Reid Stowe
Encyclopedia
William Reid Stowe is an American
artist and mariner. Stowe grew up around sailboats on the East Coast, sailing on the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in his late teens and early 20's. By age 26, he had built two of his own sailboats with the help of his family and friends. Stowe subsequently sailed to the Antarctic with his schooner Anne in 1986 and completed a 194-day journey without touching land in 1999.
In 2010 Stowe completed a more extensive ocean voyage, entitled 1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey—a journey that commenced on April 21, 2007, from the 12th St. Pier, Hoboken, New Jersey
. Stowe was the principal designer and builder of the Anne, a 70 ft (21.3 m), 60-ton (54,400 kg) gaff-rigged schooner
which he sailed on this voyage. The purpose of the enterprise was to remain on the open ocean, without resupply or pulling into any harbor, for a period of one thousand days, along with some other goals that were not met, such as circumnavigating the globe four times. The single circumnavigation involved active management of a sailboat under varying weather conditions, with continuous wear and tear of equipment on the schooner, although the schooner was not always under full sail.
On June 17, 2010, Reid Stowe sailed the schooner Anne up the Hudson River and docked in New York. The total voyage duration claimed by Stowe was 1,152 days, a potential record for the longest continuous sea voyage without resupply or stepping on land. Upon landing at Pier 81 in Manhattan, he was met by family and friends, by his girlfriend Soanya Ahmad
—who had accompanied him for the first quarter of the journey—and their toddler son, as well as by the press.
to Harry and Anne Stowe; and is the oldest of six siblings. His father, an officer in the United States Air Force
, was posted to many parts of the world during that time and usually his family travelled with him. Growing up, Reid spent three years in Germany
, two years in the Philippines
, plus state-side tours in Mississippi, Illinois, Arizona, and Virginia. Traveling notwithstanding, the family generally spent summers with Anne Stowe's father, who had constructed a beach cottage on the Intracoastal Waterway
near Ocean Isle Beach
, North Carolina. Anne's father and uncles frequently built and rebuilt portions of the home, and built small craft for use on the waterway. It was during these summer interludes that Reid absorbed carpentry, and, during his high school years with his younger brother Wave, Stowe built fiberglass surf boards. He and his brother employed workshops that his family maintained in various winter residences to complete their work after school.
, where he took up painting and sculpture. During his late teens, Stowe visited Hawaii in the summer to surf. During one of these Hawaiian excursions, when Stowe was nineteen, he fell in with Craige Fostvedt, who had invested some of his college funds to purchase a small sailing vessel. Invited to accompany him on an extended sail through the South Pacific to New Zealand, Stowe was obliged to obtain a passport, for which he needed a copy of his birth certificate. Years later, Stowe recalled to interviewer Harold Channer that his parents could very well have refused to send him the certificate and instead could have insisted on his return to school. That they chose otherwise, Stowe regards as a life-affirming experience, the tacit parental support giving him confidence to proceed. The South Pacific trip was Stowe's first experience with open ocean sailing, for which he acquired a passion.
Following his South Pacific voyage, Stowe returned to his grandfather's residence in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, where he spent eight months constructing a 27 ft (8.2 m) catamaran
named Tantra, specifically for open ocean sailing. During its construction, he was visited by a Dutchman—whom he had first met on his South Pacific voyage—who persuaded Stowe to take the catamaran across the North Atlantic to Holland. The two embarked on their journey to the Netherlands in June, 1973. After their arrival, Reid Stowe continued on a solo voyage which took him to Africa, a second Atlantic crossing, a trip to Brazil and the Amazon, returning to the United States in 1976. In his 2003 interview with Harold Channer, Stowe claimed that the catamaran Tantra was "the smallest boat to cross the Atlantic Ocean twice," though on closer reading it appears that a smaller boat has made the round trip crossing as early as the nineteenth century. In 1880-'81, George P. Thomas and Frederick Norman navigated their 16 in 7 in (5.05 m) dory Little Western from Gloucester, Massachusetts
to Cowes
England in June 1880, stayed in England for nearly one year, and returned to America the following June.
. In an interview with Harold Channer, Stowe likened the hull to a sealed steel and fiberglass bottle. Additionally, electricity for computers and communication equipment is generated from wind, solar, and water motion generators. Stowe, his family, and friends of the family, were engaged in building the craft over the next eighteen months, completing the work in 1978. The shipyard was entirely confined to the beach cottage property of his grandfather. Named Tantra Schooner at launch, Stowe established the ship as his home, sailing it originally to the Caribbean with his then wife, Iris and baby daughter Viva, "[ finishing] the interior en route and in the islands." Author Jill Bobrow, in her 1982 Classic Yacht Interiors attributed some of the interior handiwork to Iris: "a beautiful walnut inlaid with enamel."
Renamed the Anne in honor of his mother and her family, Stowe took the schooner to Antarctic waters in 1986 with a crew of eight, his first long-term trial with the vessel. For five months, Stowe and his crew sailed the waters around the Antarctic Peninsula
and the South Shetland Islands
. Stowe navigated into ice packs and claimed winds of up to 110 miles per hour (49.2 m/s). Later, Stowe told Nik Kleinberg of ESPN: "You're geared up like an ice man, goggles, everything, not a bit of skin exposed. We had a gust of wind that blew the boat completely over." To combat boredom, the crew "fought the lack of sensory stimulation with plastic filters that allowed people to bathe in different colored lights, and a 'bag of tricks' that included scented herbs and spices, stones, religious artifacts, pebbles, sand, and other items that stimulated the senses and kindled fond memories of home."
It was during this voyage that Stowe began seriously considering a trip of extremely long duration. Author Albert A. Harrison characterized these circa 1990 plans in his 2001 book, Spacefaring: The Human Dimension. "The Anne, [seventy feet] long and displacing sixty tons, would set forth with a crew of six to eight (the same size as an initial Mars crew under some scenarios) and three years worth of provisions. For a thousand days they would sail outside of normal trade routes and without entering port. The crew would consist of scientists who would study weather, water, and atmospheric pollution, and ozone depletion in remote and little-documented regions of the world. Stowe hoped to conduct field tests of communication satellites, water purification systems and other equipment potentially useful for exploring Mars." Later, Stowe, with Harrison, authored the paper, "One thousand days non-stop at sea - Lessons for a mission to Mars" outlining a "1000-day voyage without touching land or receiving supplies from other craft. The goals of this expedition include the evaluation of equipment, supplies, and humans under conditions of isolation and confinement that will resemble some of those of the initial Mars voyage."
as a base of operations, located in the Chelsea
section of Manhattan
, New York City
at a marina operated by John Krevey. He promoted his one thousand days voyage in earnest, calling it the "1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey," and news articles at the time suggested a launch date of 1998. It would be nine years, and one marriage later, before Stowe found sufficient funding and media support for the project. In the intervening time, Stowe made his home on board the Anne, used Pier 63 as his address, and undertook preliminary trips with Laurence Guillem, whom he had married in 1999. In 2006, the construction of a new park along the Hudson River forced the owner of the maritime barge at Pier 63—where Reid had kept his schooner Anne—to relocate to Pier 66. This caused the move of the schooner Anne to the 12th St. Pier across the river in Hoboken, on the New Jersey side, from which Reid eventually embarked on his epic voyage.
The voyage lasted from June 4, to December 17, 1999, with no major mishap, though it had its tribulations. The Anne suffered engine failure under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, aging sailcloth limited the precision of Stowe's navigation — the turtle was neither as large nor as complete as he had originally hoped — and a brush with Hurricane Lenny
on their return leg hampered their return to the port of New York. Still, he and his sailing mate had spent over a half year out of sight of land.
The ship knocked over on its side once (although local papers incorrectly reported three knockdowns) in high seas, but righted itself. Having injured her jaw in the mishap, it was the last significant voyage that Guillem undertook with Stowe. Of her reluctance to return to sea, she said of him: "J'aime Reid, mais lui c'est un poisson et moi non." ("I love Reid, but he is a fish and I am not.")
An article at the MarineBuzz website explained some of the technical aspects of the schooner's supplies, and summarized Soanya's role in the expedition up to the point where she had to depart the schooner and hand over her tasks to Reid.
heavily damaged, though the hull and the remainder of the boat was unscathed. Stowe was able to make a replacement, albeit shortened, bowsprit from less-damaged portions. Since these incidents, the vessel spent much of the second half of 2007 in the Southern Atlantic, passing the tip of Africa in mid December, 2007.
One significant incident occurred on February 22, 2008, when Stowe's companion, Soanya Ahmad decided to leave the voyage. She disembarked from the schooner off Rottnest Island
, near Perth
, Western Australia
. Members from the Royal Perth Yacht Club, including Jon Sanders
, rendezvoused with the Anne around 1800 local time (+9 UTC) and assisted with Ms. Ahmad's departure. She arrived in Perth around 2100 local time. Ms. Ahmad reported she had been suffering from chronic seasickness since November. Ms. Ahmad's departure left Stowe without a crew and compromised an original tenet of the voyage, "...to leave the land and all support, sail for 1,000 days, non-stop at sea without receiving help, to live at sea, to be healthy, to send back good messages and have the whole world follow the voyage and understand the importance of it..." Mr. Stowe intended to complete the mission plan alone. According to The Age, the schooner Anne was to maintain a position beyond sight of land during the transfer so Mr Stowe could continue his attempt to break records. Jon Sanders, the current record holder for longest solo time at sea, was asked in an interview whether Reid could break his record. Sanders, who was also a member of Ms. Ahmad's rescue party responded—"I think the boat by the look of it will stay in one piece. It won't break any records." However, he quickly followed that with, "But...I couldn't say anything that it wouldn't...He's still got a lot of patience and time." He then admitted that Reid Stowe could do it—Interviewer: "There's a possibility he could take your record out." Sanders: "Ah, ya."
On Day 658, Reid Stowe broke the world record for the longest non-stop ocean voyage, previously held by Jon Sanders, if we disregard Nansen's Fram expedition
, during which the schooner Fram
lay trapped on ice for nearly three years, and the crew was away from land for at least 1067 days.
Reid Stowe and his support team have since accomplished one of their goals of a person sailing on the open seas without resupply for 1000 days, as well as breaking the 1067-day record set by the Fram in 1896. January 16, 2010 was officially the day of the 1000-day mark, while March 24, 2010 equalled the 1067-day mark. Subsequent to the first 306 days with Soanya Ahmad, Reid Stowe also broke the record for the longest solo sea voyage without resupply, on Day 964 (Dec. 11, 2009). As of the voyage's end, all of the records are self-claimed by Stowe and none have been recognized by an official body, such as the Guinness World Records
, which is currently investigating.
Until the computers broke down in December, 2009, there were also almost daily logs—with a photo—sent as email via the satellite telephone. These missives were originally contributed by Soanya and Reid, until Soanya's departure from the schooner, when Reid took over the role of sole communicator.
Reid Stowe saw his son for the first time, after landing his 70-foot schooner 'Anne' in New York and reuniting with girlfriend Soanya Ahmad on Thursday, June 17, 2010. The couple hadn't seen each other since Soanya had to leave the voyage in February, 2008.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist and mariner. Stowe grew up around sailboats on the East Coast, sailing on the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in his late teens and early 20's. By age 26, he had built two of his own sailboats with the help of his family and friends. Stowe subsequently sailed to the Antarctic with his schooner Anne in 1986 and completed a 194-day journey without touching land in 1999.
In 2010 Stowe completed a more extensive ocean voyage, entitled 1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey—a journey that commenced on April 21, 2007, from the 12th St. Pier, Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
. Stowe was the principal designer and builder of the Anne, a 70 ft (21.3 m), 60-ton (54,400 kg) gaff-rigged schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
which he sailed on this voyage. The purpose of the enterprise was to remain on the open ocean, without resupply or pulling into any harbor, for a period of one thousand days, along with some other goals that were not met, such as circumnavigating the globe four times. The single circumnavigation involved active management of a sailboat under varying weather conditions, with continuous wear and tear of equipment on the schooner, although the schooner was not always under full sail.
On June 17, 2010, Reid Stowe sailed the schooner Anne up the Hudson River and docked in New York. The total voyage duration claimed by Stowe was 1,152 days, a potential record for the longest continuous sea voyage without resupply or stepping on land. Upon landing at Pier 81 in Manhattan, he was met by family and friends, by his girlfriend Soanya Ahmad
Soanya Ahmad
Soanya Ahmad is a photographer and sailor, holding the current women's world record for the longest time spent non-stop at sea. She left New York Harbor on April 21, 2007, as a shipmate of Reid Stowe, who was aiming for the longest time ever spent at sea. She spent 306 days on board the schooner...
—who had accompanied him for the first quarter of the journey—and their toddler son, as well as by the press.
Childhood
Reid Stowe was born January 6, 1952 near Moses Lake, WashingtonMoses Lake, Washington
Moses Lake is a city in Grant County, Washington, United States. The population was 20,366 as of the 2010 census. Moses Lake is the largest city in Grant County.-Background:...
to Harry and Anne Stowe; and is the oldest of six siblings. His father, an officer in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, was posted to many parts of the world during that time and usually his family travelled with him. Growing up, Reid spent three years in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, two years in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, plus state-side tours in Mississippi, Illinois, Arizona, and Virginia. Traveling notwithstanding, the family generally spent summers with Anne Stowe's father, who had constructed a beach cottage on the Intracoastal Waterway
Intracoastal Waterway
The Intracoastal Waterway is a 3,000-mile waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. Some lengths consist of natural inlets, salt-water rivers, bays, and sounds; others are artificial canals...
near Ocean Isle Beach
Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina
Ocean Isle Beach or simply Ocean Isle is a small seaside town located in Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 426 at the 2000 census...
, North Carolina. Anne's father and uncles frequently built and rebuilt portions of the home, and built small craft for use on the waterway. It was during these summer interludes that Reid absorbed carpentry, and, during his high school years with his younger brother Wave, Stowe built fiberglass surf boards. He and his brother employed workshops that his family maintained in various winter residences to complete their work after school.
Early voyages
Reid Stowe initially pursued studies in the arts, enrolling in the University of ArizonaUniversity of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
, where he took up painting and sculpture. During his late teens, Stowe visited Hawaii in the summer to surf. During one of these Hawaiian excursions, when Stowe was nineteen, he fell in with Craige Fostvedt, who had invested some of his college funds to purchase a small sailing vessel. Invited to accompany him on an extended sail through the South Pacific to New Zealand, Stowe was obliged to obtain a passport, for which he needed a copy of his birth certificate. Years later, Stowe recalled to interviewer Harold Channer that his parents could very well have refused to send him the certificate and instead could have insisted on his return to school. That they chose otherwise, Stowe regards as a life-affirming experience, the tacit parental support giving him confidence to proceed. The South Pacific trip was Stowe's first experience with open ocean sailing, for which he acquired a passion.
Following his South Pacific voyage, Stowe returned to his grandfather's residence in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, where he spent eight months constructing a 27 ft (8.2 m) catamaran
Catamaran
A catamaran is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas...
named Tantra, specifically for open ocean sailing. During its construction, he was visited by a Dutchman—whom he had first met on his South Pacific voyage—who persuaded Stowe to take the catamaran across the North Atlantic to Holland. The two embarked on their journey to the Netherlands in June, 1973. After their arrival, Reid Stowe continued on a solo voyage which took him to Africa, a second Atlantic crossing, a trip to Brazil and the Amazon, returning to the United States in 1976. In his 2003 interview with Harold Channer, Stowe claimed that the catamaran Tantra was "the smallest boat to cross the Atlantic Ocean twice," though on closer reading it appears that a smaller boat has made the round trip crossing as early as the nineteenth century. In 1880-'81, George P. Thomas and Frederick Norman navigated their 16 in 7 in (5.05 m) dory Little Western from Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
to Cowes
Cowes
Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east Bank...
England in June 1880, stayed in England for nearly one year, and returned to America the following June.
Construction of the Anne (née Tantra Schooner)
Following his return to the United States, Stowe's thoughts turned to the construction of a vessel well-suited to extended voyages. He was particularly impressed with gaff-rigged schooners, which he felt represented a culmination of craft and technique for sailing vessels. In 1976, he took up residence in the North Carolina beach cottage of his maternal grandfather, and with extensive help from his mother's family, his father—now a retired Colonel—and his siblings, Reid Stowe began the construction of a sailing vessel designed after late nineteenth century American gaff-rigged fishing schooners, prevalent from the 1880s to the 1900s. The completed design called for a 60-ton (54,400 kg), two-masted gaff-rigged vessel, 70 ft (21.3 m) in length with a 16 ft (4.9 m) beam. Unlike the nineteenth century antecedent, however, Stowe and his family employed Ferralite over steel wire mesh for the hull, with interior spaces finished in Caribbean hardwood supplied largely from debris thrown up by Hurricane DavidHurricane David
Hurricane David was the fourth named tropical cyclone, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season. A Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, David was among the deadliest hurricanes in the latter half of the 20th century, killing...
. In an interview with Harold Channer, Stowe likened the hull to a sealed steel and fiberglass bottle. Additionally, electricity for computers and communication equipment is generated from wind, solar, and water motion generators. Stowe, his family, and friends of the family, were engaged in building the craft over the next eighteen months, completing the work in 1978. The shipyard was entirely confined to the beach cottage property of his grandfather. Named Tantra Schooner at launch, Stowe established the ship as his home, sailing it originally to the Caribbean with his then wife, Iris and baby daughter Viva, "
The Caribbean and Antarctica
According to Bobrow, Stowe initially sailed the Tantra Schooner as a charter boat, but indirectly noted the possibility of extended voyaging even in the early eighties: "The charter accommodations are fabricated so that when extra quarters are not necessary, that space is set up to be a cargo hold — the intent being to make Tantra Schooner totally self-supporting." In this early description of the vessel and her crew, Bobrow reported: "Reid and Iris are a delightful, spiritual couple. Their boat reflects their ingenuity, creativity, and joy of life."Renamed the Anne in honor of his mother and her family, Stowe took the schooner to Antarctic waters in 1986 with a crew of eight, his first long-term trial with the vessel. For five months, Stowe and his crew sailed the waters around the Antarctic Peninsula
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica. It extends from a line between Cape Adams and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands....
and the South Shetland Islands
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...
. Stowe navigated into ice packs and claimed winds of up to 110 miles per hour (49.2 m/s). Later, Stowe told Nik Kleinberg of ESPN: "You're geared up like an ice man, goggles, everything, not a bit of skin exposed. We had a gust of wind that blew the boat completely over." To combat boredom, the crew "fought the lack of sensory stimulation with plastic filters that allowed people to bathe in different colored lights, and a 'bag of tricks' that included scented herbs and spices, stones, religious artifacts, pebbles, sand, and other items that stimulated the senses and kindled fond memories of home."
It was during this voyage that Stowe began seriously considering a trip of extremely long duration. Author Albert A. Harrison characterized these circa 1990 plans in his 2001 book, Spacefaring: The Human Dimension. "The Anne, [seventy feet] long and displacing sixty tons, would set forth with a crew of six to eight (the same size as an initial Mars crew under some scenarios) and three years worth of provisions. For a thousand days they would sail outside of normal trade routes and without entering port. The crew would consist of scientists who would study weather, water, and atmospheric pollution, and ozone depletion in remote and little-documented regions of the world. Stowe hoped to conduct field tests of communication satellites, water purification systems and other equipment potentially useful for exploring Mars." Later, Stowe, with Harrison, authored the paper, "One thousand days non-stop at sea - Lessons for a mission to Mars" outlining a "1000-day voyage without touching land or receiving supplies from other craft. The goals of this expedition include the evaluation of equipment, supplies, and humans under conditions of isolation and confinement that will resemble some of those of the initial Mars voyage."
The Port of New York
In the fall of 1997, Stowe began using Pier 63Pier 63
Pier 63 was the name for a former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad railroad barge on the Hudson River in New York City, on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan. It was originally located near 23rd Street, adjacent to Chelsea Piers and Hudson River Park...
as a base of operations, located in the Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
section of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at a marina operated by John Krevey. He promoted his one thousand days voyage in earnest, calling it the "1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey," and news articles at the time suggested a launch date of 1998. It would be nine years, and one marriage later, before Stowe found sufficient funding and media support for the project. In the intervening time, Stowe made his home on board the Anne, used Pier 63 as his address, and undertook preliminary trips with Laurence Guillem, whom he had married in 1999. In 2006, the construction of a new park along the Hudson River forced the owner of the maritime barge at Pier 63—where Reid had kept his schooner Anne—to relocate to Pier 66. This caused the move of the schooner Anne to the 12th St. Pier across the river in Hoboken, on the New Jersey side, from which Reid eventually embarked on his epic voyage.
Voyage of the Turtle: Prelude to '1000 Days at Sea'
Stowe's prelude to the present voyage was undertaken in 1999, when he and his new bride, Laurence Guillem, voyaged the South Atlantic Ocean for 194 days on the Anne, an expedition which Guillem dubbed "The Odyssey of the Sea Turtle." Stowe's intent during this preliminary voyage was to shape a course literally in the shape of a turtle. Of this choice, Stowe said: "There's also something to be said about not racing around all the time. So this voyage was sort of an antidote to our speed-obsessed society. And the turtle is also a reminder about endangered species and the environment. I'm sure it's going to be interpreted in different ways."The voyage lasted from June 4, to December 17, 1999, with no major mishap, though it had its tribulations. The Anne suffered engine failure under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, aging sailcloth limited the precision of Stowe's navigation — the turtle was neither as large nor as complete as he had originally hoped — and a brush with Hurricane Lenny
Hurricane Lenny
Hurricane Lenny was the strongest November Atlantic hurricane on record. It was the twelfth tropical storm, eighth hurricane, and record-breaking fifth Category 4 hurricane in the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season. Lenny formed on November 13 in the western Caribbean Sea, and maintained an...
on their return leg hampered their return to the port of New York. Still, he and his sailing mate had spent over a half year out of sight of land.
Subsequent attempts
Stowe and Guillem undertook a second exercise in January 2001, a voyage to Trinidad in which the Anne encountered severe weather off Bermuda.The ship knocked over on its side once (although local papers incorrectly reported three knockdowns) in high seas, but righted itself. Having injured her jaw in the mishap, it was the last significant voyage that Guillem undertook with Stowe. Of her reluctance to return to sea, she said of him: "J'aime Reid, mais lui c'est un poisson et moi non." ("I love Reid, but he is a fish and I am not.")
The 1000-day voyage
Stowe and Ahmad departed on the 1000-day voyage on April 21, 2007 at 3:00 PM EDT from the 12th St. Pier in Hoboken, New Jersey, witnessed by about 100 well-wishers, including his parents and his former wife, Laurence Guillem. The heavily laden schooner passed through New York Harbor and into the open ocean by the evening of April 21.Mission planning and execution
The departure put into execution plans that, in some respects, closely resembled those put forth by Stowe and Harrison in a 1992 paper. They had postulated that conditions of confinement and isolation experience during an extended sea voyage would be similar in some respects to those experienced during a voyage to Mars. The name, 1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey, the duration and the challenges of the voyage echo concepts that were put forth in the paper and reiterated in the departure press release. The scientific goals that had been outlined in the departure press release—the study of weather, water, atmospheric pollution and ozone depletion in little-documented regions of the world—have not been fully realized due to lack of proper equipment, as indicated by periodic entries in the voyage's log.An article at the MarineBuzz website explained some of the technical aspects of the schooner's supplies, and summarized Soanya's role in the expedition up to the point where she had to depart the schooner and hand over her tasks to Reid.
Significant events
Several unexpected events have occurred during the course of this voyage, two of them near the outset. On April 25, 2007, the schooner ventured near a US Navy missile firing trial that was being conducted off the New Jersey coast. After United States Coast Guard personnel alerted the schooner, the crew diverted their course with no further mishap. A second, more serious mishap occurred on May 6, 2007 when the schooner ran into a container ship that left the schooner's bowspritBowsprit
The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a pole extending forward from the vessel's prow. It provides an anchor point for the forestay, allowing the fore-mast to be stepped farther forward on the hull.-Origin:...
heavily damaged, though the hull and the remainder of the boat was unscathed. Stowe was able to make a replacement, albeit shortened, bowsprit from less-damaged portions. Since these incidents, the vessel spent much of the second half of 2007 in the Southern Atlantic, passing the tip of Africa in mid December, 2007.
One significant incident occurred on February 22, 2008, when Stowe's companion, Soanya Ahmad decided to leave the voyage. She disembarked from the schooner off Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island is located off the coast of Western Australia, near Fremantle. It is called Wadjemup by the Noongar people, meaning "place across the water". The island is long, and at its widest point with a total land area of . It is classified as an A Class Reserve and is managed by the...
, near Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. Members from the Royal Perth Yacht Club, including Jon Sanders
Jon Sanders
Jon Sanders is an Australian yachtsman.- Early years :He grew up in Perth and in his teens and twenties, worked with shearing teams for 17 years. Initially he was a wool classer/shearing contractor, shearing team overseer and later owner of his own shearing team...
, rendezvoused with the Anne around 1800 local time (+9 UTC) and assisted with Ms. Ahmad's departure. She arrived in Perth around 2100 local time. Ms. Ahmad reported she had been suffering from chronic seasickness since November. Ms. Ahmad's departure left Stowe without a crew and compromised an original tenet of the voyage, "...to leave the land and all support, sail for 1,000 days, non-stop at sea without receiving help, to live at sea, to be healthy, to send back good messages and have the whole world follow the voyage and understand the importance of it..." Mr. Stowe intended to complete the mission plan alone. According to The Age, the schooner Anne was to maintain a position beyond sight of land during the transfer so Mr Stowe could continue his attempt to break records. Jon Sanders, the current record holder for longest solo time at sea, was asked in an interview whether Reid could break his record. Sanders, who was also a member of Ms. Ahmad's rescue party responded—"I think the boat by the look of it will stay in one piece. It won't break any records." However, he quickly followed that with, "But...I couldn't say anything that it wouldn't...He's still got a lot of patience and time." He then admitted that Reid Stowe could do it—Interviewer: "There's a possibility he could take your record out." Sanders: "Ah, ya."
On Day 658, Reid Stowe broke the world record for the longest non-stop ocean voyage, previously held by Jon Sanders, if we disregard Nansen's Fram expedition
Nansen's Fram expedition
Nansen's Fram expedition, 1893–1896, was an attempt by the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen to reach the geographical North Pole by harnessing the natural east–west current of the Arctic Ocean...
, during which the schooner Fram
Fram
Fram is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912...
lay trapped on ice for nearly three years, and the crew was away from land for at least 1067 days.
Reid Stowe and his support team have since accomplished one of their goals of a person sailing on the open seas without resupply for 1000 days, as well as breaking the 1067-day record set by the Fram in 1896. January 16, 2010 was officially the day of the 1000-day mark, while March 24, 2010 equalled the 1067-day mark. Subsequent to the first 306 days with Soanya Ahmad, Reid Stowe also broke the record for the longest solo sea voyage without resupply, on Day 964 (Dec. 11, 2009). As of the voyage's end, all of the records are self-claimed by Stowe and none have been recognized by an official body, such as the Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
, which is currently investigating.
Completion of the voyage
Throughout the journey, Stowe maintained contact with the New York City–based support team via an Iridium phone. Stowe employed a VHF marine transceiver for ship-to-ship communications. Volunteers maintained a web site so that the general public could follow the progress of the voyage. The web site featured daily tracking of the schooner's position using a GPS system.Until the computers broke down in December, 2009, there were also almost daily logs—with a photo—sent as email via the satellite telephone. These missives were originally contributed by Soanya and Reid, until Soanya's departure from the schooner, when Reid took over the role of sole communicator.
Reid Stowe saw his son for the first time, after landing his 70-foot schooner 'Anne' in New York and reuniting with girlfriend Soanya Ahmad on Thursday, June 17, 2010. The couple hadn't seen each other since Soanya had to leave the voyage in February, 2008.
See also
- List of circumnavigations
- Tania AebiTania AebiTania Aebi is an American sailor. She completed a solo circumnavigation of the globe in a 26 foot sailboat between the ages of 18 and 21, thus making her the first American woman and the youngest person to sail around the world...
- Colin AngusColin Angus (explorer)Colin Angus is a Canadian author and adventurer who is the first person to make a self-propelled global circumnavigation. Due to varying definitions of the term "circumnavigation," debate has arisen as to whether or not the route travelled fulfilled the strictest criteria...
- Robin Lee GrahamRobin Lee GrahamRobin Lee Graham is an American sailor. He set out to sail around the world alone as a teenager in the summer of 1965. National Geographic Magazine carried the story, and he co-wrote a book, title Dove, detailing his journey....
- Roz SavageRoz SavageRosalind Savage is a British ocean rower and amateur runner, now pursuing a career as an environmental advocate, writer and motivational speaker.-Background:Savage was born in Cheshire...
- Katie SpotzKatie SpotzKatie Spotz is an American adventurer who became the youngest person to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean, departing from Dakar, Senegal on January 3, 2010, and landing in Guyana on March 14, 2010...
- Henk de VeldeHenk de VeldeHenk de Velde is a Dutch seafarer. He is especially known for his long solo-voyages around the world....
External links
- Home page of 1000 Days at Sea
- John Doswell's account of Anne's January 2001 trip to Bermuda.
- Coverage of the 1000-day voyage of the Schooner Anne, with a musical twist [from Oct. 11, 2008] and the follow-up report on Weekend America (America Public Media) [from Oct. 25, 2008].
- Interview with Reid Stowe and Soanya Ahmad, recorded on June 23, 2010, for NPR's On Point.
- Conversation with Stowe and Ahmad on the weekly radio program "Energy Stew," hosted by Peter Roth.
- Reid Stowe interviewed by Marc Germain of Talk Radio One: broadcast on June 28, 2010 (starting at 77:22 min. into the 2 hr. show; best heard by opening the above MP3 audio stream in an MP3 player, like Winamp or Quicktime; in the segment from 7 to 14 min. of Hour 1, Marc and co-hosts, Dina and Rob, engage in a candid discussion about the whole concept of sailing on the open seas, first as a duo and then solo, for a total of 1152 days—their opinions shed some light on how an uninformed public might view such an accomplishment, at first glance.)
- The Huffington Post online journal has been hosting Reid Stowe and Soanya Ahmad since Oct., 2010.