Intrepid sailor set to voyage around the world

Reid Stowe at the helm of “Anne,” his 70-foot schooner

By Alyssa Galella

On Saturday, April 21, former Chelsea resident Reid Stowe will embark on the voyage of his dreams—a trip around the world in 1,000 days without seeing land. A lifelong sailor, Stowe has been planning this expedition for almost 20 years.

He and his girlfriend, Soanya Ahmad, 23, will be making the voyage on Stowe’s 70-foot schooner, “Anne,” named after his mother. Stowe built the “Anne” himself in the 1970s, and has previously taken it on extended voyages to Antarctica and the South Pacific, calling it “the ultimate long-distance sailboat.”

Stowe, whose father was in the Air Force and built boats as a hobby, has been exploring the ocean since his nomadic childhood. He sailed around the South Pacific for a year in a small wooden boat at the age of 19 and traveled the Amazon River a few years later.

“I’ve always been around boats, and I wanted to go on adventures,” said Stowe, who still has a youthful energy and exuberance even in his mid-50s (Stowe declined to reveal his exact age). Although friends joined him on many of his expeditions, Stowe believes that sailing alone is “a rite of passage to a more powerful lifestyle,” he said.

“To sail at sea alone on a small boat, you’re in a position where you get close to nature and yourself,” he said. “You overcome dangers and problems, and you’re more independent.”

Stowe has the sort of independent spirit that is especially embraced in Chelsea. He lived on the “Anne” for nine years when it was docked at Pier 63 Maritime, a privately owned railroad barge on the Hudson River at West 23rd Street. Stowe, who is also a painter and sculptor, was drawn to Chelsea because of the art scene and stayed for the community.

“Without that place, I wouldn’t have been able to mount this expedition,” Stowe said in his soft drawl. “It helped support me.”

The pier closed last September to make way for the future Hudson River Park, and Stowe and Ahmad were forced to move the boat to a pier in Hoboken, where they now live.

“I wish we could have stayed, and I think we deserved to have stayed. I did many record-breaking voyages from that pier,” Stowe said. “Now, there’s no place for explorer-type people. It will be only tourists and tourist boats,” he said, adding, “It’s a pity for Chelsea and the waterfront.”

Pier 63 was where Stowe and Ahmad met four years ago, too. Ahmad, then a photography student at The City College of New York, was taking shots of the piers, since black-and-white harborscapes are her favorite subjects. She ran into Stowe, who invited her to take pictures of his boat and sail with him the next day.

Although Ahmad has only been sailing for the past year, “she didn’t take much persuading” to join Stowe on the trip, he said.
Ahmad, who has also studied maritime technology and fulfills all the duties of a first mate on the “Anne,” sees the voyage as a “great learning experience,” even though “it’s a little nerve-wracking, because there’s no turning back,” she said.

In fact, the Queens native has never sailed the open seas, and is excited to share the new experience with Stowe, a seasoned veteran.

“I’m looking forward to just getting out there and experiencing the ocean for the first time,” Ahmad said. “I’ve been on the ocean on a cruise boat, but that’s kind of different.”

Many things about the impending thousand-day voyage will make it different from any other. Yet Stowe is nonchalantly optimistic, saying, “I’ve already been at sea for hundreds of days, so I’ll just do what I’ve already been doing, just for a little bit longer.”

The current world record for days at sea is held by Australian Jon Sanders, who sailed around the world for 657 days. However, Stowe said he didn’t know of Sanders’ record when he began planning his own extended expedition.

“The number 1,000 came to me in a vision,” he said. “I think it’s reachable and we can do it.”

The pure logistics of such a feat are almost incomprehensible, and that’s why it has taken so long for Stowe to realize his dream.

“I hoped to have left sooner, but I had difficulty financing the voyage and then some major setbacks, like a broken motor,” he said.

The motor is now repaired and the trip fully financed, with help from monetary contributions and donated goods from various companies and individuals.

Some of these goods include hundreds of pounds of pasta, rice and beans, along with 250 pounds of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese donated from Italy. Stowe and Ahmad also plan to catch fish, and they will grow their own sprouts in the boat’s galley.

Stowe eats two big bowls daily with olive oil, vinaigrette and sesame seeds, and they have been a staple of his diet for the past 20 years.

“They’re so delicious and much more healthy than non-live vegetables,” he said.

In addition, the “Anne” has four 1,400-gallon tanks of water, and Stowe plans to collect additional rainwater with large plastic tarps on the deck.

“We have everything we need to live out on the sea for three years,” Stowe said. “It’s almost overwhelming.”

Stowe also has the pair’s entertainment needs covered. He and Ahmad plan to make art, dance, listen to music and practice yoga. Stowe, who has been doing yoga for 35 years, calls it “the key to [his] physical health and vitality,” and it’s clearly working, as he doesn’t look a day older than 40.

And above all, he enjoys the seclusion and spirituality of just being in the middle of the ocean.

“Silence is a wonderful thing – it’s healing,” Stowe said. “People of the city can’t understand what it’s like.”

In addition to all their recreational activities on-board, Stowe and Ahmad are looking forward to making their voyage into an educational experience for children around the world. With a satellite phone, they plan to post daily photos, videos and journal entries to their Website, www.1000days.net, as part of an educational program entitled “1,000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey.”

Stowe compares his pioneering journey to a voyage to Mars because “the seafarers of today are the role models for the spacefarers of tomorrow,” he said.

The two seafarers will first sail in the shape of a giant heart “as big as the South Atlantic,” and then follow the winds and the currents while avoiding the coast. Stowe said the voyage is a “conceptual art project” that’s also “a message for the whole world.”

Stowe has previously sailed in the shape of a sea turtle, but chose a heart this time for a reason.

“It’s really a voyage of the heart,” he said. “It takes skill, courage and athletic ability, but it all boils down to the heart.”