The Art of Adventure

In 1968, nine sailors set off on the first solo nonstop race around the world. Only one crossed the finish line. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston returned aboard Suhaili to claim the Sunday Times Golden Globe - while behind him, one competitor faked his positions, another sailed to Tahiti instead of the finish line, and a third pushed his boat so hard it fell apart 1,200 miles from home.
Nearly fifty years later, Australian adventurer Don McIntyre decided to bring the race back. The rules were simple: sail around the world alone, without stopping, using only the technology available in 1968. No GPS. No satellite weather. No electronic instruments. Navigate by sextant, listen to music on cassette tapes, and if something breaks halfway round the world, fix it yourself or retire. Fewer than one in five who start the Golden Globe Race will finish it.
Don joins Hugh to tell the full story: from his boyhood obsession with Knox-Johnston to the moment he decided to recreate the race that started it all. He explains why the GGR has become the purest test in ocean racing, why its followers are more gripped by short daily text updates than live satellite feeds from other races, and why — in an age of autopilots, AI, and nineteen-million-euro campaigns — stripping everything away and leaving one person alone with the sea might be exactly what the world needs.
The 2026 Golden Globe Race starts from Les Sables-d'Olonne, France, on 6 September. Follow the race at goldengloberace.com. If you haven't seen it, the documentary The Voyage of Madman, covering the 2018 edition, is free on YouTube.
Arthur Beale is an official partner of the Golden Globe Race. We have produced the exclusive clothing and accessory collection for the race — rooted in a heritage of craftsmanship that reflects the resilience, determination, and spirit needed for true adventure. The collection is available to buy from arthurbeale.co.uk from May 2026.

In 1930, a 24-year-old Cambridge undergraduate named Gino Watkins led fourteen men to the east coast of Greenland on one of the most ambitious Arctic expeditions of the twentieth century. Their mission: to prove that aeroplanes could fly the Atlantic by mapping an unmapped coastline, discovering unknown mountain ranges, and manning a weather station in the middle of the Greenland ice sheet — through winter, in the dark, in winds of 130 miles per hour.
Gino Watkins never lost a man. He discovered the highest mountains in the Arctic, became the first non-Inuit to master the Greenlandic kayak, and is now regarded as the godfather of British kayaking. By twenty-five, he had led three major expeditions and earned the Polar Medal from the King. And then, on a solo hunting trip during his next expedition, he disappeared - leaving only his kayak and his trousers behind. He was twenty-five years old.
Nic Watkins, Gino's great-nephew and a filmmaker who has spent nearly a decade piecing together his story, joins Hugh to tell the full tale: the expeditions, the rescues, the family tragedies that shadowed Gino's short life, and what it was like to finally stand in the base camp where his great-uncle had lived, seeing in colour for the first time what he had only ever known in black and white.
Find out more about Nic's documentary Bridging the Ice at bridgingtheicedoc.com, or visit nicwatkins.com. The film is distributed by Chip Taylor Communications at chiptaylor.com.
Gino Watkins was himself an Arthur Beale customer - head to our website to see the telegram he sent from Greenland asking for an urgent restock of rope: arthurbeale.co.uk.

Pen Hadow appears by arrangement with DBA Speakers www.dbaspeakers.com
In 2003, Pen Hadow became the first person to trek solo and without resupply from Canada to the North Geographic Pole - 770 kilometres across shifting sea ice, open water, and temperatures of minus 40. It is a feat that has never been repeated, and almost certainly never will be.
But this is not the story of a single expedition. It is the story of a promise made to a dying father and fifteen years of refusing to give up.
Pen joins Hugh to tell the full story: from a childhood toughened by the nanny who once looked after Captain Scott's son, to the moment he fell through the ice without his immersion suit just days from the Pole. He describes the paralysing effect of cold on decision-making, the protocols for surviving a polar bear encounter while swimming between ice floes, and why the hardest challenge of all was not physical - but managing the wild swings of emotion that come with being completely alone.
He also explains what his years on the Arctic ice revealed about the disappearing sea ice, a discovery that has defined the second half of his life, and one he now shares with audiences around the world.
Pen Hadow's book Solo is out now.

In 1845, Sir John Franklin sailed from England with 129 men and two of the Royal Navy's finest ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, to chart the last unmapped stretch of the Northwest Passage. They were expected back within three years. They were never seen again.
What followed became one of the greatest mysteries in the history of exploration. Scattered bones on a frozen island. Inuit testimony of starvation and cannibalism. A hastily scrawled note in the margins of an Admiralty form. And a Victorian public that refused to believe its heroes could have met such an end.
Russell Potter, one of the world's foremost Franklin scholars, joins Hugh to unpick nearly 180 years of searching, speculation, and discovery. He explains what we actually know, what we can only guess at, and why the mystery endures. Both ships have now been found, one remarkably preserved beneath the Arctic waters, but what lies within them has yet to be fully explored.
From the fatal decision to abandon ship, to the race between Lady Franklin and the press, to the amateur sleuths and satellite hunters still searching today - this is a story that refuses to give up its secrets. We ask why the Franklin Expedition continues to grip us, what it reveals about the nature of obsession, and whether the answer might still be out there, waiting to be found.
Russell Potter's book Finding Franklin: The Untold Story of a 165-Year Search is out now.

In 1869, John Wesley Powell set off down the Colorado River with nine men, four wooden boats, and no idea what lay ahead. The Grand Canyon, 300 miles of unmapped canyon, unknown rapids, and sheer rock walls, was the last blank space on the map of the continental United States.
Author John F Ross joins Hugh to tell the full story: how a one-armed Civil War veteran turned geologist became the first person to navigate the entire length of the Grand Canyon, racing against starvation through 360 rapids in boats that were entirely wrong for the job.
From losing a third of their food supply on the very first day, to the desertion of three desperate men - it is a thrilling snapshot into a moment in time. We ask what Powell's extraordinary journey revealed about the American West, about leadership under impossible pressure, and about what it means to push into territory where no map can help you.
John F Ross’ book The Promise of the Grand Canyon is out now.
The Art of Adventure is brought to you by Arthur Beale, outfitters to sailors, adventurers and explorers for nearly 500 years. Find out more at arthurbeale.co.uk.