Follow us on Twitter: 
Look us up on 
Subscribe to the 
Day 800 At Sea
Share the Good News on:
July 1, 2009. The 1000 days non-stop Mars Ocean Odyssey reaches Day 800.
by J.R. Weeks, V.
"I sail and write for those who have embarked upon quests with open hearts and a longing for oneness."
In what is becoming one of histories' greatest athletic and psychological feats, artist and sailor Reid Stowe passed day 800 of a planned 1000 days nonstop on his self-built 70 foot 50-ton Schooner Anne on July 1, 2009. In a world consumed by issues of ecology, energy and economy, Stowe's endurance challenge is a studied example of self-sufficiency. The Schooner Anne left Hoboken, New Jersey, on April 21, 2007 with three years of food and supplies, and the plan is to not port nor resupply for another 200 days.
Thirty-plus years in the planning, the first 800 days of the journey have been eventful. On day 15, the Anne lost her steel bowsprit in a freighter collision. Stowe spent nearly 125 days repairing the front of his boat to provide sufficient support for its two 16" diameter 30' foot tall Danish fir masts. He has had to repair his sails constantly, and lost his desalinator unit on day 455. The entire 1kD "Odyssey" so far has evolved to a larger experience of spirit and heart for Stowe, his many faithful volunteers and the followers of his logs and pictures that are sent via satellite phone and published on his website, (http://www.1000days.net) Twitter (http://twitter.com/1kd) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/1000DaysOceanOdyssey).
Stowe sees the project as a space analogous expedition because the voyage involves the same length of time as a round trip to Mars and poses similar human psychological endurance issues. He published an article in 1990 entitled "Seafarers of today provide a role model for spacefarers of tomorrow", with the author Al Harrison. Recently, He and Mr. Harrison participated in the CONTACT conference on space travel and psychology.
He also views his quest as "A Voyage of the Heart". On day 749, the artist completed a deliberate drawing of a heart in the ocean with his satellite path and dedicated it as a valentine to the mother of his son Darshen, Soanya Ahmad, who was his sailing partner for 305 of the 800 days. The wasn't the first time Stowe had sailed wildlife shapes on the sea. In 1996, on a 198-day excursion in preparation for the 1000-day challenge, artist Stowe chose to draw a path of a sea turtle, symbolic of both his schooner's speed difference from other endurance craft and to foster more sensitivity to land and sea creatures. Last October, while becalmed, he was delighted to discover he had by chance drawn the path of a whale in the Pacific.
Lately Mr. Stowe has taken a much more reverent tone in his blogs, in appreciation of the great state of grace that has allowed him to prevail for such a long time. His knowledge of what he conceives as Providence has become more acute as the days wear on and his body dances with the waves and extreme daily exertions. He has practiced yoga throughout his adult life, and it has helped him balance and heal his physical body to endure. He describes his connection to the world of the spirit in his logs:
"I have always seen my journeys into the wilderness of the sea as a spiritual quest. My mission is to inspire the world while using love to adapt to living with the forces of the sea. As a spirit I feel like a Native American who survives alone as an initiation, a hermit in a cave in the mountains, the monk who takes a 1000-day walk or an Aborigine on walkabout. I could put up full sail and 'schoon' somewhere in no hurry, but we are perfectly happy where we are. Being here inspires and challenges me in many ways. I built my first boat when I was 20, a catamaran that weighed 1,400 pounds and sailed her across the Atlantic.
"[Now] I have to worry about any eventuality, and have to be constantly on watch, by chart or by my visual perceptions of things. There are a multitude of potential risks out here for me, some imagined and some real. I have a growing desire to know God. Yoga has been a great aid to me as a sailor because it gives me endurance and keeps me light, flexible, strong and agile: it tunes me into the sea so that I adapt, anticipate and react in a more aware way. It is not just the Hatha Yoga exercises that are important: All the different yoga practices are. I practice Pranayama Yoga, the breathing exercises to purify, charge and direct my energy. I practice Kundalini Yoga to wake up the latent life force in my body. And most of all, I practice Bhakti Yoga, which is the yoga of love and devotion to our divine essence.
As I move from one place to the next, I sideslip trying to conserve my energy, remembering my gratefulness and impermanence. [My] objective is to know our place in the universe better and to make a transformation from a faulty, wordly creature into a spiritual being."
[Now] the human society part of me says, 'You must go, set a course.' The divine searcher side of me says, 'Pray here for a while, this is your place, your moment. Love sets the course. One day I will again have to reorient myself to the world and choose the best course for my abilities. For the time being, I dissolve in the grace of the sacred sideslip. I pray for my faithful food, the living vibrant sprouts and the fish that feed me. The winds and seas and wildlife follow me seemingly saying, 'Save us'. I say, 'Take me where you will, I'm seaworthy.'"
(From his blogs at http://www.1000days.net)