Amazing Circumnavigator

[webfoot]

http://i3.tinypic.com/2zqvf5t.jpg

This was kind of an experiment on trying to post pics which I finally figured out, I think. Kind of big though. This is a pic of John Sowden taken in Martinique in the spring of 1986. He had just completed his 3rd circumnavigation in his 25 ft sloop, Tarmin. At the time he was probably the only one to circumavigate alone 3 times in the same wooden boat. A very modest man who neither wrote or took pictures of his travels.

Wonder if he is still around.

[Ron Carter]

Wow. Talk about rode hard and put to bed wet. Nothing yacht like about that one.

[Northernguy59]

Must have been a bit lazy............ no maintenance on his boat and what did he do when at sea ? I think writing and taking photos would be a good way to keep busy.

Dale

[S.V. Airlie]

I'm not too excited by the lack of maintenance here.
Skills to navigate around the world should include taking care of the craft you are on.
I'd be embarrassed showing up in a harbor.
I'd also be worried about the condition of things ya don't see.

[Pierre LaRochelle]

Do you mean "this is a pic of so and so's boat that has been anchored in St. Martinique since the Spring of 1986?" By the lack of equipment and markings visible, I would try another story line on this one! Every marina in the world has one of these neglected yatch......to keep everyone guessing why this could happen to a perfectly good boat.

Sorry, hardly believable.

[Hwyl]

Don't be too hard on him, probably sailed on a slow passage on port tack which explains all the fouling, the rust stains look reminiscent of Suhali after her circumnav' and I'm not about to knock Sir Robin.

[Pierre LaRochelle]

You're right.. port tack....scuppers the salty sea dog....sorry...it's all good.

[webfoot]

As I said he was a very modest man. We had met up with him in Durban and Herb& Doris, our Capts, had actually met up with him on thier first trip in St Lucia. He had just come in from Durban with only one stop in St. Helena having been becalmed for two weeks at the Equator.

So he needed a little topside paint:rolleyes:

[Les Schuldt]

Web,

Why do I suspect that his departures and arrivals all occured on...

April, 1?

-Les

[webfoot]

No foolin', Really. I was just looking through my old photos and remembered this as a pretty amazing story. I couln't believe that he had actually made it around 3 times in this boat. It looked like it would fall apart right there.

[ssor]

I found this promotion for a book authored by his sister Joan ;

About John Mark Sowden

John was born in Colome, S. D., in 1920 with wanderlust in his blood and adventure in his heart. He grew up in California, saw action in the Navy in the South Pacific, worked for RCA on the early warning radar system, married a beautiful Christian Dior model, bought a 24-foot sailboat when he was 46, and then made history with his three solo circumnavigations. The Guinness Book of Records lists him as the earliest solo sailor to circumnavigate the globe three times in the same boat. It is an amazing feat.

[TimH]

looks (http://www.mcallen.lib.tx.us/books/circumna/ci_35.htm) like he lives in Montana now?

http://www.aloneonthesea.com/

[ssor]

The link: http://aloneonthesea.com/about.htm ,indicates that he died in 1990

[Pierre LaRochelle]

I hope I look as young as the fellow in the pram (Sowden?) when I'm 66................doing the math of course.

[Pierre LaRochelle]

He apparently died in 1990......4 years later?

[webfoot]

John Sowden spent 20 years on his three circumnavigations. We feel this quote says it all:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the
things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the tradewinds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover."
~Attributed to Mark Twain~

Awesome Quote!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[paladin]

his rigging and equipment may have been galvanized steel/iron....stainless bleeding like that would have broken long ago....

on another note, the references to the Slocum Society and Snowdens letters are in the Society Archives, and several letters such as Don Holm used in his references in the Circumnavigators. I now own all those documents and publishing rights. When I acquired the assets of the Slocum Society I regained the rights to all my letters to Holm plus all the letters/photos/etc acquired by the Society.

[emichaels]

We all need fresh paint from time to time..... also inspiriation helps too.

[TimH]

Wow..that is a fantastic quote...

[AlanL]

I'd assume that sailing around meant naff all income to spend on prettying up brightwork and the like. If it floats and sails what else do ya need :rolleyes:

He did what most of us dream about and never do. In fact, where do ya buy roundtuits, I wanna get me one :D

[PeterSibley]

Don't be too hard on him, probably sailed on a slow passage on port tack which explains all the fouling, the rust stains look reminiscent of Suhali after her circumnav' and I'm not about to knock Sir Robin.

Spot on ! I have an old copy of Knox-Johnston's "A World Of My Own" with a photo of Suhali looking very much the same as Tarmin.These are boats that actually get used to extremes ,very much a different world to the sanding and varnish of the weekend sailor .As fo maintainence , salt water is the best preserver ,apply regularly .

[JimD]

An interesting quote from The Circumnavigators:

In short, the world today, after a half century of war, subversion, hostilities, crusades, and revolution all in the name of freedom from fear and want, has gained none of the freedom and lost little of the want, that characterized Slocum's world.

[S.V. Airlie]

Everything everyone has posted may be true but I'd like to ask Paladin..
Since he HAS gone around the world several times. Would you allow your boat to look like this? Why do I suspect the answer is gonna be NO.

[Matt J.]

I'm in the "at least he God-d#$m well did it!" camp...

As I sit here at my desk staring at the friggin' 'puter again, all day, I can't help but wonder who'd begrudge a man for being there in a shabby looking boat what went round the world THREE TIMES.

I'd do it. If it took letting the boat look like shite, well, then tough nuts... :mad:

[paladin]

Jaimie...there's a helluva lotta folks out there doing it on a shoestring. I've met folks anchored out on small islands with little more than some flour to make bread and a can of Bovril beef (gawd how I hate that stuff now)......I always tried to lay offshore long enough to get a shave and make the boat as spic an span as I could.......you get a sooooomuch better reception with customs.......when you come into port with a two week scraggly beard, dirty torn shirt and pants and barefoot.....and smelling like it.....you get a very cold shoulder and usually you don't get the time of day. If you arrive clean, shaven and the boat looks like it is well cared for, you're a yachtsman, not a boat bum.....Francis Stokes came aboard 20 plus years ago and made the same remarks, that he couldn't believe the boat had just arrived after a transatlantic.......but I came across the gulfstream about 50 miles out, run out 700 feet of line and anchor, and spent two days cleaning the boat and oiling the rails and doing the laundry with my nearly last 20 gallons of fresh water.....

[webfoot]

I'll quote Herb Smith out of the book "Sailing Three Oceans" as he documented our meeting up with John.

"John has to be the the greatest singlehanded sailor in history, but few know about him because he is not a publicity seeker......John Sowden's third voyage was completed in Martinique and if he were not so laid-back and modest, the whole world would know about him. Instead, after a long passage from Durban, with only one stop in Saint Helena and a spell of being becalmed for two weeks at the equator, he arrived quietly at Fort-deFrance and anchored in the middle of the bay, 1,000 yards from the other boats. It was a pleasure to be the first to congratulate him.....When I asked him if he planned to make a fourth voyage, he said, "Not a chance!""

He may have been embarrassed on the condition of his boat or just burnt out all together. Who knows......Hard to begrudge a guy after completing such an awesome feat..................I know we were scrubbing and painting everything in Bermuda before our last leg to Boothbay.

[StevenBauer]

Here's the link to the book:

http://aloneonthesea.com/about.htm

Steven

[Pierre LaRochelle]

My comments were more to the originator of this thread and the very slightest and infintesimally small possibility that the story offered initially may have been inaccurate with respect to time and that I based what ever preconceived notion I had about the facts presented strictly on my own personal experience in the matter of nautical lore.

[Steve Paskey]

What Snowden did is quite extraordinary ....

At age 46, he bought a 25-foot boat, and spent the next 20 years sailing solo around the world.

I'll be 47 in September. I've no hankering to follow him, but it does make you think about what you really want to do with the rest of your life.

[paladin]

If you read Don Holms book, The Circumnavigators, you get a good look at what folks went through to accomplish what they did. Don glossed over things that might not make sympathetic reading, he extract bits from the letters, he was a newspaper person by trade who lived on a boat, offshor for a day was an adventure for him. I read the original letters by Jean Gau, and Atom, and I thought that the interview done properly would fill a book, he kept a very nice log, just a few comments about the wind and the water and weather, and a running commentary each day....It was mostly glossed over in "the circumnavigators".....Many of these folks had a radio of some kind on board...usually a "ham" type transceiver low powered that would operate the 20 meter band....at 1900zulu on Sunday night the band would come alive transferring traffic on 14.313 mhz, lower sideband...boats all over the world transmitting position and traffic info and words to be relayed to friends and family....the net lasted 30-45 minutes because most folks would run their batteries down in that much time and it would take 3-4 days under sail to recharge them. During the time I worked out of Thailand my radio call was HS3AJH, Chomburi....when on the boat it was K5LMA, but now it's N4EZV.....

[PeterSibley]

I guess shaby topsides are a hanging offence :D .I return to Knox-Johnston and Suhali ,not a bad pair but no idea of topside care ! :D

[TimH]

I'm in the "at least he God-d#$m well did it!" camp...

As I sit here at my desk staring at the friggin' 'puter again, all day, I can't help but wonder who'd begrudge a man for being there in a shabby looking boat what went round the world THREE TIMES.

I'd do it. If it took letting the boat look like shite, well, then tough nuts... :mad:


my thoughts exactly.