Parkinson's often arrives as a narrowing — of movement, certainty, and the future people imagine for themselves. Darrel Wilken is pushing in the opposite direction.

The St. Helena resident, cardiac ICU nurse, Army veteran, and longtime San Francisco Bay sailor soon after June 23, 2026 left for Ireland, to join an offshore sailing race to France as part of a pioneering research effort examining whether sailing can produce measurable effects for people living with Parkinson's disease. (All went well.) July 2027 Buck was asked afterwards to participate in the 'Fastnet' race in England. He was approved to join the April 2028 4th leg of the Ocean Globe Race. If he wins the lottery or can raise funds, he can join more legs of the race.

The "Ocean Globe Race" sends competitors through some of the planet's most unforgiving oceans, aboard Neptune, a legendary 60-foot racing yacht that has evolved into something larger than a boat. Ocean Globe commences Sept 2027.

For researchers, Neptune is increasingly becoming a laboratory at sea, carrying sailors into conditions that test balance, cognition, endurance, sleep, and resilience while generating data that could help answer new questions about living with Parkinson's.

For the Parkinson's community, the vessel has become a symbol of possibility — proof that a diagnosis need not define the limits of a life.

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