1152 Days At Sea Without A Stop Ashore!

Our big adventure last winter, readers will recall, was 218 days and nights, but we were underway only a bit more than a third of them. So we are pikers compared to Reid Stowe.

Reid set out from New York with his girlfriend, first mate and soulmate, Soanya Ahmad, aboard a 70 foot  ferro-fiberglass on steel mesh schooner (two masts, the aft one taller) that he built himself during two years in the late '70s. He sought to follow his dream. He has been sailing his whole life but wanted to -- and did -- set endurance records, by a lot! The prior record for a non-stop voyage without resupply or setting foot on land or entering any port was set by Aussie, Jon Sanders -- 657 days. He exceeded his original goal of 1000 days by 152 more, returning June 17, 2010.

We had the pleasure to see his slide show and hear his talk at the Harlem Yacht Club on April 10. One of our members, Paul Beaudin, of Doyle Sails, was his sail maker.  An added treat was the participation of  Soanya and their almost five year old son, Darshen, who was conceived aboard, resulting in Soanya's leaving the boat by dink, off the coast of Australia, after the first 306 days. The recurrence of her early seasickness was correctly attributed to pregnancy.

For photos, maps and a lot more details about this fascinating adventure, see 1000days.net.

"Anne" carried 30 bottles of propane for cooking but no refrigeration. She carried tons of compact dried foods such as  rice, beans and  pasta plus sauces, spices and bean seeds. The "gardening" of the bean seeds into sprouts created the vegetables they ate. They caught fish along the way, and the stored salted flesh of such fish supplemented the diet. Water, to fill the 1200 gallon tanks, came from rain. Ten solar panels generated electricity.

They had paper charts of the big oceans and electronic ones of ports in the northern hemisphere and GPS. Reid circumnavigated, but his goal was endurance not speed, so he backtracked to have his track (the connecting the daily dots of his positions) trace a big 1600 mile long fish in the Pacific and a heart in the Atlantic. He carried a satellite spotting device which tracked his course and he sent an email to his land team almost every day (which are on the website) and a sat phone.

The most exciting episode took place not long after the start, only about two weeks out of New York: a merchant ship collided with Anne, breaking off her long bowsprit, to which the two jibs were tacked. Reid was able to float along until he was able to jury rig an alternative capable of flying one of those head sails. Soana said that if they went back, he would never set out again.

Reid is a very spiritual person and an artist and these aspects of his life infuse his account. Upon his return he was dismayed that publishers were not more interested in his adventure and took off for another couple of years with Soanya and Darshan (and this time a small passage crew) for a jungle river in Guyana, where Soanya is from. There, lumber and labor are plentiful and inexpensive They went for a refit, including repair to a wooden mast. Photos of Anne, in New York after the 1152 days show that she was rather badly beaten up and weathered by her long sea voyage, as one might expect.

Reid has recently discovered what he believes to be the cause of the publishers' lack of enthusiasm: Those readers interested in the sailing adventure were expected not to be interested in the art and spirituality and vice versa. So his current plan is to publish two books, one for sailors and the other for those interested in the other half of his story.

A fun and interesting evening.