How a Drifting Sailboat Led Us to ‘Women and the Wind’

While casually scrolling the internet this morning, we came across an interesting social media post — a request for information about a seemingly abandoned boat out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The post itself was only a couple of days old, but the accompanying images were taken in 2022. Our curiosity piqued, we began looking into the background of the photos and the callout for information.

We expect many of you will go down the rabbit hole of trying to find out what happened to the crew, and when. There are a few suggestions that the boat is an Allied Seawind, and that the crew were likely rescued and the boat left abandoned. But, as we all know, we can’t rely solely on social media to give us the facts. The photos may not be clear enough to decipher the boat’s registration number, but commenters are leaning toward “UT 02572C.” If you do know anything, or discover anything, please let us know. We, of course, will share anything we learn.

In the meantime, the other thing that caught our attention was the origin of the photos, Women and the Wind — a project, a documentary and a philosophy of helping others in certain endeavors.

In 2022, three women embarked on a 30-day voyage across the North Atlantic Ocean. The map shows them sailing along the coast from St. Augustine, Florida, to North Carolina, before jumping off at Beaufort on June 27, 2022. Their boat was Mara Noka, a James Wharram design Narai MkI built in Whitby, England, and launched in 1974. They were on a mission to document the prevalence and the path of plastics in the ocean. What they also found was the raw energy and emotion that comes to the fore when confronted with the magnificence of nature. Their journey has been documented in a feature that is now traveling the independent film festival circuits.

We’re only a short way in and are already captivated by what we feel is a unique perspective of crossing an ocean aboard a sailboat. We’re looking forward to watching the rest of the film and will tell you more about that soon. In the meantime, perhaps among us all we can find out about the boat pictured above.

If you can’t wait for us and want to know more about Women and the Wind, follow this link.