1000 Days

I've been following the journey of Reid and Soanya - the goal being to sail 1000 days nonstop out of sight of land. A challenge, for sure. Don't know how I stumbled upon the website - but I've been following since about the 4th month of the journey.

Reid has attempted this before - and had a marriage end in the course of the journey - prior to that journey ending. He returned to land and somewhere along the way, he met Soanya. She had no background in sailing - but somehow, decided that attempting the longest continuous sea journey was a cause she had to be a part of. That, and she and Reid apparently fell in love along the way.

I checked the website daily at the beginning (www.1000days.net) but sort of tapered off the past few months. The posts were uninteresting and not very 'feeling filled' - seemed to be kind of vague and sparse of inspiration. Not that their journey isn't inspiring - takes guts, that's for sure. And it's admirable that Reid built the schooner by hand - he and his family - and she is a good ship and is serving him well. But I sort of lost interest. When last I checked in a couple months ago, Soanya was seasick a lot and I felt badly for her.

I got around to checking again this past weekend - and oh my gosh! Soanya has jumped ship. Not literally. But weeks of seasickness turned into months - and she's lost a lot of weight and is generally miserable - so she left the trip. She was picked up by a boat off the coast of Perth - and sadly, the seas were so rough that Reid had to bring the schooner in close enough to the shore that land was visible - so there goes that record. She is back in New York now and on the road to recovery - and while the blog certainly implies that all is well between the two of them, I sort of wonder. Again, their writing style is not very revealing - so it's hard to tell for sure.

Reid is quirky - no doubt about it. And a web search of his name reveals all sorts of 'past issues' that some folks allude to - he's spent his life working toward pursuing this dream of a journey and that's certainly not a main stream way to live. But he has corporate sponsors and individual donors and enough supplies on board to make it another two year solo. And that scares the crap out of me - the schooner is a BIG ship and I can't imagine being on a ship that size all alone. When will he sleep? How will he tend to all the things that need tending to? The sails, the ropes, the wood - not to mention feeding himself. I just don't know how he'll do it. And I worry about him - not like I'd worry for a family member, but sort of. That's the strange thing about blogs - you get attached to the people you're reading about, even though you've never met them and probably never will.

I will keep checking back - hoping he does OK. I don't think two years alone in the middle of the ocean is healthy for anyone - even for someone who has been a 'loner' most of his life. I don't think it's safe for him to travel alone - but I have no say in it. It's his decision. He is in touch with his crew (based on land, of course) on a constant basis and he does blog almost daily. So he'll be in touch.

If you call sailing around the oceans with no particular plan or goal in mind 'in touch'.

As for Soanya - I want to know how it turns out for them. If she left really, truly because physically, she had no choice? Or if she got tired of it - woke up one day and realized 'heck, I want a cheeseburger [she's a vegetarian so she'd probably think of a falafel burger instead] and off this ship NOW, MAN' (which I can see myself doing if I were in her shoes). Or maybe, just maybe, she will wait for him to come home. And they'll have a life together.

I always like to know how it turns out in the end. That's my criteria for a good story - you have to know how it all turns out. Short of that, it's just a novella - and if it's a good one, you're willing to wait for the ending. I'm willing to wait. And watch...and hope.

Be safe, Reid. Come home if it means saving your life or your ship. And Soanya, be well. Enjoy being on land and with your family. You already surpassed the record for a woman at sea the most consecutive days - something to be proud of.

I'll keep watching. And praying for the good ship Anne and her captain and crew. All one of them.