Adventurers

Linda Greenlaw

Bill Thompson

Thirty years ago today, November 1, 1991, off the New England coast the six-man crew of the sword fishing boat the Andrea Gail were fighting, and losing, their battle with what has come to be known as The Perfect Storm.

A close friend of those six was fellow swordfishing boat captain Linda Greenlaw.

If you’ve seen the 2000 movie The Perfect Storm, Greenlaw was played by actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

Greenlaw eventually wrote three books of her own, including a 2004 called All Fishermen Are Liars.

So here now, from 2004, Linda Greenlaw.

Linda Greenlaw will be 61 next month. She is still a sword-fishing boat captain, and lives in Maine.

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Robert Ballard

Terri Irwin

Bill Thompson
Photo: Eva Rinaldi

In the ’90s and early 2000s, one of the most popular TV personalities in the world was Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.

He happily and enthusiastically introduced his viewers to some of the world’s most exotic, and dangerous, wildlife.

Ultimately it was a fatal encounter with a stingray that prematurely ended his life in 2006. Steve was just 44.

Photo: Richard Giles

The following year his widow Terri published a book called Steve And Me. And that’s when I met her.

So here now, from 2007, Terri Irwin,

Terri Irwin and the couple’s two children continue to operate Australia Zoo.

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Bertrand Piccard & Brian Jones

Bill Thompson
Photo: © Raimond Spekking

Hot air balloons, or lighter-than-air craft, have been around for centuries. But it wasn’t until March 1999 that humans were able to circumnavigate the entire world in a single hot air balloon flight.

The two guys who did it were British balloonist Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist.

They co-piloted a massive balloon called Breitling Orbiter 3, which launched March 1st,1999 from Switzerland and landed in Egypt 19 days and 27-thousand-900 miles laer.

I met them just eight months later, after they wrote a book about their adventure.

So here now, from November 1999, Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard.

Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones remain active in ballooning.

And in 2016, Piccard was part of the first round-the-world solar flight in history, piloting the Solar Impulse 2 on one leg of its historic flight.