages and busy ports. I set up my GoPro camera, hit record and we sit and have a conversation about their lives as cruising sailors. This series is available as both the native video format on my YouTube channel as well as an audio podcast. I don't plan these interviews, they happen when I meet interesting people. I spent 9 months collecting interviews before releasing the first episode. For the most part these are sailors who do not share their lives online in the same way that I do, which is precisely why I wanted to document some of their stories. Most of these sailors think of themselves as "Ordinary" but their lives are extraordinary, as you will soon learn. I hope you enjoy listening to this series as much as I enjoy making it.