Robin Lee Graham: Where are they now?

High in the Montana mountains, famed circumnavigator Robin Lee Graham finds family, fun, and peace. Story by Emma Garschagen for SAIL magazine:

I am sailing with Robin Lee Graham, but there is no wind. It’s a hot day in July and Montana’s Flathead Lake is glass. The mountains around us are blurred by haze. A wildfire burns to our east. Robin’s blue eyes light up—he’s spotted catspaws ahead. The little puff fills our sails just briefly and we glide on the momentum. We are sailing Magnolia, a 20-foot mahogany knockabout that Robin meticulously restored.

Robin is used to sailing alone. We know him from National Geographic covers in the ’70s, or The Boy Who Sailed Around the World Alone on childhood bookshelves, or Dove, the memoir and the movie. In 1965, when he was 16 years old, Robin Lee Graham left southern California to sail around the world alone. On that voyage, which took five years, two boats, and three masts, he met Patti. They married in South Africa, halfway through the circumnavigation. They have now been married for 55 years. – Full report