There is a mile-long beach in Waterford, Connecticut between the Harkness Estate and the Seaside Sanitarium where Brechin spent the summers of his childhood. There the family lived, fished and swam for generations. He watched the light on the water and the ships on its surface and knew that over the horizon lay all the islands and exotic ports of this world. He bought his first Blue Jay sailboat in Guilford, Connecticut, where he spent summers exploring the Thimble Islands and the coast.

At seventeen he found his way to the Caribbean where he worked on sailing charter boats. He signed aboard a leaky forty- foot wooden sloop whose owner intended to sail around the world only to be damaged badly on the first leg in a hurricane off Bermuda.

After two years at Silvermine College of Art in New Canaan, Connecticut he left to work on an oyster boat, and then opened a sign company in Norwalk which he ran for the next 23 years. In that time he painted many out-door nautical murals in the greater Norwalk area. The first being a 15 foot by 25- foot depiction of the Alice Wentworth, the last working schooner out of Vineyard Haven operated by legendary Zebulon Tilton.

At the age of 51, in November of 1998, he left Block Island aboard his 27- foot cutter rigged sailboat Otter, to sail single-handed around the world. After 32,000 miles and 32 countries, he returned to Block Island in May of 2003. He received The Joshua Slocum Society Golden Circle Award for this accomplishment.

With a studio in Bridgeport, CT he has been painting from the 18 watercolor sketchbooks he filled on the voyage, the ten volume journal, logs, memory and boxes of reference photos. Summer sailing trips in familiar New England waters provide continued material.