He also logged many nautical miles sailing a 43-foot (13 m) wooden sloop from England to San Francisco via the Panama Canal, Galapagos Islands, Marquesas, and Hawaii.

This voyage led him to Satawal where he met Mau Piailug and spent months learning the ancient technique of star path navigation.

[6] In 1989, while researching his next book, on his family's history in the Alaskan Arctic, Thomas was approached by people from the PBS series This Old House who had already screened more than 400 candidates.

[8] He currently is Spokesman and Ambassador for Habitat for Humanity International with special emphasis on Women Build, Builders Blitz, and ReStore.

[11] A recent project involved renovating a cottage and building a timber-frame barn on Hupper island off the coast of Maine.

He renovated a 1,000 square foot adobe in Santa Fe, NM, which was the cover story in the January 2013 issue of Su Casa magazine.