In 2020, Christiaan De Beukelaer spent 150 days covering 14,000 nautical miles aboard the schoonerAvontuur, a hundred-year-old sailing vessel that transports cargo across the Atlantic Ocean. Embarking in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, he wanted to understand the realities of a little-known alternative to the shipping industry on which our global economy relies, and which contributes more carbon emissions than aviation. What started as a three-week stint of fieldwork aboard the ship turned into a five-month journey, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced all borders shut while crossing the ocean, preventing the crew from stepping ashore for months on end.Trade winds engagingly recounts De Beukelaer's life-changing personal odyssey and the complex journey the shipping industry is on to cut its carbon emissions. TheAvontuurs mission remains crucial as ever: the shipping industry urgently needs to stop using fossil fuels, starting today. If we cant swiftly decarbonise shipping, we cant solve the climate crisis.

Christiaan De Beukelaer took up sailing to get away from his desk on weekends, which worked out well until he developed an interest in how to decarbonise the shipping industry.He works at the University of Melbourne and has held visiting positions at the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham and at the universities of Copenhagen, Jyväskylä, Cape Town, Hildesheim, and Coimbra. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Introduction: Annus pandemicus1 Departure2 What is wrong with the shipping industry?3 Crossing the Atlantic4 Coffee, rum, and chocolate5 Point of return6 The eternal frontier7 Ship Earth8 Where are we headed?9 Sailing homeIndex