Jean Peccoud

Former biomedical engineering professor exploring how humans make responsible decisions under irreducible uncertainty—when stakes are existential, and outcomes resist prediction.

Newsletter

Update from Victoria

ADAK reached Victoria in September after more than 9,000 nautical miles. The 2026 expedition is over, and Ice Frontiers is entering a new phase.

Letters from the Edge

Getting Back on Trail

After the plan I had for the boat did not work, I have three options: sell her, operate her commercially, or sail for sport or pleasure. Each path forces me to ask why I bought her.

Letters from the Edge

Going off trail

On a mountain above Dutch Harbor, I realized I had lost the trail. I had spent months doing the same thing with my sailboat, looking for a way to build a business around it without operating it commercially. There wasn't one. On the unexpected relief of accepting a problem with no solution.

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Logbook

Is that it?

Last week, I reached Victoria. It felt like a failure.

Letters from the Dock

Sailing Prince William Sound

Prince William Sound looked pristine: clear water, empty anchorages, immense mountains and glaciers. It took a whale hundreds of miles later to make me wonder what we hadn’t seen — and whether I would know the difference between a healthy wilderness and a diminished one.

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Logbook

Good Night

Letters from the Dock

Sailing off the Chart in LeConte Bay

Near LeConte Glacier in southeast Alaska, the chart stopped describing the world around us. What began as a navigation problem became a question about uncertainty, judgment, and why we sometimes look for permission when we already have enough information to decide.

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Logbook

Running Home

In Yakutat, refueling was the easiest it had been since New Caledonia. Insert a card, fill the tanks, leave. It should have been a relief. Instead it felt like something ending — and the ending had started long before the dock, and it had started in me.

Letters from the Dock

Sailing Icy Bay Alaska: Elusive Fronts

Icy Bay was an aspirational waypoint when I left New Zealand. When we finally sailed into it, we discovered a landscape so new—and changing so quickly—that the glaciers seemed to defend their own fronts with wreckage.

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Logbook

The Uncertainty of Others

Other people expose us to uncertainty. We usually think of that as a risk to manage. But the same uncertainty that makes disappointment possible may also be what allows a relationship to transform us.

Letters from the Dock

Sailing Focused

'The only thing I regret about sailing is not stopping in more places,' someone told me while I was planning the passage to Alaska.

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Logbook

It's Lonely

Somewhere between a glacier and a bridge in Alaska, I met a rancher from Montana. He asked what the project costs me. I said it's very lonely. He asked, 'Are you writing about that?' So here I am.

Voices from the Frontier

More Whales Than Boats

Samuel Peccoud first expedition to coastal Alaska. He reflects on seeing more whales than boats, standing his first overnight watch, and questioning what it means to explore wilderness responsibly.

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Logbook

Silence

Letters from the Dock

Do I Need a Yacht Management Software?

Managing a modern expedition yacht eventually outgrew my memory, spreadsheets, and homemade databases. Looking at yacht management software through the eyes of a former LIMS developer taught me that the real challenge isn’t software—it’s deciding how you want to run your boat.

Logbook

We're a Couple

"We're basically a couple now," Charly said. "Not that kind of couple." After months crossing the Pacific from New Zealand to Alaska, I began to think he was right. Offshore sailing may be the fastest course in long-term relationships — compromise, repair, and paying attention before the alarm.

Logbook

Frontier State

For 45 days, Alaska was a point on the map: the place where the boat would stop and we could finally sleep. Then we anchored in Makushin Bay, and the miles stopped being the problem. The closer we got, the more the place expanded, and every mountain asked the same question.

Letters from the Dock

Maintenance Range

Nothing broke catastrophically. Over 6,000 miles the boat just slowly consumed itself — until the wear, not our ambition, decided we'd turn south.

Letters from the Dock Featured

What is a skipper?

What separates a skipper from a captain, an owner, or the crew? The one who holds final responsibility for the boat — and decides to take it on.

Letters from the Dock

Living on Credit

We made it to Alaska. I felt deeply happy for about four hours. Then the feeling stopped. On arrival, exhaustion, and settling the debts contracted during a long offshore passage.

Logbook

Landfall Exhaustion

After 45 days to cross the largest ocean. The shore should feel like relief. It doesn't. The engine is whispering, the body wants stillness, and the Aleutians don't welcome anyone.

Letters from the Dock

Fuel Management Offshore

Learning to manage fuel is a core part of flight training. Offshore sailing has no equivalent discipline — and on a 1,800nm passage from Noumea to Majuro, I found out what that costs.

Logbook

The Uncertain Cost of Commitment

Starting a company, raising children, getting married, or sailing across an ocean all share something in common: their true costs cannot be known in advance. Commitment begins where transactions end.

Letters from the Dock

New Zealand to Alaska Sailing Routes

Sailing from New Zealand to Alaska means navigating across hemispheres, seasons, and weather systems. We chose an unusual route through New Caledonia and the Marshall Islands to leave tropical waters quickly and reach the North Pacific storm track before hurricane season intensified.

Logbook

Exodus

I wrote this years ago, on a different journey. It came back to me crossing a different kind of desert, at six knots.