land and sea: my commitment to both
Work at Snipes Farm & Education Center (SFEC)
My work at Snipes Farm & Education Center focused on strengthening community food systems through regenerative agriculture, financial sustainability, and education. As a board member and interim operational leader, I helped guide the organization through a period of growth by aligning mission, programming, and revenue, while expanding food access and environmental education. This work reinforced a core belief that land stewardship is inseparable from community resilience, and that lasting impact requires disciplined execution, transparency, and measurable outcomes.
Conservation Work with World Wide Fund for Nature in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
In Uganda, I worked with WWF partners on conservation efforts connected to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, supporting biodiversity protection through improved agricultural management, specifically coffee, in surrounding communities. By strengthening livelihoods outside protected areas, this work helped reduce pressure on endangered habitats, including critical mountain gorilla ecosystems. The experience clarified that conservation cannot be separated from human systems—and that environmental restoration depends on aligning ecology, economics, and local stewardship.
Discovering the Ocean as a Living System
My decision to enter ocean racing was driven by a desire to learn directly—by placing myself inside the system rather than observing it from a distance. Living at sea for extended periods revealed the ocean as a dynamic, living force that shapes weather, climate, and life far beyond the horizon. This immersion accelerated personal growth while sharpening my understanding of environmental limits, resilience, and responsibility. The ocean is not an abstraction; it is a regulator of planetary health, and being embedded within it has fundamentally reshaped how I think about restoration, risk, and long-term stewardship.
Sailing in the Clipper race, we work with SeaKeepers in research projects that contribute to the marine ecosystem programming. From mapping the sea floor to cetacean surveys, each of our boats have been contributing useful data for marine science.
At Airlie Beach, I also had chance to connect with Reef Catchment and a sea grass cultivation project. An underappreciated system globally, sea grass produces more oxygen than the rainforest, captures CO2, and fixes nitrogen to the soil from agriculture run off.
A Temporary Break to Connect with Silver Wattle
Between these major commitments, I also refreshed some knowledge by to spending time learning from regenerative agriculture practitioners connected to Silver Wattle in Australia. This pause created space to deepen my understanding of soil health, land restoration, and long-term ecological cycles. It also served as a reset—an opportunity to challenge assumptions, absorb new knowledge, and recalibrate where future effort, research, and funding could have the greatest impact.
Working Greening Australia, I worked with local environmental efforts in tree planting in former sheep grazing fields. The importance of wattle trees to the birds and wildlife as rest stops and shade is of vital importance in much of Australia.
Responsibility as a Funded Professional
Accepting financial support carries responsibility beyond participation or performance. As a funded professional, my obligation is to learn rigorously, document honestly, and share insights that extend beyond my own journey. That means reporting progress and setbacks with transparency, connecting sponsors and supporters to credible work on land and at sea, and serving as an ambassador for stewardship grounded in experience rather than abstraction. Funding enables access to rare environments and perspectives; my responsibility is to ensure that access translates into knowledge, accountability, and measurable contribution toward environmental restoration and long-term impact.
funding - supporters, sponsors, and partners
Why I look for sponsors?
This journey exists because I believe in it. I have seen the capabilities and successes of local and grassroot efforts around the world. I have also seen the need to showcase the important work these individuals and groups are doing on a global scale. This goes beyond what you watch on CNN, read about in National Geographic, or “Like” or “Heart” on social media.
Funding is not an accessory to what I’m doing—it’s the infrastructure that makes it possible. This post is about why I actively seek supporters, sponsors, and partners, what I bring to those relationships, and where I hope this work leads.
My background in social impact - successes, status quo, failures
Sponsors, backers, supporters, donors, and partners - Whatever you want to call it, however you want to categorize it, whatever your feelings about it. It is what makes change happen. I started my career in corporate financial advisory - a nomenclature of the “consulting” umbrella. I’ve worked on engagements involving the World Bank, Fortune 100’s, and private high net worth individuals. There was always a social impact group, triple bottom line, charity, or sustainability piece to the equation. These parts of the financial and operational were the aspects of business that connected my personal interest in building a better society, a way to connect organization with the community customers served, and progressing/innovating our place on this earth.
I transitioned my professional skillset toward this focus as I begin working with organizations such as WWF and Snipes Farm & Education Center. I even applied to jobs at global and national environmental non-profits. I succeeded in doing the work. Applying the same financial and operational knowledge adjusted to meet the needs of these organizations. I became better at understanding the “Think Global, Act Local” mantra. But I failed at the organizational structure in larger structures. I wanted the impact and action, not the office politics or the professional titles. I also didn’t fit the mold and look often associated with these organizations. So I went at it my way as an entrepreneur focused on results and not image.
Why do I chose to work with sponsors?
Working this way makes it possible for me to stay focused on the work. But this also means I need to reorganize and readjust my financial stability. I don’t have the cushion of a 401K or established retirement plan. I couldn’t expect community non-profits to pay for expensive hourly rates. I reorganized my metrics to focus on the process and not the goal. Helping others develop better systems for their success.
More importantly, I needed to build relationships with the right sponsors to turn a solo effort into a shared mission. When someone backs this journey, they are not just funding miles sailed—they are enabling access, learning, documentation, and connection across some of the most remote parts of the planet. Dollars from sponsors support direct action, my commitment and time, and what I found to be the most environmentally friendly way to continue reaching these remote parts of the world. It also helps me keep learning new skills, bringing in personal joy, and approaching challenges in different ways.
I don’t see sponsorship as compromise. I see it as collaboration.
Sponsors allow me to:
Extend the reach of this journey beyond personal storytelling
Share real observations from the ocean, not filtered narratives
Build continuity—so learning compounds instead of resetting each leg
In return, sponsors gain something rare: sustained, first-hand exposure to the open ocean through someone embedded in it, not visiting it briefly.
Responsibilities as a funded professional - reporting, updating, connecting, ambassador
Being funded comes with obligations. I take those seriously. Each dollar given is treated with respect. It’s hard-earned money from individuals. It’s mission critical for organizations. It’s trust in me to deliver at my best.
Part of that respect requires these tasks:
Reporting: Clear accounting of where resources go and what they enable.
Updating: Regular, honest communication—not just highlights, but realities.
Connecting: Introducing people, ideas, and opportunities across disciplines and geographies.
Ambassadorship: Representing supporters with integrity, professionalism, and care, whether at sea or ashore.
Support is not passive. It creates a duty to show up prepared, transparent, and accountable.
Breakdown of cost
The sailing half of this endeavor is the new part. It’s my way to reach remote places. I’m in the learning stage of sponsorship with myself and delivery of action as the product. I’ve stepped aside from advising clients for hourly rates or their grant writing. I am now asking you, the supporter, to directly contribute to the effort of social impact as an extension of a shared vision and mission.
To give an idea of a cost breakdown in using Clipper Race as a platform to learn, impact, and influence (using a metric all consultants know - rate/hr):
Fee per Leg: ~$10,000 USD
Number of average days per leg: 20 day or equivalent 480 Hours (i.e. 24*20)
Equivalent support dollar per hour: $10,000/480 = $20.83/hr
This $20.83/hr supports the following:
Fees - paying professional skipper & first mate, maintenance team, maintenance equipment, port management, food, and rest,
Insurance,
Training & personal safety equipment.
In return, sponsors gain something rare: sustained, first-hand exposure to the open ocean through someone embedded in it, not visiting it briefly.
and where I want to take this
This $20.83/hr supports the following:
To provide a clean and safe environment for all.
To encourage outdoor engagement, especially the next generation.
I want to finish this race. When I finish the race, I will continue developing my impact work. I will continue doing it through reaching remote destinations to affect the impact. I also will continue developing my seamanship skills. This includes certifications, technical skills, maintenance skills, and leadership skills.
This journey is not an endpoint. It is a platform.
Long-term, I want to help push attention and inquiry toward:
Open-ocean research that doesn’t stop at accessible waters
The remotest of remote regions, where data is sparse but stakes are high
Cross-sector collaboration between sailors, scientists, educators, and funders
Attract others to join in making impact
The ocean connects everything. Understanding it better—especially where it is least understood—is work that deserves patience, partnership, and sustained commitment.
If you are supporting this journey, you are already part of that effort.
Clipper Race realities: good, bad, Not so ugly
The Clipper Race stands as one of the most challenging and inspiring amateur ocean yacht races in the world, even recently winning the Event of the Year in the British Yachting Awards. While it captures the imagination with its global scope and the promise of adventure, the reality of race sailing in the Clipper Race is defined by grit, resilience, and constant adaptation to harsh conditions.
Physical and Mental Demands
Sailing in the Clipper Race is far from a leisurely pursuit. Crews face relentless physical labor—hoisting/changing sails on the consistent, navigating treacherous waters, and maintaining the vessel’s life system. Sleep is scarce and often broken into short naps, leaving sailors battling fatigue. The mental strain is equally intense, with stress from unpredictable weather, constant vigilance, and the pressure to perform within a tight-knit team. Say “goodbye” to the classic 24 hour schedule and “hello” to the 48 hour life with never a deep sleep available except the one day of galley duty. It isn’t the day-to-day but the week-to-week endurance of the race that wears you out. Most other races you endure a week. Clipper you endure weeks. If you are not willing to eat the same food, live and sleep in the same barebones cabin, or contend with the smells of sweat, salt, and dirt, then Clipper will be challenging. Be ready to give up any sense of luxury.
Harsh and Unpredictable Conditions
The ocean is the ultimate variable in the Clipper Race. Competitors endure storms, rough seas, and extreme weather swings that test their seamanship and resolve. Temperatures vary widely, sometimes plunging to near-freezing, other times soaring under tropical sun. Salty spray and damp fabric are constant companions, adding to the discomfort. For me, prepping for a year long voyage means packing minimally through the different seasons. Any social media content of men and women dressed in sexy outfits is simply that… social media sales. Instead, you will just be wet. All. The. Time.
Team Dynamics and Leadership
Unlike professional crews, many participants in the Clipper Race come from amateur backgrounds. Success depends heavily on teamwork, communication, and strong leadership. Personalities, conflicts, and fatigue can strain relationships, but overcoming these challenges forges a unique bond. Every crew member must take on multiple roles, relying on trust and adaptability. Leave your ego at home. There is no place for it on the boat.
The Rewarding Impact
Despite—or perhaps because of—the hardships, sailing in the Clipper Race is profoundly rewarding. It offers a rare opportunity to connect deeply with nature’s power, push personal limits, and experience the open ocean’s vastness. For me, the race emphasis a commitment to myself - injecting purpose, turning the challenging journey into a platform for environmental advocacy, youth outdoor engagement, and a boundary pushing life. Come with personal intentions. Act with empathy, kindness, and self awareness of skills. Leave with confidence, a connected global community, and friendships that can last a lifetime.
Conclusion
The realities of race sailing in the Clipper Race extend far beyond the romanticized image of yachting adventure. It demands stamina, mental toughness, and cohesive teamwork against some of the toughest maritime conditions.
In participating, every person needs to understand their motivation to pursue such a difficult endeavor. Bucket list, career change, or skills development for the next phase. Whatever you choose, it can deliver it for you. What you put into it will be what you get out of it.
Personally, it offers unparalleled personal growth and the chance to contribute meaningfully to global discussions on ocean sustainability and our relationship with the outdoors. This is a race where resilience meets impact.
How I Went From Never Sailing to Crossing Oceans: My Journey to Sailing Around the World
You’re reading this because you’ve been following my journey across the oceans—or because you’re searching for what it takes to sail around the world. Maybe you’re wondering how a complete beginner learns to sail, or whether someone with no experience can really start a circumnavigation. The reality is just to commit. In our limited time with personal and professional lives, it just takes the desire to commit and embrace being a beginner.
My story might surprise you.
Less than six months before joining an ocean-racing yacht, I had sailed only once 25+ years before.
So how did I go from a childhood fantasy to actually sailing across the Atlantic, navigating storms, and training to complete a round-the-world voyage?
Here’s how the journey began.
A Childhood Dream of Exploration
I grew up in a Taiwanese immigrant family in Tennessee, learning English on stories of exploration and adventure. I spent hours reading National Geographic, dreaming about remote places. One destination captured my imagination more than any other: Easter Island. I knew I wanted to go. I just didn’t know how to get there. Possibly by boat was my only thought.
That dream planted a seed early. I didn’t know it then, but it would guide the trajectory of my life—and eventually my decision to sail around the world.
My First Real Encounter with the Ocean
I moved to Los Angles for University, where a mandatory Physical Education course introduced me to sailing. We sailed from Long Beach to Catalina Island, and something awakened inside me: maybe seasickness.
Even though I didn’t have the money, knowledge, or time to pursue sailing, I knew I had touched something important—something I would return to one day.
The Long Detour Before the Ocean Called Me Back
After school, I moved to New York. The real life began quickly. Work, saving money, meeting new friends and partners. Still, the idea of sailing didn’t leave. I even researched sailing classes at the Marina in Battery Park where I worked, but then 9/11 happened, and life took a sharp turn.
My work required constant travel—Central America, Southeast Asia, Africa. Over time, I became comfortable being the outsider, the observer. In a way, work let me live pieces of the adventurous life I’d always imagined… but the sea was still missing.
A Leap to Europe—and a Step Closer to the Dream
I love New York City. It’s where I became an adult. It was the place that I became me. But I knew I didn’t want to stay in New York forever.
So I took a leap: I moved to Madrid for business school at IE. The friends and networks I built there would later become part of the support system behind my global sailing journey.
Never having worked in South America, after graduating, I moved to Chile through the Start-Up Chile program. And that was where the childhood dream resurfaced: I finally set foot on Easter Island. Reaching that goal taught me something crucial—
Dreams don’t disappear. They wait.
Exploring the World Up Close
But sailing didn’t come back yet. My post-MBA work took me deep into remote regions—often the same kinds of places adventurers and sailors visit while circumnavigating the world.
I worked on Coca-Cola’s “last mile” distribution projects in Central America, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
Looking to transition to environmental restoration, I transitioned into coffee, leading to agriculture.
That led to long-term projects with WWF Switzerland and Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, supporting coffee farming communities near Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and endangered Mountain Gorillas.
Agriculture took root, and I began working on community farming, bringing my financial acumen to support regenerative agriculture transitions in support of food security programs and youth outdoor engagement.
These experiences taught me how interconnected our planet is—land, people, water, but not yet oceans.
The Turning Point: Why I Returned to the Sea
In recent years, changes in USDA federal funding for agriculture pushed me to re-evaluate my direction. At the same time, my concern for the oceans, climate change, and marine ecosystems grew stronger.
Then the old dream of the ocean resurfaced—louder this time. Reading journals I’ve kept since I was 8 years old since that Easter Island piece in National Geographic, I knew it was time.
I started researching:
How to sail around the world
Beginner sailing courses
Whether it’s possible to sail across oceans with no experience
That research led me to sign up to ASA 101, asking a gym member with a gym bag made of old sails, and learning about Clipper Round the World Race, one of the only global sailing programs where complete beginners can train to cross oceans safely.
And I realized:
This was my call to adventure.
Crossing the Threshold: Becoming a Beginner Again
I said yes.
I trained intensively.
I learned everything from navigation to night watches to ocean safety.
Six months after touching a sailboat for the first time in decades, I was crossing the Atlantic with Team UNICEF—something I once believed was impossible.
Today, I continue my journey across the world’s oceans, not only to fulfill a dream but to represent Taiwan, raise awareness about ocean health, and show others that you can start from zero and still sail across the world.
Why I Share This Story
If you’re researching:
How to start sailing
How to sail around the world
Whether a beginner can cross an ocean
How to chase a long-forgotten dream
I want my story to be proof that it is possible.
You don’t need to grow up on a boat.
You don’t need a lifetime of experience.
You need a dream, a decision, and the courage to step into the unknown.
This is my journey—
and it’s only just beginning.
What I’ve learned in six months
Six months into my sailing journey and it’s been a wild one. The basic metrics alone even surprised me. 11,186 Nautical Miles covered just in crossing the Atlantic twice! A goal that many sailors wait a lifetime to accomplish as a bucket list item, I’ve done it in my first sailing venture. Additionally, the amount of financial support I have received in addition to my self-funding. I am very grateful to all my supporters and crew team in all of this. This truly has been a spectacular in pivoting my career to include sailing and oceans into my already meaningful work in climate action and youth outdoor engagement.
In this brief update, I just want to share some of the sailing and non-sailings thoughts and learnings that has been re-enforced for me.
1) Supporters and Fundraising:
In setting out on this venture, I truly believed that if you move forward with what you want with true intentions, people will listen. People will think. People will believe. And People will support. But it takes your own actions to start. Seeking supporters is not an easy task and it is one I take seriously. I treat my supporters with the utmost respect and am very mindful of their contributions to my effort. Whether it’s $1 to $5,000, I will never use the money frivolously. Your contributions go to supporting the launch of something unique and thus will always be used to move the needle forward.
My hope is that every and each one of my supporters are inspired by my actions and that this inspiration also takes them toward a new step for themselves. I would appreciate hearing about you and learn how my actions encouraged you to pursue something meaningful yet difficult or challenging.
2) Teamwork
For many of my past competitive endeavors, I’ve always been a single player. Being on a 23 meter/70 foot boat forces you to change your paradigms. Adjusting to team work was not an easy endeavor for me. Not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because of the pacing. Working with people with and without sailing experience was one component of the challenge. Coming from a strong background in adventure and outdoor sports, I found parts of sailing easy to learn and others a completely new challenge. The uncomfortableness of the learning curve was made less steep through teammates coaching me and vice versa.
Another positive component is my professional history working internationally and with a multitude of cultural backgrounds. But even having that, adjusting to a life on a boat with a multicultural crew still took time. Close quarters, 48 hour shift schedules, and repetitive food can make anyone a little grumpy, tired, and frustrated over a course of weeks. Once again, your teammates will be the one that can see your struggle or joy at any moment of the day. So treating them with kindness even in the worst of times will only serve you well. Taking the individual situation out of the equation serves the benefit of the team. Personalities are multitudes, you won’t get along with them all, and you don’t have to manage them all. As always, the only one that you need manage is your own. Move along your bad days and you will get to the good days.
3) Engage and Disengage
Ocean racing is a constant. You don’t necessarily get a full rest. When you get a chance to reenergize, either from being social, going to sleep, or listening to music. Take it. In tight quarters, privacy is near non-existent. You learn to not mind others business and will wish for the same thing for yourself.
The larger lesson is simply the classic: Rest. While I wish I could be my best at every moment and work to give my best when ON, the reality is one little thing can keep you from that. Making time and space for yourself is not just for yourself. It is for the good to the team as well. Without it, the build up of frustration, resentment, anger, judgement and every other non-beneficial emotion just rises up. So learning when and how to engage and disengage quickly is paramount. As always… Learn to “Let Go”.
For the most part, many of you know this, so writing them down is simply a reminder to you. But for the younger audience who push toward their own challenges, it’s the speed of self reminder to become habit that I encourage you to master. I skill I am still work on. And thus I continue along this journey.
the why
It’s easy to say that I am chasing a childhood dream in circumnavigating the world by sail. It’s also easy to say I am wanting to change the narrative of my life after personal setbacks. And it’s easy to just say I want to do something else. What doesn’t get told is the hard work that goes into this type of change. The reason why I chose to sail for Team UNICEF. Nor does the full story of how quickly transitions can be yet still the journey be long.
So here is the brief timeline:
May 2, 2025 - I learned about the Clipper Race Around the World
May 5, 2025 - Submitted my application
May 6, 2025 - Interviewed with Clipper
May 7, 2025 - Accepted to join the Race
May 8/9 - Decided to commit
June 20, 2025 - Flew to UK to begin training
August 31, 2025 - Departed on first race of Leg 1
Sept 14, 2025 - Waiting to depart for race 2 of Leg 1
Reads like madness to go from non-sailor to ocean racer in less than 3 months time. It makes sense only to me and that’s what is important.
While this being a childhood dream, I didn’t know how to make it a reality. I didn’t know where to start. I literally signed up to ASA 101 just to get my feet wet and fortuitously ran into a former racer in my gym. In our conversation, he mentioned the charity sponsorship and social impact component of the Clipper Race and my background might be interesting for the race team.
I did the research, I watched the videos, and I took an assessment of where I was in my personal life, family life, career, and what direction I wanted to take. I didn’t want to leave a career in social impact. Yet I wanted to pursue a personal goal. I had no idea how to fund this or commit to this, but the timing felt right.
While I was personally fulfilled, in a great place in my life, found joy in the work I did, I also felt stagnant and disappointed in how society was progressing. To see, hear, and feel the disenchantment, the divide, and anger that has become the norm in current world climate made me looking for a different vision. To tell the story of better things. To bring to reality of myself and for myself that things can change. To demonstrate to others that our actions can bring enchantment and joy for ourselves and others.
I’ve chosen the hard route. To chase an insane childhood dream to circumnavigate, be the first Taiwanese to do so, to raise financial support in doing this and represent as a Team UNICEF racer. One difficult task on top each already difficult and heavy task. But it makes sense to me.
Somehow one didn’t fully fit without the other. This is still part of a bigger puzzle. The pieces are coming together. And what I know now is simply where I sit, the actions I took, and the future it holds is simply preparation meeting opportunity.
I want it to inspire you to take that leap. It isn’t easy work. There is no guarantee. You simply have to put in the hard work, take the bruises, and work at it. That preparation will meet opportunity for you too.
This is the “why”. I am doing it for me. And I hope it moves the needle for you.
Where to begin?
It’s been officially two months since I relocated to Portsmouth and Gosport, UK and just over three months since I sign on to do the Clipper Sail Around the World Race. I’ve honestly haven’t had much chance to fully absorb the effects of the decision I made. I only know of the focus that it has brought back to my life in respect to learning something completely new, from individuals of different ages, skills, experience, and backgrounds. I’ve made new friends quickly and built trusts easily by giving my own trust.
I’m tremendously excited to begin the race after what feels like a year of training but in reality only really 23 total days. The intensity of something new. The excitement of being ignorant and willing to learn. The appreciation for the ability to accept, adapt, and change. All of it I’ve had little time to fully take in.
Now that I am two weeks away from Race Start, I’m finally taking the opportunity to slow down just enough to reflect. Much of this future writing will be ad hoc. Capturing the moment of great experiences, wonders I see, and opportunities I will encounter. Then it will be a chance to recollect the memory. Evaluate what it means - in the moment and at a later stage.
What will it become? A narrative of stories? A lesson in meaning? Or simply a journal of emotions? Only time will tell. What I have in front of me is something I have dreamed about for years. I simply want to live in the present for this one chapter of my life.