Reid Stowe facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
William Reid Stowe
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | January 6, 1952 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Artist and Craftsman, Sailor, Adventurer |
| Known for | Extended voyages with schooner Anne |
William Reid Stowe (born January 6, 1952) is an American artist and sailor. He grew up around sailboats on the East Coast. In his late teens and early twenties, he sailed on the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. By age 26, he had built two of his own sailboats with help from family and friends.
Stowe sailed to the Antarctic with his schooner Anne in 1986. In 1999, he completed a 194-day journey without touching land. In 2010, Stowe finished an even longer ocean trip. This journey was called 1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey. It started on April 21, 2007, from Hoboken, New Jersey. Stowe designed and built the Anne, a 70-foot (21.3 m) gaff-rigged schooner. The main goal was to stay on the open ocean for one thousand days without getting new supplies or stopping at any harbor.
On June 17, 2010, Reid Stowe sailed the schooner Anne up the Hudson River and docked in New York. He claimed the total trip lasted 1,152 days. This could be a record for the longest continuous sea voyage without new supplies or stepping on land. When he landed, his family, friends, and his girlfriend Soanya Ahmad were there. Soanya had sailed with him for the first part of the journey. Their young son was also there.
Contents
Reid Stowe's Early Life
Reid Stowe was born on January 6, 1952, near Moses Lake, Washington. His parents were Harry and Anne Stowe, and he was the oldest of six children. His father was in the United States Air Force. The family often traveled with him to many parts of the world. Reid spent three years in Germany and two years in the Philippines. He also lived in Mississippi, Illinois, Arizona, and Virginia in the United States.
Even with all the traveling, the family usually spent summers with his mother's father. He had built a beach house near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina on the Intracoastal Waterway. Reid's grandfather and uncles often built and fixed parts of the house. They also built small boats for the waterway. During these summers, Reid learned carpentry. In high school, he and his younger brother, Wave, built fiberglass surfboards. They used workshops at their family's winter homes to work on their projects after school.
First Ocean Journeys
Reid Stowe first studied art at the University of Arizona. He focused on painting and sculpture. In his late teens, Stowe visited Hawaii in the summer to surf. During one of these trips, when he was nineteen, Stowe met Craige Fostvedt. Craige had bought a small sailboat with his college money. He invited Stowe to sail with him through the South Pacific to New Zealand. Stowe needed a passport for this trip, which meant getting his birth certificate.
Years later, Stowe remembered that his parents could have refused to send him the certificate. They could have told him to go back to school. But they didn't. Stowe felt this was a very important moment that gave him confidence. This South Pacific trip was Stowe's first time sailing on the open ocean, and he quickly fell in love with it.
After his South Pacific journey, Stowe went back to his grandfather's house in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. He spent eight months building a 27-foot (8.2 m) and 1,400-pound (640 kg) catamaran named Tantra. He built it especially for open ocean sailing. A Dutchman he had met on his South Pacific trip visited him. He convinced Stowe to take the catamaran across the North Atlantic to the Netherlands.
They started their journey to the Netherlands in June 1973. After they arrived, Reid Stowe continued on a solo trip. This journey took him to Africa, then across the Atlantic again, and to Brazil and the Amazon River. He returned to the United States in 1976. Stowe once said that the catamaran Tantra was "the smallest boat to cross the Atlantic Ocean twice." However, a smaller boat had already made the round-trip crossing in the 1800s.
Building the Anne
After returning to the United States, Stowe wanted to build a boat perfect for very long trips. He really liked gaff-rigged schooners. He felt they were the best kind of sailing vessels. In 1976, he moved into his grandfather's beach house in North Carolina. With a lot of help from his mother's family, his retired father, and his siblings, Reid Stowe began building a sailboat. He designed it like the American gaff-rigged fishing schooners from the late 1800s.
The finished boat was a 60-ton (54,400 kg), two-masted gaff-rigged vessel. It was 70 feet (21.3 m) long with a 16-foot (4.9 m) beam. Unlike the old schooners, Stowe and his family used a special material called Ferralite over steel wire mesh for the hull. The inside was finished with Caribbean hardwood, mostly from wood washed ashore by Hurricane David. Stowe said the hull was like a sealed steel and fiberglass bottle. Also, electricity for computers and communication gear comes from wind, solar, and water generators.
Stowe, his family, and friends worked on building the boat for 18 months, finishing in 1978. The whole shipyard was on his grandfather's property. The boat was first named Tantra Schooner. Stowe made the ship his home. He first sailed it to the Caribbean with his wife, Iris, and baby daughter, Viva. They finished the inside of the boat while sailing.
Journeys with the Anne
Stowe first used the Tantra Schooner as a charter boat. This means people could rent it for trips. The boat was designed so that extra sleeping areas could be turned into a cargo hold. This was meant to make the Tantra Schooner able to support itself on long trips.
The boat was later renamed the Anne to honor his mother and her family. In 1986, Stowe took the schooner to Antarctic waters with a crew of eight. This was his first long test with the boat. For five months, Stowe and his crew sailed around the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands. Stowe sailed into ice packs and said they faced winds up to 110 mph (177 km/h). He told ESPN that they were "geared up like an ice man, goggles, everything, not a bit of skin exposed." He also said, "We had a gust of wind that blew the boat completely over."
To fight boredom, the crew used colored plastic filters to bathe in different colored lights. They also had a "bag of tricks" with scented herbs, spices, stones, and other items. These things helped them feel connected to home.
During this trip, Stowe started thinking seriously about a very long journey. He planned a 1,000-day voyage without touching land or getting supplies. The idea was to have a crew of scientists study weather, water, and pollution in remote parts of the world. Stowe also hoped to test communication satellites and water purification systems. These things could be useful for a trip to Mars.
Preparing for the 1000-Day Voyage
In the fall of 1997, Stowe started using Pier 63 in Chelsea, New York City as his base. He actively promoted his one thousand days voyage, calling it "1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey." A news article at the time suggested a launch date of 1999. It took eight more years before Stowe found enough money and media support for the project. During this time, Stowe lived on board the Anne and used Pier 63 as his address.
In 2006, a new park was built along the Hudson River. This forced the marina at Pier 63, where the Anne was kept, to move. So, the schooner Anne moved to the 12th St. Pier in Hoboken, New Jersey. This is where Reid eventually started his big voyage.
The Turtle Voyage: A Practice Run
Stowe's practice trip for the main voyage happened in 1999. He and his new wife, Laurence Guillem, sailed the South Atlantic Ocean for 194 days on the Anne. Laurence called this trip "The Odyssey of the Sea Turtle." Stowe wanted to sail a path that looked like a turtle on a GPS map. He said this choice was about not always rushing. He also said the turtle was a reminder about endangered species and the environment.
The voyage lasted from June 4 to December 17, 1999. There were no major accidents, but there were challenges. The Anne's engine broke down. Old sails made it hard for Stowe to navigate precisely, so the turtle shape wasn't as big or complete as he hoped. They also had a close call with Hurricane Lenny on their way back. Still, he and his sailing partner spent over half a year out of sight of land.
More Practice Trips
Stowe and Guillem tried another practice trip in January 2001. They sailed to Trinidad, but the Anne ran into very bad weather near Bermuda. The ship tipped over onto its side once in high seas, but it righted itself. Laurence injured her jaw in the accident. This was the last big trip Laurence took with Stowe. She said about him: "J'aime Reid, mais lui c'est un poisson et moi non." This means, "I love Reid, but he is a fish and I am not."
.jpg)
The 1000-Day Voyage Begins
Stowe and Soanya Ahmad started the 1000-day voyage on April 21, 2007, at 3:00 PM EDT. They left from the 12th St. Pier in Hoboken, New Jersey. About 100 people, including his parents and former wife, were there to see them off. The heavily loaded schooner sailed through New York Harbor and into the open ocean that evening.
This departure put into action plans that Stowe had discussed in a 1992 paper. He had thought that being confined and isolated on a long sea voyage would be similar to a trip to Mars. The name, 1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey, and the trip's length and challenges, all reflected these ideas. The scientific goals, like studying weather and pollution, were not fully met because they lacked the right equipment.
An article on the MarineBuzz website explained some technical details of the schooner's supplies. It also summarized Soanya's role in the trip before she had to leave.
Some unexpected things happened early in the voyage. On April 25, 2007, the schooner sailed near a US Navy missile test. The United States Coast Guard told the schooner to change course, and there were no more problems. A more serious accident happened on May 6, 2007. The schooner hit a container ship, which badly damaged the schooner's bowsprit (a pole sticking out from the front). The rest of the boat was fine. Stowe was able to make a new, shorter bowsprit from the less damaged parts. After these events, the boat spent much of late 2007 in the Southern Atlantic, passing the tip of Africa in mid-December 2007.
Soanya Leaves the Journey
A big event happened on February 22, 2008. Stowe's companion, Soanya Ahmad, decided to leave the voyage. After 306 days on board the schooner Anne, Soanya had to get off. It was later found out she was experiencing morning sickness. She left the schooner near Rottnest Island, close to Perth, Western Australia. Members from the Royal Perth Yacht Club helped her leave the boat.
Soanya Ahmad said she had been suffering from constant seasickness since November. Her departure left Stowe without a crew. This changed an original goal of the trip: "to leave the land and all support, sail for 1,000 days, non-stop at sea without receiving help..." Mr. Stowe planned to finish the mission alone. The schooner Anne stayed out of sight of land during the transfer so Mr. Stowe could continue his record attempt.
After leaving the schooner Anne on Day 306, Soanya returned to New York. In July 2008, she gave birth to a son, Darshen. Two years later, the whole family would be living aboard the Anne.
Completing the Voyage
On Day 658, Reid Stowe broke the world record for the longest non-stop ocean voyage. This record was previously held by Jon Sanders. This record counts if you don't include Nansen's Fram expedition, where the schooner Fram was stuck in ice for almost three years. Its crew was away from land for at least 1067 days.
Reid Stowe and his team reached one of their goals: a person sailing on the open seas without new supplies for 1000 days. They also broke the 1067-day record set by the Fram in 1896. January 16, 2010, was the official 1000-day mark. March 24, 2010, equaled the 1067-day mark. After the first 306 days with Soanya Ahmad, Reid Stowe also broke the record for the longest solo sea voyage without new supplies, on Day 964 (December 11, 2009).
Also, as a two-person male and female crew, Stowe and Ahmad could claim the longest non-stop ocean voyage by a man and a woman. This was since Bernard Moitessier and his wife Françoise completed a 126-day trip in 1966.
However, none of the records Stowe claimed were ever officially recognized. The World Sailing Speed Record Council focuses on speed records. They no longer recognize "human condition" categories.
Throughout the journey, Stowe stayed in touch with his support team in New York City using an Iridium phone. He used a VHF marine radio for talking to other ships. Volunteers kept a web site so the public could follow the voyage. The entire route of the schooner Anne was checked daily by GPS tracking. The company that made the GPS equipment made the data available online.
Until the computers broke down in December 2009, there were almost daily logs with a photo. These were sent as emails using the satellite phone. Soanya and Reid first sent these messages together. After Soanya left, Reid became the only one sending them.
Reid Stowe saw his son for the first time after landing his 70-foot schooner 'Anne' in New York. He reunited with his girlfriend Soanya Ahmad on Thursday, June 17, 2010. The couple had not seen each other since Soanya had to leave the voyage in February 2008.
Images for kids
-
Soanya Ahmad in January 2010
-
Schooner Anne
See also
- List of circumnavigations
- GPS drawing
- Tania Aebi
- Colin Angus
- Robin Lee Graham
- Roz Savage
- Katie Spotz
- Henk de Velde
