The Crossing

Twenty-one years ago, David Pearlman chose a new name for himself: Poppa Neutrino. Mr. Neutrino is nomadic. A year ago, Neutrino and his dog left Key West for California with a crudely made raft that he’d built from plywood. The raft was twelve feet long and four feet wide, and it had a small cabin. It looked like a tree house. Neutrino planned to sail across the Pacific by himself, something that had been accomplished on a raft only once, by his hero, William Willis, in 1964.

In the captivating story that served as the basis of his critically acclaimed book, The Happiest Man in the World, Alec Wilkinson introduces readers to David Pearlman, AKA Poppa Neutrino, a restless wanderer, eccentric, mariner, and musician, whose path once crossed with Kerouac and Ginsberg at the height of the beat era, as he attempts to cross the Pacific Ocean on a homemade raft.

The Crossing was originally published in The New Yorker, June 27, 2005.

Cover design by Adil Dara.