Winds of destiny: Dalton native, football analyst and author releases documentary on Cape Horn sailing journey

Jul. 2—Yogi Roth lives without limits.

Now, he hopes his latest film encourages others to do the same.

Captivated by his great-great-great-grandfather's stories at sea — detailed in a journal passed down from generation to generation — the Dalton native spent nights as a child reading the entries while imagining his own life of adventure.

His story about traversing Cape Horn — the southern tip of South America nicknamed "sailors' graveyard" — made Roth think at just 8 years old, "I have to go there."

What may have been a daydream to most turned into a reality in 2014 for Roth, who graduated from Lackawanna Trail Junior-Senior High School, played and coached college football, and found success as a sports broadcaster, podcaster, filmmaker, speaker and author.

Roth set sail on a life-changing journey around Cape Horn with four strangers. After several years, audiences can see the experience play out in "The Cape" from Life Without Limits Productions, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Throughout the trip, Roth said everyone bonded and openly discussed their fears while retracing his great-great-great-grandfather's steps from the late 1850s.

"By the time we touched back to land after sailing around Cape Horn, every one of our lives changed in a very powerful and profound way," said Roth, who now lives in Venice Beach, California, with his wife, Amy, and sons, Zayn and Makaiye.

Growing up in Northeast Pennsylvania, Roth said his family didn't have the means to travel internationally. Instead his parents, Will and the late Devorah, brought the world to Roth and his siblings, Maya and Ravi, by hosting foreign exchange students every summer.

Hearing their stories from Germany, Israel, Kenya and other countries, Roth wanted to see these places for himself.

"That was really powerful for me as a young kid, just trying to imagine other parts of the world," he said.

Luckily, his parents had the attitude that Roth and his siblings needed to leave their hometown and see the world after high school. Roth played football at the University of Pittsburgh and then lived in Australia, where he really caught the travel bug. (Just recently, he checked off his 37th country with a family trip to South Korea.)

Roth later coached football at the University of Southern California, where he earned his master's degree. He now coaches quarterbacks at the Elite 11 competition, and much of his storytelling centers around the world of sports, including broadcasting on the Pac-12 Network and other platforms, hosting "The It Factory" podcast and co-writing the book "5-Star QB."

The Cape Horn expedition and the documentary it produced was years in the making.

Reading the entries, Roth said it seemed like his great-great-great-grandfather, William, was at a crossroads in life when he decided to take the path less traveled and voyage the seas for 357 days.

"As I would read his words, it's like I heard him talking to me," Roth said.

Every time he visited that part of the world, Roth tried to find a boat. When one became available in 2014, he only had a week's notice.

Roth said he had just finished "Life in a Walk," a documentary about trekking the Camino de Santiago with his father, so he felt engrossed with the idea of further exploring his roots.

He brought fellow filmmaker Tyler Heckerman on the Cape Horn trip, and they met sailors Tom Bastable and Axele Dumas. Freddie von Kaenel joined the group at the last second.

Roth said the film ends up being about a group of people coming together, having a shared experience and leaning on one another.

"Everybody had a unique connection, a powerful conversation, a moment," he said.

They all went through their own journey, just like his great-great-great-grandfather did, Roth said.

"He went through his own hero's journey, per se, and that was cool because I kind of felt that spirit along the way, and we tried to portray that in the film through animation and various elements of storytelling," he said.

For instance, Roth realized that he wanted to stop traveling alone and share his life with someone. Shortly after the Cape Horn trip, he met his wife.

"Life's greatest adventures are never done alone," he reflects in "The Cape."

Roth said it's beautiful to finally have the film out in the world. He celebrated the release with a premiere in Los Angeles on June 16, where his brother moderated a Q&A session.

People came up to him afterward to say the film inspired them to chase a dream, visit a place they've always wanted to see or learn more about their family. He hopes "The Cape" gives them that push to make it happen.

"As a traveler, we often go to see something, but what we end up seeing at the end is ourselves in a different light. I kind of knew a transformation was going to take place because that's what happens on every trip, whether I'm going back to Dalton or whether I'm going to Korea, it's going to happen," Roth said. "You have to be open to it. I didn't know what it would be, but I knew something would happen."

His father, who still lives in Dalton, said the spirit of adventure his great-great-grandfather had trickled down through the generations. For instance, Will Roth hitchhiked through Europe with his wife when they were young, and his sister spent a year in Switzerland as a teen. His other children also love seeing the world, with Ravi being a successful travel vlogger.

Their philosophy on travel has always been to explore, get lost and see where it takes them while broadening their perspective with different places and cultures.

"The wanderlust, so to speak, in a variety of forms has taken root kind of through the whole family system," he said.

He also noted the influence of his late wife, a child of Holocaust survivors born in Israel who migrated with her family to a refugee camp in post-Nazi Germany before coming to the U.S.

"She had travel, language in her blood and came to America," Will Roth said.

He's glad their son had this opportunity to experience where his ancestor once sailed and realize a childhood dream.

"He's got the courage to go on out to the wild blue yonder and do it, so I was really happy," his dad said.

Contact the writer:

bwilliams@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5107;

@BWilliamsTT on Twitter

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