Author: Marty Luster

Photo by Ann Luster

Photo by Rachel Hogancamp, posted with permission.

The schooner near by sleepily dropping down the tide, the little
boat slack-tow’d astern,
The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests, slapping,
The strata of color’d clouds, the long bar of maroon-tint away
solitary by itself, the spread of purity it lies motionless in,
The horizon’s edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt marsh
and shore mud,
These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who
now goes, and will always go forth every day.

From There Was A Child Went Forth, Walt Whitman

At Maritime Gloucester, deep water sailor Joe Harris last night regaled his audience  with the tale of his quest to set a new class record for an unassisted solo circumnavigation of the world.

Joe cast off from Newport RI on his 40 foot monohull Gryphon Solo 2 on November 15, 2015. Sailing southward and easterly, his plan was to cross the South Atlantic to the waters off Cape Town, South Africa and then continue east through the Indian Ocean into the Pacific, running south of Australia and New Zealand, round Cape Horn and then take a long slog North along  east coasts of the Americas back to Newport.

Unfortunately, Joe was forced into Cape Town to repair his hydro-generator, without which he would have lost the use of all of the electronic navigation and communication equipment on board. A second incident resulted in serious hull damage necessitating another emergency stop, this time in Uruguay.

Although Joe did not set the new record, his voyage of 154 days (not counting the repair stops) was a thrilling adventure filled with moments of abject terror as well as those of serene contentment. When asked if he would do it again, Joe said, ” I would like to, but don’t think I will.”

See Joe’s photo gallery of the voyage here.

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