Jean Peccoud

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

Letters from the Dock

How Big is The Pacific?

A 6,000-nautical-mile voyage from New Zealand barely reaches Alaska — a distance that spans Two maps reveal the true scale of the Pacific.

Letters from the Edge Featured

Living with a Changing Climate

An invitation to share your personal experience of living with climate change — moments of loss, conflict, adaptation, and renewal. In your own voice, in any format.

Paid-members only

Logbook

Aleutians - Insurance - Health

A possible detour through the Aleutians, an unexpectedly successful LinkedIn post, a tense moment with the insurance underwriter, closing the GenoFAB chapter, and a health check before departure

Letters from the Dock

My Pursuit of Happiness

A prompt from the New York Times made me ask myself: What does the pursuit of happiness really mean?

Letters from the Edge

Le Glacier du Tour

The Glacier du Tour was the first glacier I ever set foot on in 1979. A recent photograph made me realize that the icy world that shaped that memory is rapidly disappearing from the landscape above Le Tour.

Letters from the Dock

Stay With the Boat

I went into my STCW Personal Survival Techniques course curious about the white box we call a life raft. I came out with good memories and something that felt surprisingly like wisdom.

Letters from the Edge

Uncomfortable Miles

Working on climate change has not reduced my carbon footprint — it has increased it. In the quiet hours of jet lag, I wrestle with the uncomfortable tension between engagement and purity, intention and combustion.

Letters from the Dock

Learning to Say Mayday

To register my boat under the UK flag, I had to earn the right to press the red distress button on a marine VHF radio. Learning to say “Mayday” turned into a reflection on autonomy, communication systems, and the psychological difficulty of asking for help — whether in the air or at sea.

Letters from the Edge

Life Without Certainty

Resilience and Responsibility - Part V

Logbook

Hope in the Air

Four hours. Seventeen kilometers. One song on repeat. Hope in the Air is not a song about hope, but about responsibility when illusions fall away.

Letters from the Dock

Viewing at the Dock

A quiet first encounter at the dock becomes something larger: not excitement, not certainty, but the sudden awareness that once something becomes real, responsibility follows.

Letters from the Edge

Responsibility Without Redemption

Resilience and Responsibility - Part IV

Paid-members only

Logbook

Waitangi Day

Standing in Paihia, next to the treaty grounds, I encountered a national day shaped by remembrance, restraint, and an unresolved shared history — one that quietly challenged the triumphalist narratives I’ve grown used to elsewhere.

Letters from the Dock

Two Days From Shore

In Europe, you are almost never more than two days from land. When distance is translated into time, insurance limits stop looking abstract and start mapping directly onto lived risk—fatigue, darkness, and exposure at sea.

Letters from the Edge

Meaning Without Survival

Resilience and Responsibility - Part III

Paid-members only

Logbook

Visiting New Zealand (or Not)

Letters from the Dock

What is a Yacht Delivery?

From time to time, boats need to be moved, not cruised. The undertaking is never trivial.

Letters from the Edge

The End of Meaningful Growth

Resilience and Responsibility - Part II

Paid-members only

Logbook

First Impressions from New Zealand

Letters from the Dock

Meet Rosemary

A custom aluminum expedition boat from the Joubert-Nivelt / Meta lineage, closely aligned with the Ice Frontiers mission.

Letters from the Edge

Existential Resilience

Resilience and Responsibility - Part I

Paid-members only

Logbook

Risk Management Charter

A personal charter defining hard financial limits, enforced exit conditions, and the ethical boundaries of risk in the Ice Frontiers project.

Letters from the Dock

Bluewater Sailing: When Insurance and Taxes Set the Course

I expected the weather to set the course. I didn’t expect insurance and taxes to do it first.

Letters from the Edge

The Cameron Peak Fire

The roots of Ice Frontiers (Part III)

Paid-members only

Logbook

Communion

Loneliness is what unites us. At sea, we learn how to stand beside it — together.