Joe Harris: Update from Land

Aboard his Class40 GryphonSolo2, American Joe Harris departed Newport (RI) on November 15, 2015 in a bid to break the 40 Foot Monohull Solo Non-Stop Round the World Record. That plan, however, got derailed with a detour to Cape Town to repair his energy systems and another pit stop in Uruguay due to hull damage. Joe provides an epilogue…

Hard to believe it has been nearly three months since I returned to Newport from my solo circumnavigation. This is a new chapter for me, with my 30 year, only-item-on-the-bucket-list dream of a sailing circumnavigation complete, it begs the question, what next?

Well… I have been re-acclimating to life on land, spending a lot of time with my family, looking for work and enjoying the summer. Not doing much sailing! I have picked up a great book called “438 Days – An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea”. Not sure why that would be of interest… But I am enjoying it and very thankful that I made it back home safely rather than floating around on a life raft in the Southern Ocean!

I have also been working on a slide-and-video presentation that is now ready, so I wanted to make folks aware that I am available to speak to your favorite civic group, school, club or business. My first presentation was to the Edgartown Yacht Club on Martha’s Vineyard last week and it went very well – so thank you to Josh McCall, Paul Mitchell and Bill Roman for organizing. There is a good motivational, perseverance, follow your dreams, message to the presentation, which might be helpful to any business or other group looking for a shot in the arm.

The book project is also progressing, albeit a bit slowly. I realize from creating the slide show presentation how much material there is from more than a decade of writing blogs from sea, so I look forward to pulling it all together in the coming months.

I have also been working on the good ship GryphonSolo2 up at Maine Yacht Center and have taken the boat completely apart to check on everything and she is in great shape. I have decided to put her on the market for sale, so if you know anyone who might be interested, please contact me.

So that’s about it from my perch here on Block island- I hope everyone is enjoying these last days of summer- I truly miss the email correspondence with everyone from sea, so drop me a line with your update if you like, Jharris@broadreachdev.com

– Joe Harris

Background: As a result of Joe’s 11-day detour to Cape Town (Dec 28-Jan 8), and his 10-day pit stop in Uruguay (Mar 22-31, 2016), Joe was no longer able to officially break the existing non-stop record of 137 days, 20 hours, 01 minute, 57 seconds – set by Chinese sailor Guo Chuan in 2013. However, he remained committed to completing the journey, and succeeded. Website: www.gryphonsolo2.com