The Big Blue is a 65 minute feature length documentary about Canadian writer Charlie Wilkins and his 53 day, 5000 km voyage across the Atlantic Ocean with 15 crewmates aboard Big Blue. This is a 9 minute version will provide you with an introduction to Charlie Wilkins and the challenge he faced. Both this short film and the feature-length documentary were directed by Kelly Saxberg. Charlie Wilkins’ book, Little Ship of Fools, which is based on the voyage of Big Blue, was published in September 2013.
You may also be interested in our Big Blue Row channel which includes a series of short videos that document some of the stages of the row, introducing the team and the concept.
Angela Madsen died in June 2020 while attempting a solo row from Los Angeles to Honolulu.
The Big Blue
Charles Wilkins is a well-known Canadian author whose books often read like a documentary film. This is the dramatic and hilarious story of risk and survival, as well as the importance of our connections to the planet, on a human-powered journey across the ocean. In addition to Little Ship of Fools, he is the author of, among other books, Walk to New York, Paddle to the Amazon, A wilderness Called Home and In the Land of the Long Fingernails. Little Ship of Fools is the book he researched while rowing across the Atlantic with 15 other rowers. Wilkins takes the reader along for seven weeks of rationed food, extreme sleep deprivation, and life-threatening seas—as well as sharks, whales, and an ever-disintegrating boat. Little Ship of Fools is a rich and fascinating story of courage, community, the importance of risk in our lives, and the resilience and depth of the human spirit.
Suggested Reading for The Big Blue
Books by Charles Wilkins
Little Ship of Fools: Sixteen Rowers, One Improbable Boat, Seven Tumultuous Weeks on the Atlantic, Vancouver: Greystone Books, (2013)
In the Land of the Long Fingernails, Vancouver: Greystone, (2011)
Walk to New York, Toronto: Viking Canada: (2004)
A wilderness Called Home, Toronto: Penguin Canada (2002)
Paddle to the Amazon, Toronto: Prima Lifestyles, (1992)