Warwick Tompkins – A Lifetime at Sea is a portrait of a man who was brought aboard a schooner two weeks after he was born and never really came ashore. More films and the stories behind them: https://lifeonthewater.us Our new film, "Sailing Set Her Free — The Jocelyn Nash Story," premieres October 22, 2026 at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, California. A mere two weeks after his birth in 1932, Warwick "Commodore" Tompkins was brought on board Wander Bird — an 85-foot schooner that would set the course for his life at sea. At age four the family set sail on an epic voyage that would take them around Cape Horn and eventually make landfall in San Francisco Bay. His first nine years were spent sailing aboard Wander Bird, until the Second World War brought it abruptly to a halt in 1941. The transition from water to land proved very difficult for the young Commodore. He never quite took to land. Eventually he returned to the sea, where he belonged. As one of the most accomplished sailors in the world, Tompkins has spent most of his life racing, cruising, designing, rigging and delivering boats — logging over 500,000 ocean miles. With his wealth of experience and knowledge of sailing, few people in the world are more qualified to talk about life on the water than Warwick "Commodore" Tompkins himself. Life on the Water is an independent documentary series of portraits of people whose lives have been shaped by the sea.
