1000 Days of Hell

Larry King Interview with Mission Control

2010-05-29T23:57:00.001-04:00

1000 DAYS! Congrats Reid! Thanks Nick!

2010-01-19T00:25:00.001-05:00

South Carolina Girl Wins Sailing Trip of a Life Time.

2009-05-11T22:16:00.001-04:00

From Lonelyboy15 ---

A lucky South Carolina lass has won the dream opportunity of a life time. A year at sea aboard a romantic 72 foot schooner cruising the South Seas! The '1000 days at sea' organization has been conducting the Be a Stowe-away for aYear competition to find a suitable person to join famous adventurer, artist and musician Reid Stowe as he continues his record breaking odyssey. The opportunity arouse when Mr. Reid's initial 1st mate ,Soanya, left the project to start a family.

The winner was announced at the gala finals evening, held last night.
The Judges had to pick winner, based on their suitability as a companion for Mr. Reid.
Head judge Jesse said "We were looking for someone with intelligence, good communication skills and, of course, a sound knowledge of world affairs and geography"

I think you will agree, they chose well......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Windmill Lanced During High Speed Dragon Chase

2009-02-04T00:03:00.001-05:00

By CScow Associated Press
February 3, 2009. Barcelona de La Mancha, England
Updated: 13 minutes ago

A windmill is recovering from bowsprit lance injuries, following an afternoon highspeed dragon chase, during which speeds nearly exceeded 3 knots.

Police are questioning an obscure, fractionally NASA affiliated Hoboken astronomy team, "1000 Days", regarding the unauthorized, mildly subsidized, poorly executed, and largely ignored dragon chase. Neither residents nor the windmill itself recall seeing dragons in the area since 1400 BC, when the 1000 Days astronomy mission was first conceived.

Sancho "Sparky" Panza, deepwater electrician for the team, insists hateful dragons exist and warrant chasing. "We mind our chakra, living life to the cheesiest, expecting to be treated like kings for the amazing willy nilly research we do. Unfortunately, that dragon appeared, treating us with disdain, putting us under duress, and harrassing any loved ones we might have, if we weren't such ignorant assholes. That only hardened our resolve, forcing me to look up the word "vicissitudes" in the dictionary, because my spelling isn't so good. It took me a full month to figure out how to spell 'Maersk', the last time we filed falsified court papers for child suport. Vicissitudes. That one's gonna be a real pisser".

The windmill was treated with white stucco and released, following prompt action by local Belgian Tripel beer brewers. "We make up a microcosm of the grand macrocosm of Belgian Tripels. The last thing we need in this economy is crack induced 1970's dragon chasers interrupting beer production. Hell, mess with the fermentation schedule, we may as well give up and write books about soy sauce. Or start playing hockey. For the Detroit Redwings", said one brewermaster as he ordered barley millers back to work in the injured windmill.

Authorities issued citations to Weed Quixote, sailorman of HMS Anne, for exceeding the vessel's maximum certified speed limit of 1.75 knots. An unidentified brilliant all-star, right stuff detective, having fortitude to deal with hardships of missions he denies ever happened, noted Hoboken vessels are typically limited to the velocity of Hudson River currents, either plus or minus 1.75 knots when sailing on a broad reach in 25 knot winds, depending on tides, time of day, and alignment with Mars.

Anne's bowsprit, nicknamed "Stubby" by many observers, was withdrawn after being "in the pool" so to speak, and could not be reached for comment.

Cape Horn Rounding Plagued By Fan Participation

2009-01-19T08:54:00.003-05:00

By CScow Associated Press
January 18, 2009. Greenwich, West Africa
Updated: 45 minutes ago

HMS Anne nearly completed today's 35 meter leg of the famed 1000 Days In Sight of Cape Horn endurance competition, amidst cheers of disappointed fans and tourists.

"It's been a tough, remarkably successful day", according to Sparky, Anne's chief winch switch wiring engineer. "The 800 pound test fishing line wrapped around Anne's prop and rudder enabled our Mahi steering system to perform flawlessly. The captain's sprout methane propulsion system also worked well, providing intermittent forward motion. Sure, each time Anne moves, something breaks, rips, melts, implodes, ferments, shreads, disolves, rots, rusts, evaporates, explodes, burns, tears, collides, or disrupts the captain's Muladhara chakra. But those are minor concerns. Our main problem today was the unexpected, on-site attention of loyal fans. We planned to easily log 46,000 miles by daybreak, propelled by 372 knot winds and 147 meter waves. However, given spectators, we were pretty much confined to navigating calmer wind and waves, logging travels within a 65 foot radius".

Fans enjoyed the festive Las Vegas atmosphere, including senior citizens who first heard of "1000 Days" as young grade school students and "just had to get in on this action". Edith Rand, recently touring South American bingo parlors, made a special effort to visit Cape Horn and bet on the deepwater enduro. "The action has been simply fantastic! This morning, I doubled my bets the moment I saw Anne's solar panels melt. Thought I had lost the whole month's Social Security check by noon, when a 45-foot albatross collided with the antique gimballed platform and Anne moved six inches. But sure enough, by late afternoon, the lady floating in the inner tube flashed her tits....a full two hours before Anne came within 20 meters of the finish line. BINGO! Jackpot!!. Screw sprout chakra!!! Tonight it's prime rib beef, buttered lobster, fried bacon cheese sticks, and a quart of tequila for this old gal!!!!".

Tourists aboard a chartered US Airways casino expressed mixed reactions to the excursion, with opinions varying along traditional partisan chakra lines.

Frequent floaters, such as one yacht salesman from Detroit, cited the airline's inequitable distribution of honey roasted peanuts as well as a general lack of alternative entertainment. "I tried to be polite, only asking the stewardess for peanuts after my stomach grumbled and Manipura solar plexus chakra had gone from yellow to azure. The stewardess bitch ignored me....continued telling passengers steps to take in the event of a land landing, whining about smoking only being allowed on the leeward wing, and so on...like we haven't heard THAT speech 1000 times before. Meanwhile, those bastard armchair Admirals up in First Class ate all the damned honey roasted peanuts. Adding to misery, 16 hours into today's leg of the Cape competition, I strolled out to the windward wing to get some fresh air and play Shuffleboard. All they had was 'Void Ho And Go Seek', a game some world class dumbass electrician from Hoboken must have invented. 25,000 floater miles? For THIS? If this is how US Airways treats frequent floaters, I can only imagine service back in Bilge Class".

Several marine manufacturers and suppliers attended, in part to defend quality of products used in boats handmade for this and similar 1000 day events. "Sailormen buy or produce Optima Batteries expecting at least two trouble free years of continuous, dead-short winch switch power capacity, as advertised", noted an unidentified Optima Battery salesman. "Unfortunately, with these (multi-year) 1000 day events, consumers and gamblers lose track of time and may falsely assume our Optima failed earlier, possibly within the first year of constant dead-short use. That is simply not the case, as Anne clearly demonstrated over many decades of improper wiring".

Anne's former Danforth anchor was buried knee deep in Hudson River turd and jet engine parts and could not be reached for comment.

Cruising World Writes Article on Stowe - Our Weather Scow is on the Scene Reporting ---THE LAKE EFFECT

2009-01-09T01:26:00.004-05:00

Guttersnipe Epidemic Strikes Forum Dwellers
By CScow Associated Press
January 8, 2009. Santa's Village, New York
Updated: 72 minutes ago

Prestigious journalists are investigating an outbreak of Forum Dweller Guttersnipe (FDG), an inspiring condition impacting all ages, genders, and handmade boat owners.

This field reporter was absolutely, unequivocally, blown away by the engrossing impact guttersnipe has. Symptoms were described by one source at the scene as "schoolyard bullies throwing rocks at aging, innocent, rabid schoolyard cats who go on vacation to avoid child support obligations", or something to that effect.

One such cat, surrounding himself with and owing support to a variety of younger pussies, admits he has rankled souls along the way. "I am not a perfect cat, and they've found flaws to throw stones at. They don't like my selfish lifestyle, lack of coherent philosophy, convenient invention of random religions, choice of pussies, void personality, handmade schooner, or my art. They really love me, of course....just not those parts about me. Most of all, they don't understand my lifelong dream...dumpster diving for 1000 Days, the longest nonstop dumpster dive in cat history. Perhaps it isn't 'me'; it could be purely monetary, a product of our times, flowing from sponsors to my personal bank account before anyone discovers lack of tax-deductibility. I share an inspiring story. In return, forum dwellers guttersnipe me to the core, causing me to dig deep for love and more favorable press coverage".

Scientists and intellectuals are working non-stop to address the issue. "We thought we had guttersniping contained", said Sparky, of the Hoboken Deepwater Guttersnipe Research Facility. "Last week, a virulent forum dweller, guttersniping Detroit about some stupid hockey game, was nearly stoned to death by Detroit schoolyard bullies, when Detroit later won that game. Turns out we were overly optimistic, thinking Detroit or anyone in the dusty Great Lakes region would end it. Forum guttersnipe simply mutated into new variant strains, targeting Shuffleboard, airport runways, and petrol tankers. Where will it end? It now appears we need 1000 days, well over 207 pages of detailed forum research, and sale of at least one more Admiral web site membership to tackle this most remarkable of tragic problems".

Veteran forum dweller and sailor William Backstay remains optimistic, offensively commenting on gains made in fighting aimless driftathons, the leading cause of Guttersnipe. "Sure, we have misguided women like Sparky...dwelling here and in other forums, signing on as "SailDude" and "Sailing007", who have never set foot on a sailboat, nor apparently been owed child support. Fortunately, experienced forum dwellers have developed early detection methods, often allowing application of less invasion nitpicking out-patient procedures, with minimal ralphing or other side effects. There's still hope".

Sailorman Rescues Petrol Tanker

2009-01-07T00:09:00.002-05:00

By CScow Associated Press
January 6, 2009. Santiago, British Columbia
Updated: 13 minutes ago

A ship was mistakenly rescued today, when the captain of a handmade schooner confused the 180-tonne petrol tanker Sonangol Kassanje with a nearby capsized race boat needing assistance.

Crew of the tanker and handmade rescue schooner "Anne" are said to be safe and in good health, but the incident was not without mishap. The captain of Sonangol Kassanje considered trying to outrun the handmade schooner, believing it looked "a lot like those pirate boats in the papers lately". However, the tanker remained stationary, intent on guarding the capsized race boat, leading to its striking Anne some 6 hours later.

Damages to the handmade schooner were difficult to determine, reportedly due to its general condition. "She's in pretty bad shape. We just can't figure out how a collision could age the sails that fast. About the only thing in workable condition is the deck. Looks like spruce out of a Steinway or something.", a member of the tanker's crew noted. Sources indicate the tanker's owners, backed by millionaire sponsors, denied responsibility but agreed to a settlement calling for their purchase of an "Admiral" membership to some obscure New York web site in exchange for Anne "just going away".

Jean Le Cam, skipper of the capsized VM Matériaux, witnessed the tanker rescue and chose to remain captive in his inverted boat for 16 hours, indicating the hard working skipper of the handmade schooner had done enough for one day. "Thanks, but I'm good. Really! I already have a ride coming to pick me up, and have a couple of novels to read while I wait. Take a break!! Relax!!! Go sailing.....over there, by that tanker!!! I'll be fine!!!".

1000 Days of Hell Cited in Sail Magazine

2008-12-27T16:46:00.005-05:00

WoooooooHoooooooo! .............. and WTF?

In the January issue of Sail, Charles Doane includes a link to this blog site in an article about Reid Stowe and 1000 Days at Sea. The title of his article is "To Infinity and Beyond".

While we certainly appreciate the publicity, we have to wonder if he hasn't got anything better to write about. Overall, the article is the most balanced we've seen. Mr. Doane mentions some of Reid's less flattering life experiences and, as far as we're concerned, nails the description of the art Reid created by accident in the Pacific saying - "...his whale in fact looks more like a manatee" (E-mail me Mr. Doane and let me know where to send the prize - a pair of Soanya panties).

He made a couple errors in his article, including saying that "...Anne was struck by a freighter". Reality is that Reid hit a very, very large ship. He also states in reference to this blog that - "You'll note too, that this so-called parody of Reid often verges into outright hatred".

How does one "verge into outright" anything? That's like saying that Soanya was "almost completely pregnant".

More important, we'd like Mr. Doane to substantiate his claim that there's any hatred here. Look it up in the dictionary. There's not a whole lot of respect for Reid here, but that's a far cry from "outright hatred". Please point out hateful words, HTFU, or go back to writing those rosy reviews of Barney and Friends.

Our feelings are hurt and we think an apology is in order.

Thanks Tabman... Funny Shit

2008-12-19T20:44:00.004-05:00

NickDG Welcomes Darshen Into the Big Azure World

2008-07-25T10:55:00.003-04:00

NickDG Does It Again!!!!

2008-07-11T00:12:00.001-04:00

Thanks again NickDG!

2008-05-30T11:44:00.002-04:00

Day 378 - Message of Hope

2008-04-30T08:53:00.002-04:00

Many times during the trip, I have received warm hearted and genuine emails and phone calls from wonderful supporters, and I thought I would just say thankyou to the latest contributor Brian, who gave me some wonderful advice on how to get rid of the marine growth on the bottom of Anne.

I didnt realise that ferralyte was an essentially porous mixture of polyester resin and talcum powder in a ratio of about 1 part resin to 20 parts talcum. Fortunately, talcum powder is porous and according to the desalinator manual, when you have a porous subject, if the pressure on one side is greater than the other side, the water will pass straight through, in a process called osmosis.

So yesterday, when I was cleaning the desalinator and reversing the pressure, I achieved reverse osmosis, and I could not believe the quantity of gunk that came out of the desalinator.

So I did some quick calculations, and I worked out that if I tightened the fastenings on the hatches, and closed the hatches, I could, by opening some of the propane bottles down below, achieve an internal hull pressure of about 30 pounds per square inch, and that would be sufficient to force the gas through the talc (through reverse osmosis), and magically lift off the marine growth on the bottom of the hull, just like the desalinator did.

Of course I would have to modify my snorkel, with a length of hose, so that I could breathe while I was in the cabin, opening propane bottles, but fortunately I have some good tape that should do the job.

Where would I be without such wonderful advice.

The other great advice I got was to put my headsail up in place of my mainsail. It is working a treat, and sets well behind the mast, but unfortunately it is backwards, so I am now finding that Anne wants to sail backwards all the time. Anyway, I am getting used to it.

So thankyou Brian, I am off to try your idea, and who knows, it might even force some of the diesel in the bilge, out of the boat as well. It is so dark down there though, I dont know how I can see what I am doing.. I guess I will think of something..

Reid

Thanks Timmys Trick Turkey!

SeaMadness and Soy after filming their 1000-Days Bible infomercial....

2008-04-23T07:02:00.002-04:00

JPlanet responds to Soanyas latest post and at the same time responds to the response of SeaMadness to fund raising efforts by MC in response to what appears to be less than stellar support for the space analogous voyage.

In the image, "NOT VOID HO" means that it is not this.

She was in Oz, right?

2008-03-14T16:11:00.000-04:00

Thanks NickDG!

NickDG - Gettin it done .......

2008-03-10T23:08:00.002-04:00

Is This Even Funny?

2008-03-07T04:24:00.001-05:00

Yup! Thanks again NickDG!

Golly -- That was Quick!

2008-03-05T16:13:00.002-05:00

Thanks NickDG

1000 DOH Exclusive - Soanya's Back in New York - The Interviews at JFK

2008-02-29T12:41:00.004-05:00

1000 Days of Hell went to New York's JFK Airport with a camera to be part of Soanya's welcome home party. I think we covered the story better than Adam Nichols at the NY Daily News, don't you?

A Few Days in Perth

2008-02-27T21:28:00.003-05:00

NickDG was there in Perth to capture Soanya taking advantage of Australian hospitality. From barf bags to shopping bags, her instantaneous reidcuperation has been miraculous.

Goodbye Soanya. Hello Voices.

2008-02-26T07:56:00.007-05:00

Wherein Reid bids Soyonara to Soanya and introduces us to the imaginary friends that live in his head. "The High Seas" --- Very funny stuff from Sailing Anarchy's favorite newbie Thermopyle.

Adventurer, Convicted Drug Smuggler & Deadbeat Dad

2008-02-24T14:09:00.004-05:00

Warrants for Child Support ---

(Click on image to enlarge)

Search for yourself by clicking here.

Thanks to liboy who posted links to the above on the NY Daily News site.

Reid's Shore Team Thinks YOU are an Idiot

2008-02-22T10:53:00.007-05:00

Today, Reid's shore team posted a Press Release in which many of their claims can be challenged, but two of their claims are reidiculous, blatant lies.

They know it.

They must think you and I are completely daft.

SO CLOSE

From their Press Release -

The “1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey” voyage has the
aim of remaining in the open ocean, out-of-sight of land, with no
re-provision or resupply for a period of 1000 days

"Out of site of land"? The screen shot below shows the distance between Anne's track and Rottnest Island to her right. A half mile converts to about 900 yards - or three drives and a well executed 5 iron. If you think that 900 yards is "out of site of land", I suggest you contact Reid's shore team immediately and ask that their web updates be sent to you in braille.

AND YET SO FAR

From their Press Release -

Soanya's seasickness over the last few months,
brought on by their entry into the southern ocean...

The Southern Ocean is below 60 degrees south. The screen capture below shows a line, made with Google Earth ruler function. That line is from the Anne's southernmost point on her cruise to 60 S.

Take a look at the distance. No small miscalculation or "close enough". That's about the distance between New York City and the Magical World of Disney in Orlando FL. I'd say they were just a tad shy of the Southern Ocean, wouldn't you? To make it to the Southern Ocean from their closest point to it would have taken an additional 10 days.....if they headed straight south.....and averaged 5 knots.

A word about the use of the word "captain", Captain Stowe ...

2008-02-22T05:38:00.002-05:00

(With thanks to original IFSMA article, here)

The Courtesy Title of "Captain"

“Captain” is a RANK in the Armed Services (Army Navy and Air Force) it is only a Courtesy Title in the MERCHANT NAVY.

The Title of “Captain” is very loosely and widely used throughout the Transport Industry as “Captain of a Ship” “Captain of an Aircraft” and more recently “Captain of a Train”. In the world of Competitive Sports it appears as “Captain of the County Cricket Club", “Captain of the Rugby Football Team”, “Captain of the Golf Club” and “Captain of the Darts Team”.

In the USA and Canada the term is used to describe the leader of a group as “Captain of Industry”, a policeman in charge of a precinct, a head waiter, and a supervisor of bellboys in a hotel. At its most ludicrous level you could most surely have “Captain of a Wheelbarrow”, “Captain of a Milk Float” or “Captain of an Ice Cream Cart”. In other words “Captain” may be used to describe any person in charge of a vehicle or having responsibility for a group of people.

In the Merchant Navy the person in charge and having ultimate responsibility for the command of the vessel is the SHIPMASTER and his rank is that of a MASTER. In the view of IFSMA this RANK is accorded to SHIPMASTERS who are in possession of an Internationally recognised Certificate of Competency issued by the Government of an established maritime nation and who are or have been in command of a seagoing Merchant Ship.

A number of Professional Institutes do formally address their members as “Captain”. This is purely a matter of courtesy and is usually confirmed to internal proceedings of that particular Institute. For example members of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners (a City of London Livery Company) must have held a Master Mariners Certificate of Competency for 5 years prior to their election but they do not need to have actually held command. In committee and court meetings they are addressed as “Captain”.

The title of “Captain” is very jealously safeguarded by those Master Mariners who have served in Command. The nearest we come to a Official Recognition of the title is in Government Departments such as the Marine Directorate in the Department of Transport where the Nautical Surveyors MUST have served at least 2 years in command of a foreign going steamship whilst holding a Class 1 (MASTER MARINER) Certificate of Competency. In addition they must hold the EXTRA MASTER CERTIFICATE of Competency or a B.Sc. Degree in Nautical Studies.

This rather demonstrates that the title “Captain” must be recognized by the Nautical Profession as an accolade to be earned by a Shipmaster having achieved a standard of excellence and demonstrated a level of expertise in maritime matters which would not normally be available to a lower ranking Officer due to inadequate or insufficient sea service and to lack of control decision making in Command Environment.

The IFSMA membership consists of fully qualified Shipmasters who have held Command of Seagoing Merchant Ships and they are addressed as “Captain”. IFSMA fully appreciates the desire of the ruling bodies to raise the profile of their Professional Institutes and to enhance the status of their Membership, but urges them not to cast their net too wide so that the RANK OF SHIPMASTER and the title of CAPTAIN are unwittingly cheapened. Both terms should be restricted to those who are properly qualified as Master Mariners AND who are holding, or have held Command of a Merchant Vessel.

And Then There Was One......

2008-02-21T14:42:00.003-05:00

In the wee hours of the morning on the East Coast of the US, an Australian by the name of Glenn20 posted to a Sailing Anarchy forum the following:

Called Aus Customs Hot line - the guy at the end thought I was very odd -

Got call back from Canberra (HQ).

THey have a file on the boat. A yacht is going out from Royal Perth Yacht CLub to meet the boat outside of the 3 nm radius. His girlfirend is gavely ill and needs to be removed from the ANNE and then processed by customs (probably taken to hospital)

Reid continues on his way and does not enter our 3nm border

Later the story was confirmed by a post from Reid and Soanya on their official website.

While we've had some great laughs at Soanya's expense, since the news broke this morning every comment at SA that references Soanya has been supportive of her decision. We hope Soanya can take some time to decompress from her experience. We wish her a rapid recovery and all the best.

2008-02-21T00:16:00.001-05:00

New from NickDG Press - "The Story of Convict Transport Ship Anne"

2008-02-19T23:46:00.012-05:00

A riveting, modern day story of survival at sea, and the struggle for survival in Australia.

The story begins in a schooner-analogous Federal Penitentiary in Texas where our protagonist is shunned by his cell mates and is purposefully clumsy with soap in the communal shower.

Suddenly, out of the azure, he feels the Tantric vibes that would change his life forever -- the vibrations of a baby girl being born in Brooklyn. Fourteen years later, that same girl would accompany him on his epic journey where they would endure unimaginable hardships - a collision at sea, the ruthless Capt. Squawk, and over 300 days without the comfort of lotioned man-hands.

700 days prior to their scheduled landing at the penal colony, enter T.C. Nicholas - the violent and stormy antagonist who drives them into the port of his own choosing. Unable to afford a phone call home to ask for financial assistance, our desperate pair of lovers are forced into the completely alien world of work. While our hero intimately tends sheep in the Australian Brokeback, it is our heroine who tirelessly pours the countless slushies at the Minimart that might ultimately earn their freedom.

A tale of deception, feigned struggle, napping, and suffering through the humiliation of having to don Fall pant suits suitable for urban, white collar work in a rural, Summer setting.

(click to enlarge)

A PSA from the 1000 Days Followers at Sailing Anarchy

2008-02-19T09:14:00.005-05:00

Immortalized in the American Vernacular

2008-02-19T08:49:00.004-05:00

(click on image for full size)

Day 300 and a Tattered Main

2008-02-17T14:35:00.003-05:00

JPlanet over at Sailing Anarchy came up with what the Anne might look like after all the sewing Reid's had to do to it.

Here's another image that's not so funny. Nicholas is heading toward the Anne. VERY nasty weather.

Thanks Born2Sail for the fine weather reporting.

The United States of America vs. Reid Stowe .......30,000 Pounds of Marijuana

2008-02-15T17:32:00.015-05:00

Celebrating 5502 Days Since Reid's Sentencing Hearing for Conspiricy to Import Marijauna - Literally Tons of the Stuff

Below is the Cover sheet followed by the full text of Reid's Sentencing Hearing in US District Court, Bangor, Maine.

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(The following proceeding was held in open court, before the Honorable Morton A. Brody, Judge, United States District Court, District of Maine, at the United States Courthouse, Bangor, Maine, on January 22, 1993, beginning at 3:08 p.m.)

THE COURT: All right. In the matter of United States versus Stowe, the government ready for sentence?

MR. McCLOSKEY: Government is prepared, your Honor.

THE COURT: Defendant's ready?

MS. COHEN: Yes, your Honor.

THE COURT: All right. First of all, let me ask you, counsel, whether or not you've had an opportunity to go over with your client the presentence report that's been prepared in this matter?

MR. COHEN: Yes, I have, your Honor.

THE COURT: And are there any additions or corrections you want to bring to the attention of the court?

MS. COHEN: There are none.

THE COURT: All right. Let me ask you, Mr. Stowe, whether or not you've had an opportunity — adequate opportunity to go over the presentence report with your lawyer and whether or not you have any questions about the the contents of that report?

THE DEFENDANT: I went over the report and found it to be fair and true.

THE COURT: All right. Thank you.

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Does the government wish to be heard in the matter of sentence, Mr. McCloskey?

MR. McCLOSKEY: Yes, your Honor. Your Honor, the government in this particular case is going to make a recommendation of eighteen months imprisonment. As the court knows, this involved an importation of approximately 10- to 14,000 pounds of marijuana, a substantially large importation along the Maine coast.

In this particular case, the difficulty obviously that is facing the court is that other defendants in the case who are admittedly of much more substantial involvement than this particular defendant received unbelievably light sentences in the District of Massachusetts. And the question then becomes, what ought this defendant receive in this district given the fact that people higher up the ladder than he was received very, very light sentences, and why does he deserve a sentence in the range of eighteen months?

The government would indicate to the court that there has been a long history of cases in the District of Massachusetts where large-scale marijuana smugglers have gotten very, very light sentences, unexplainably so. And the government would argue that, because of that, the court should not use these sentences as a guide to determine what this defendant ought to get in this particular case. It simply ought not to be done. And the court ought to make a

4

determination based upon an assessment of this particular individual's involvement based upon the amount of marijuana in this case. What does the defendant deserve in this district? And not necessarily use the District of Massachusetts as a guide on determining what this defendant ought to get.

It is true that this defendant has provided cooperation to the extent that he was able to do it. It is also true that the major players who were involved in Massachusetts provided cooperation.

THE COURT: Well, I guess I'd like to know how much cooperation that you received from this defendant.

MR. McCLOSKEY: Mr. McCarthy submitted to the court a statement of the defendant's cooperation in this matter which fairly accurately portrays this defendant's cooperation. He was truthful, the government believes. He was debriefed. He provided the information that he knew, but because of the staleness of the information in terms of the time frame of the case, it never really resulted in any other indictments. It did not result in him presenting any further testimony to the grand jury. It did not result in his testimony at trial. Nor is it anticipated that there will be any testimony in which his help will be needed. So he was truthful, but it really didn't amount to very much in terms of what happened as a result of that information.

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It really is historical information that filled in a gap here, a gap there, but really resulted in no further prosecutions.

THE COURT: Well, obviously, through no fault, I guess, of Mr. Stowe.

MR. McCLOSKEY: No question.

THE COURT: Since the statute's evidently run on the other co-defendants.

MR. McCLOSKEY: No, and it is a truth of those cases, your Honor, that those people who are most responsible or have the greatest culpability are frequently and most frequently are able to provide the greatest information, so people like William Terry and McCauleys were in a situation where they were much more involved in this operation or involved at a higher level and were involved in several smuggles and, therefore, they had more information to provide to the government. So that shouldn't be necessarily held against the defendant.

But that's the nature of these cases and the government suggests that, in this district, the history has been of individuals involved like this particular person have generally received in the area of 18 to 24 months, with cooperation I might add, and frequently cooperation that has resulted in prosecutions and then their testimony at trial. So the government would suggest that a recommendation of 18

6

months is one that is appropriate given the level of this defendant's involvement, given the amount of marijuana in this case.

The government has calculated what this defendant would be receiving if he were being sentenced under the guidelines and it would be somewhere in the area of 135 to 168 months. So an 18-month sentence --

THE COURT: That's exactly what it would be.

MR. McCLOSKEY: So an 18-month sentence where he's eligible for parole in two-thirds at the most, he's going to do a year's time in jail. So the government believes that the sentence is appropriate. Thank you very much.

THE COURT: Let me just ask you. I don't know whether you know or have this information or not, Mr. McCloskey. I've got a pretty good handle on Kevin McCauley and William Terry, III. Do you happen to know offhand or would your reports in any way reflect what role Christopher McCauley, Thomas Chamberlain or William Hubner played in this scenario?

MR. McCLOSKEY: Your Honor, I am familiar with what is in the records, but I think I would be better advised to let the DEA agent here who is much more familiar than I am with this case to provide that information to the court if he can.

THE COURT: Do you know who those — can you tell

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me what role Christopher McCauley, Thomas Chamberlain and William Hubner played in this?

MR. McCLOSKEY: Your Honor, this is Agent Bryfonski, John Bryfonski.

MR. BRYFONSKI: Yes, your Honor, I do.

Essentially, Christopher McCauley, the brother of John McCauley, participated in some of the earlier smuggles dating back prior to 1987 events.

THE COURT: Well, Keven McCauley actually hired the defendant; right?

MR. BRYFONSKI: Yes.

THE COURT: And he was, in the pecking order, a step or two above Stowe; right?

MR. BRYFONSKI: Yes.

THE COURT: Where in that pecking order did Christopher McCauley come?

MR. BRYFONSKI: Christopher McCauley, your Honor, essentially was the helper and an individual who assisted in providing transportation and coordinating events in the islands, again I believe, without refreshing my recollection, going back prior to the "87 smuggle.

THE COURT: All right. What about Chamberlain?

MR. BRYFONSKI: Thomas Chamberlain was an individual who participated in some of the offloading of the marijuana, essentially in the North Carolina smuggles dating

8

back again prior to 1987, and as well as with the other individual.

THE COURT: Hubner?

MR. BRYFONSKI: Correct, I believe.

THE COURT: He was an offloader?

MR. BRYFONSKI: I believe so, sir, and I believe that, again without refreshing my recollection, that was an individual who again participated in some of the North Carolina/Massachusetts events.

THE COURT: All right. Thank you.

MR. BRYFONSKI: You're welcome.

THE COURT: Anything else from the government?

MR. McCLOSKEY: Nothing further.

THE COURT: All right. Does the defendant wish to be heard on the matter of sentence?

MS. COHEN: Yes, your Honor, as your Honor I'm sure is aware based upon the letter that we have submitted to you.

THE COURT: Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I received a letter from Ms. Cohen dated January 20, and attached to that letter were numerous letters from various people and relatives of the defendant.

Did you distribute copies of these to the government?

MS. COHEN: Your Honor, I did send a copy to the government.

MR. McCLOSKEY: I have them.

9

MS. COHEN: I believe they received them.

THE COURT: Thank you. Go ahead.

MS. COHEN: Your Honor, from that letter all parties, I believe, can garner that we are applying today for your Honor to consider what I think would be somewhat of an unusual sentence given drug cases, and that would be to sentence my client to a nonincarceratory sentence. And I preface my remarks by starting there, by telling your Honor that we understand that drug charges are very serious. My client understands that and I understand that what we're asking for is in some situations very unusual.

You've asked questions today regarding the role of my client's position in this event, and I suggest to you that my client was involved in a large-scale operation for a limited time period. It was a limited time period for approximately two months while he was waiting for this transaction to take place in the Caribbean.

And it was during a time period, your Honor, where his life was somewhat in limbo. He was in between a trip which he had taken to the Antarctic on an exploratory mission and going back to New York where he was going to be embarking on a new career and a new life.

He made grave mistakes. He broke the law.

THE COURT: He broke it big time. We're not talking about a couple of ounces or a marijuana cigarette.

10

We're talking about 30,000 pounds of marijuana, aren't we?

MS. COHEN: It is a -- your Honor, it is a huge amount of marijuana, and I could not in any way suggest to you that it is not a grave violation. It is. What I can suggest to you or ask you to think about is what he did after this activity. He was wrong --

THE COURT: Let me help you a little bit. I've been thinking about this for a long time, ever since the information was presented to me and I'm going to hear you out, but just so maybe you can help me in my decision because I haven't made a decision yet.

I don't have any question about what your client's done since this incident. Obviously, he's done a lot of good work. He's helped this blind -- this organization for the blind, the Associated Blind, Inc., and others. He obviously has a background which should have made him know better when he made this decision to -- knowing decision to get involved in this.

And so I don't have any problem about his rehabilitation or the fact that he is a good man. A lot of good men and a lot of good women get caught up in the criminal law and get involved in making other people not so good because of the actions that they do with marijuana or other drugs. And I'm concerned about that to some extent.
I'm also concerned about what really appears to me to be

11

outrageous sentences in Massachusetts. And I am not going to be influenced or bound or motivated by these what I consider to be off-the-wall sentences in Massachusetts. I don't have enough information about them, but I can guess that — I don't have to guess. I guess I have enough information to know that there was a lot of cooperation by a lot of people. That helped, but even aside from that, I don't understand those sentences.

I don't understand a lot of the sentences on marijuana and other drugs in Massachusetts in any event. And the sentences that were given to these co-defendants or these defendants in related activities is not going to overly influence this court's sentence in this case.

So I guess what I'm telling you is I am well aware of your client's good deeds since this incident. And I think that they were obviously taken earnestly and not for the purpose of trying to posture himself in a way that would put himself in good light as far as the court is concerned. I don't question his motives. I don't question his sincerity. The only thing I'm questioning here is his involvement with a dramatically high amount of marijuana. We're talking about big stakes in the marijuana situation.
And so, with that context, I'd be interested in hearing from you as to how I can in good conscience and under the law allow this defendant to, in effect, walk.

12

MS. COHEN: Your Honor, my client's position in this transaction is different significantly, I believe, from the other people that were involved in this case. It is my understanding that he's one of the only few -- there may be one other person where this was the sole transaction. That these people had been involved for upwards of five years. That they had been involved in multiple transactions involving other situations in the Caribbean and up throughout the East Coast, namely North Carolina as well as in Maine.

This was his first endeavor. It was his first involvement with this group of people. There was no excuse for his bad judgment, none. If I can suggest to you, when he was met by these people, his motivation was a poor one and the motivation was that he was financially insolvent. Someone offered him a large sum of money to do this and he was headed back to New York where he intended — his intentions were not to continue with these people, not to continue in a five-year path like other people in a drug-related business, but his intentions were to pursue the goals which he in fact has done.

And in this involvement -- he was down in the Caribbean, he was asked to participate by someone who had known his brothers or through some familial relationship and, based upon that motivation, lack of funds, he endeavored to engage in a very significant transfer of marijuana from one boat to

13

the other.

I will suggest to your Honor that, as soon as he did that, he ended all involvement with this transaction. He didn't do it upon face of an indictment or the fact that there was news that there was a warrant out for his arrest. He stopped this contact of and unto itself because he wanted to. He moved back to New York two days after the boat — he found out that the boats were in the Caribbean, he flew back to New York, and from that moment on, he endeavored to lead a life that was different.
He did it. He made a mistake.

He lived in New York with his name on the door. He was a public figure because he was advertising under his name, the name he had used in the Caribbean, as an artist in New York City.

He did nothing in any way to obstruct justice or stay away from the law, and four years after this conduct had been committed, he was arrested. And when he was arrested, he never once denied his responsibilities.

THE COURT: He didn't turn himself in, did he?

MS. COHEN: He did not, your Honor. But for going to the United States Attorney's Office and saying, "I don't believe that I'm wanted, but I did violate a crime."
Your Honor, there was not a warrant out for his arrest that we're aware of.

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THE COURT: You say he did go to the U.S. Attorney's Office?

MS. COHEN: No, he did not. He did not do that. But for doing that, your Honor, there was not a warrant out for his arrest that we're aware of. No one had informed us that the government was looking for him.

What happened was one morning, very early in the morning, approximately 5:00, agents came to his home and addressed he and his wife, who is with him in court today. They immediately were brought down to the marshall's office in the Southern District of New York where, pursuant to Rule 40, he was transferred up here, almost immediately requested to speak to the United States Attorney where he offered to cooperate and do what he could. As you can tell, his cooperation was limited because, A., his involvement was limited; and B., it was — years had passed.

But he stopped this activity, your Honor, for no reason other than to lead a law-abiding life, and he's done that since then.

I think there is another factor regarding the people in this case aside from the fact that they were prosecuted in Massachusetts, and aside from the fact that, as the probation indicates, my client would have been prosecuted in Massachusetts, but there was some slipping through the cracks and he was never arrested. The McCauley brothers, as I

15

understand it, had a prior record that these people -- the McCauley brothers I believe had prior records, although it is not indicated in the report, and I've been unable to verify that, your Honor. But the information that we have is that they had actually been arrested before and I think that that is a distinctive character that is different between my client as well as these other people.

His role is limited to a one-time transaction. It was a two-month period and he stopped this activity based upon his own desires and I think that those are significant factors.

He has a very supportive family. His parents are here in the courtroom today, your Honor. They have written a letter to you. They have posted their home as bail in this case. They have traveled by car from North Carolina to be here to be with their son and to be supportive of him. And I think that, given that, he is somewhat unique in the level of support he does have from his family.

You would think and one would have hoped that because of such a supportive family he would have had the strength not to make this mistake. He didn't and he has to pay for it.

At the same time, I urge you to think about what he has done, why he stopped this path that he embarked upon. Think about the motivation that stopped him from continuing on and think about what he's done over the past four years. And also consider what he's done since he was arrested and he's

16

done whatever he could do and he still remains -- he's still willing and able to do whatever he can do and I think that if there is a situation, your Honor, where leniency would be warranted, I think that this may be such a case.

THE COURT: I don't think there is any question about that. There is no question that leniency is indicated. The question is how much leniency.

We're talking about a sentence that carries up to a life imprisonment in this case; right?

MS. COHEN: That's correct.

THE COURT: There's got to be some -- there's some room between no jail time and life. I mean, I hear what you say and everything you say is true, I think supported in the record, but the record also indicates the amounts of marijuana involved and I just can't look the other way. I mean, I'm going to try to look as sideways as I can, but I'm not going to completely ignore the fact that we're dealing with all these drugs.

You know, under other circumstances, if your client did not come out of the mold he came and did not do what he did and did not have the strength of character that he obviously has shown since the incident, we're not even talking about 18 months, we're not even talking about 2 or 3 years, we're talking about significant time. And I'm not talking about significant time here, but I'm talking about time.

17

I cannot in all good conscience under the law just suspend a sentence or give him no sentence.

MS. COHEN: Since your Honor is inclined to impose some kind of incarceration, then what I have to do is ask you to be as lenient as possible.

THE COURT: That's exactly what I intend to do, as lenient as possible under the circumstances, but what he has done speaks so loudly that it's very difficult to hear what he's accomplished since the incident. And I hear what you say and I am persuaded by what you say to a certain extent, but I think just to even consider a nonincarceration sentence I think is totally without any kind of support with these facts and with the law. And there is no way that I can in good conscience do that, nor will I do that. I'm not even sure they would do it in Massachusetts, maybe they would.

The other end of the coin is obviously, if he was sentenced in Massachusetts, we wouldn't be faced with the problem. The other end of the coin is that, if he was sentenced under the guidelines, which he could very well have been, we're looking at up to 168 months. That's a lot of time. We're looking at a range between 135 and 168 months.

I'm sorry I interrupted you. Go ahead. Is there anything else that you want to say?

MS. COHEN: I'm very well aware, your Honor, that this case was prosecuted in Maine. My client was well aware

18

of the potential guideline ramifications of his case. We've discussed them thoroughly before we entered a plea. We discussed them before he walked into the prosecutor's office to cooperate.

I would ask your Honor to consider his role, consider the role of the people that were in Massachusetts, and their past behavior and to base your sentence in the light that is fair regarding those people and, as I say, just be as fair as your Honor believes he can be.

THE COURT: All right. Thank you.

Does your client wish to be heard by way of allocution?

MS. COHEN: (Nodding in the affirmative.)

THE COURT: All right. Mr. Stowe.

THE DEFENDANT: Your Honor, I had a few things prepared to say and they have all been discussed here. I am before sentencing guidelines, I believe, because my involvement was the summer of '87. Since then, I wasn't involved.

They agreed to put it pre-sentencing guidelines. Therefore, it's all up to you. It's not to be compared to what the sentencing guidelines are. It's up to you to decide what I'm going to do.

And obviously, I was involved in a big operation and it was a big mistake and I'm sorry that I broke the law. I don't know if they've read other things that I have been

19

doing.

I realize that I broke the law.

I didn't know I was in trouble. I lived for five years there in New York with my name on the bell and my name on the phone book.

And I have a stack of material this thick (gesturing) that I turned over to the court that is magazine articles about me, what I'm doing with NASA and the space program, with the program that I've created involving human behavior, psychosocial issues, relevant for people to go into space. There's magazine articles that are in there. The president of the Explorers Club says that, if I succeed in what I'm doing, I'll be one of the greatest explorers ever.

I have a stack of letters from educational people that I've been working with over the last years where I've created an educational program for students of all ages that will be broadcast live via satellite and the director of the American Satellite Educators Association has said my program holds enormous educational potential.
So, I've been working real hard on a lot of things to make up for my past mistakes and including the last year that I've been working with the blind and I've created my own programs working intimately with groups of blind people teaching them relaxation and self-esteem.

I'm not sure that when someone reads a case and says,

20

These are the laws, we want to give the person the sentence for this law -- I can understand how they want to follow those things and do it.

I spent some time with Mr. Hawley and I felt that he was understanding about the things that I was working on and with a couple of other gentlemen here where they saw that what I was doing was very unique and in some way I hope that that would guide them a little bit up and above what the specific rules were, so that they could see what I was doing.

Now, I understand that you feel the same way about the rules and the laws because I was involved in this thing, and though they got off easier down there, though all of those guys had previous records and they hired me, they were able to help because they told on me and got me in four years later, there was nothing I could say because I didn't know anyone for four years involved in this.

And now I'm listening that they're asking for a sentence and that you're saying that you feel like you have to give me a sentence and I'm ready to accept anything and I'm ready to and I know I can continue with the goals that I have been working on no matter what happens to me. And I still have a hope at this moment that there is an alternative. Walking free isn't exactly what I had even imagined that I was doing.
And over the last more than a year since I was out on bail, my dad put the house up, I have not been able to travel

21

anywhere or go anywhere, and it's been stressful for my wife and my family. That year has gone by. There is more time coming up.

Now, I've been -- I think that I can do a good job helping society in the ways that can be counted and measured, the way that I'm helping the blind people here in New York.

I recently got invited to a NASA conference dealing with human policy issues for an extended period of time in space. I was the only operational person invited. I was the only explorer invited. I was the only person who was invited to that conference that had actually lived with a small group of people in an isolated, dangerous, high performance environment for an extended period of time.

So I've been contributing to the work that our nation is doing for preparing to go into space for an extended period of time. I have a lot of paperwork about that and I'm going to continue to do it.

The people who are helping roe with my project, I've made them aware that I was arrested because I got involved in a marijuana case in the summer of '87 and they were very supportive. They said, Well, that's real bad. Over the years we've known people that have gotten in trouble, too. We're still supporting you and we're still going to help you with the work that you're doing with the space program. And I think they will still help me even if I go to jail.

22

I think that there's maybe -- I don't know if there's an alternative that I could wear an ankle bracelet, my movements could be monitored and I could be sentenced to stay where I live in my apartment where I could continue to do the work that I do, except when I go out to the Associated Blind to help the blind people. So that I could be sentenced to stay in my apartment, so that I could wear an ankle bracelet, so that I can continue to do the work that I'm doing and not add further cost to the society. So that I could contribute rather than be a cost and be incarcerated.
And I'd like to know if you'd like to ask me any questions about that?

THE COURT: Yeah I'd like to know what you were thinking about or in terms -- or if you thought at all about all the people that would be using all this marijuana that you helped transport? Did that ever occur to you? Did you ever think about why it's against the law to do that? And what you were doing about —

I mean, there is no question that you were helping a lot of people and you are to be commended for it, and I'm sure no matter what I do, hopefully, there is enough inside you so that you're going to continue to do that regardless. It isn't a quid pro quo kind of situation, I hope. If it is, I've misjudged you.

But did you ever consider the ramifications of what you

23

were doing at the time you got involved in this? Did it ever occur to you — I mean, you're obviously a thinking person, a feeling person who was concerned about his fellow man. Did that ever reach your mind?

THE DEFENDANT: That people would be harmed by using the marijuana that I brought back? Did I think that they would be harmed by using the marijuana?

THE COURT: Did it ever occur to you to even assess that possibility?

THE DEFENDANT: I think that if I would have gotten involved with hard drugs or other things like that, more so. I didn't realize that I was harming people that much by doing that.

THE COURT: You knew it was against the law.

THE DEFENDANT: I knew it was against the law and I made a big mistake doing that and I was foolish to do it and it was a big mistake. And I hold no -- nothing against anyone. I'm ready to accept my punishment for it and, as I said, I still believe that I can contribute in many ways to society, many different projects that I'm working on, even if I am incarcerated.

THE COURT: All right. Thank you, Mr. Stowe. Do you have anything, any other witnesses or any other evidence you want to offer to the court?

MS. COHEN: No, Your Honor.

24

THE COURT: We have a plea agreement in this case; right?

MR. McCLOSKEY: That's correct, your Honor.

THE COURT: And part of the plea agreement, I take it, is to agree to — the United States agrees to move to dismiss the original indictment; is that correct?

MR. McCLOSKEY: That's correct, your Honor.

THE COURT: Now, under the original indictment, would the defendant be sentenced under the guidelines?

MR. McCLOSKEY: I believe so.

MS. COHEN: Your Honor, if I may respond to that. There was a good deal of discussion between Mr. McCarthy, who was the primary assistant that I was dealing with in this case, and there was no resolution as to that issue. Part of our plea agreement was to plea to a preindictment charge and we agreed essentially to not resolve the issue as to whether or not it was a guideline case. As far as I was concerned, it was not determined.

MR. McCLOSKEY: Judge, the indictment charges a guideline case. Now, what the court would have decided with respect to sentencing, whether it would have fallen within the guidelines or without the guidelines, would have been a matter of the contention I think at the time, but it charges a guideline case.

THE COURT: All right. I'm going to approve the or

25

accept the plea agreement that was entered into between the parties — I guess it's July 28.

As I've indicated, at least preliminarily, there are several factors that the court has to take into consideration in imposing sentence, and some of the pressures on the court in imposing sentence have been highlighted dramatically by this case.

There is no question that we have a young man here who made a mistake and has been trying to the extent possible to come to grips with that, within his own community and within himself. The trouble is that the mistake, the first mistake, criminal mistake that the defendant made happened to be a gigantic one in terms of the amounts of marijuana.

And regardless of whether or not you feel, Mr. Stowe, that marijuana is not a great danger to anyone, that's the implication that I read from you, that really isn't the issue. I suppose that all of us and particularly the court has to understand that we are a nation of laws and, when these laws are promulgated, there is a reason for them. And to some extent, I suppose, there is a reason for significant penalties connected with arranging the transportation of or distributing or participating in a conspiracy to distribute marijuana in huge amounts.

There are obviously some people that think a great deal of money can be made by doing that and indeed a great deal of

26

money changed hands in this situation. I'm not saying that you became wealthy as a result. You obviously did not. But it's the money evidently that creates the reason for people getting involved in it who are on the edge, who but for the lure of that probably would not be involved in any kind of criminal activity at all.

In imposing sentence, the law requires me to take several different factors into consideration. I have to take into consideration, and do, the nature and circumstances of the offense. And that's on the minus side as far as you're concerned. On the plus side, the history and record of the defendant, the fact that you have not been involved in any kind of criminal activity before and I suspect will not be again hopefully, certainly comes down on the plus side of the ledger.

But I have to take into consideration the seriousness of the offense and the need to promote some respect for the law, and it doesn't give the court any great pleasure to sentence anybody to jail, particularly the people who have not been involved and should not be involved in this kind of activity and should not be in jail. One of the requirements that the law imposes upon me is to take into consideration the deterrent aspect of sentencing, not only the deterrent aspect for purposes of the individual, the defendant who appears before the court, but to deter other people who are

27

participating in or contemplating the participation in of that kind of conduct.

And I suppose that even the sentence that I'm going to give you is going to be looked upon by many people who may be involved in this kind of activity as pretty much of a joke in terms of the amount of marijuana involved. It's certainly not going to have any great deterrent effect, but I'm not going to give you an excessive sentence or a sentence that I would consider has direct relationship to the amount of marijuana involved because I don't think it would be just. I don't think it would be fair to you and the people who are concerned about you.

So what I do every day is try to balance some of these factors and that's what the law requires me to do.

I, also, am mindful of the fact that I have to try to avoid unwarranted sentence disparities and that's why I said I was concerned about these Massachusetts sentences that I consider to be frankly inappropriate. One of the reasons probably that sentencing guidelines came into being in any event is because of the disparity of sentencing in various states for all kinds of reasons, many of them having no direct relationship to the judicial process.

I, also, have to consider the prospects for rehabilitation. I think you've pretty much rehabilitated yourself if you needed any rehabilitation.

28

So, putting all these various factors together, I'm going to sentence you, Mr. Stowe, for a period of time which under most circumstances would be on the very lowest end of the scale and in this circumstance is on the very lowest end of the scale.
Is there anything further from either the government or the defendant?

MS. COHEN: No, your Honor.

MR. McCLOSKEY: (Shaking head in the negative)

THE COURT: All right. If you'll stand, please, Mr. Stowe. I'm going to sentence you to 12 months of incarceration. I don't know how much actual time that will amount to, but I suspect probably about two-thirds of it. And I want you to know that you are being sentenced to that very light sentence primarily because of what you have done and how you have tried to repay to some extent society and I'm hopeful that you will continue to do that.

It's the lowest sentence that I could in all good conscience give to you.
Does your client want to self-report?

MS. COHEN: Yes, your Honor.

THE COURT: All right.

I'm going to allow the defendant to self-report on or about -- or on or before February 23, and the same bail will stand continued.

29

Anything further?

MR. McCLOSKEY: Your Honor, we need a special assessment.

THE COURT: Special assessment of fifty dollars?

MR. McCLOSKEY: Yes, your Honor. And I'd ask the court to advise the defendant of his right to appeal.

THE COURT: I want to point out to you, Mr. Stowe, that you, as I'm sure your lawyer already has, that you have the right to appeal the sentence. If you have any questions, go over them with Mrs. Cohen, I'm sure she will answer any questions you may have.

MR. McCLOSKEY: Your Honor, we also move to dismiss the underlying indictment.

THE COURT: Without any objection?

MS. COHEN: Correct.

THE COURT: And the motion by the government to dismiss the underlying indictment will be granted and that matter will be dismissed.

All right. Court will be in recess. (Court recessed at 3:48 p.m.)

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CERTIFICATION

I certify that the foregoing is a correct transcript from the record of proceedings in the above-entitled matter.

Christine T. Fraga, RPR, CM Date N
Official U.S. Court Reporter

2008-02-13T17:58:00.004-05:00

Day 297 East Southeast Winds

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Nearly Becalmed, Position: 35°17 S, 108°34 E, Temp. 75°F (24°C)

We didn't do a great job of research before we left to find out what official records had been broken at sea, and it really isn't that important to us in our quest for self enlightenment. A few times on our journey we learned that what we thought were records had already been accomplished by fellow sea voyagers who came before us. As we near 300 days and are running out of drinking water, we may have to cut our voyage short in Australia in order to survive. I decided to finish up a project I've been working on for the past couple months in what little spare time I've had after all the sailing and repairs and maintenance and fixing things. We're pretty sure we'll be in the record books for making the largest baseball while at sea. Of course if anybody knows of an example of a larger baseball made at sea, please let us know.

Soanya's View:

It was beautiful weather during the early part of the day. It brought to mind when spring comes and every now and then a warm bit of air mingles with the usual cool breeze. Then the air smells different too. I'm not sure if the air smelled different or was it my memory that made me think I could almost smell warmer air. Sometimes I wish we had brought grass seed so we could grow a plot for me to eat when my stomach gets upset. When it gets really bad, Reid knows that fetch time will distract me from my discomfort. I sometimes wonder if there are rabbits in the sea.

Throw Another Shrimp on the Barbie?

2008-02-13T07:40:00.002-05:00

The HMS (His Megalomaniac's Scow) Anne is about 400 miles from Oz (Australia) and heading directly towards Perth. Their main water tanks are empty and they're in a very bad part of the world to expect rain. Don't be surprised if you see Squawk walking down the streets of Perth wearing a Hawaiian shirt, black socks/sandals, and popping pictures with an old Kodak Instamatic. Don't, however, expect to see R&S, as we don't think anyone stepped up to cover the cost of passports. We've also heard that Oz has a less than welcoming attitude for those who crawl up their beeches with a felony conviction in tow.

Pray for rain. I know a lot of Australians are.

Thanks JPlanet --

Thanks CScow -

Stations of the Cross

2008-02-10T21:49:00.000-05:00

Reid Stowe yesterday-

"....our big main gaff fell down when the temporary ropes I had holding it chaffed through and broke. .....The original eyebolt wore down after 20 years and I replaced it with the Chinese one. ....Jesus was a carpenter and I've read that his favorite work was boat interiors..."

Sailing Anarchists respond:

NickDG -

CScow -

RD -

Jesus Yacht Interiors would like to thank College Movers for stepping up and helping us move materials to the job site down at the marina where we're remodeling the main salon of a Pontius Pilot 63.

Jesus Yacht Interiors
"Trust the hand of God"

In Support of Reid - A Request for Public Apology

2008-02-09T15:02:00.000-05:00

The below letter was posted to 1000 Days at Sea by John. Since our editor is out, and in the spirit of timely and open discourse, I decided to post it on John's behalf. Please do not be deterred by the gay bashing in the second sentence. Shortly thereafter he begins to decry name calling, extol the virtues of respecting others and the importance of humility. He winds things up by calling us "assholes". My comments follow his. - RD

John said...

I have emailed the following comments to 1000 Days Of Hell

Excuse me, but from May 2007 until yesterday, you all have said that the Maersk Dunedin Collision never happened. You even had your unnamed “Danish sailing friend” (sounds just as “gay” now as when you first said it) “who also has a close working business relationship with Maersk” verify that no such collision could have occurred. You have repeatedly said/published, in the harshest terms that Stowe was lying about the collision to cover for shoddy construction of his boat and/or poor seamanship. Now there is an official US Coast Guard report proving that there was indeed an accident and that Stowe was not lying about how his boat/bowsprit was damaged. Yes, you have posted what you are calling a “retraction” admitting that an accident did in fact occur - admitting the truth after you had been proven wrong must have taken exceptional courage and humility. Your gracious retraction aside, IMHO you owe Stowe a public apology for calling him a liar (in this instance); although I seriously doubt you have the moral character or intellectual honesty to admit your guilt and sincerely ask for forgiveness for your deliberate and malicious intent to defame this man.

Parody is one thing (it’s also SUPPOSED to be funny), but deliberately impugning a man’s character is just plain wrong. It would appear that you have been stripped of the moral superiority in which you clothed yourselves while you engaged in your self-righteous judgmentalism of Stowe and his checkered past. Seemingly, your hearts are just as black as you claim Stowe’s is. Your first mistake was forgetting that it is only those who have not sinned who get to cast the stones. I'm sure that producing a prestigious, world-class blog must require a tremendous amount of time (why the fact checking alone must take nanoseconds each and every day), but if and when you have a spare moment to lay down your poisoned pen you might want to google "The Golden Rule."

In my first email to you I ask this question:
“I understand that I’m running the risk of being labeled a “Reid-Hovian” in asking my question, but I’m trying to figure out if you guys are just mean-spirited assholes tearing down someone because you have nothing better to do, or if this Stowe character actually did something to one of you (stole money, screwed your wife, etc…) and now is pay back time?”

Apparently the answer is that you guys are just mean-spirited assholes!
B&C In Tenn.

P.S.
Be advised that you cannot become annoyed, irritated or angry with me for pointing out your “variations on the truth” and moral failures, I’m engaging in “PARODY!”
You know, you guys just might actually be on to something here, this pointing out character flaws in flaky people and calling them names is FUN AS HELL!!

Regatta Dog's response on behalf of 1000 Days of Hell

Dear John (always wanted to write that),

Our first apologies go to you for not meeting your expectations in the retraction that was posted immediately upon learning of the CG report. After reading the retraction again, I agree with you that it did not go far enough and would like to take this time to apologize to Reid for making a gross error in our interpretation of the various data and opinions available to us. Reid was telling the truth about having a collision at sea and we are sorry to have claimed there was no collision. Reid is still at fault for the collision by not having adequate equipment on board or keeping adequate watch. It happened, but it was still the fault of his incompetence.

We will not apologize, however, for calling Reid a liar just because he told the truth about the collision. He has lied numerous times regarding his accomplishments. Reid may also have lied to sponsors/donors about tax deductibility of donations, though we have yet to confirm that. Reid certainly mislead his donors and sponsors by selling them a bill of goods on what he was going to accomplish. He hasn't the resources on board to achieve even half of them.

I will not ask for Reid's forgiveness for anything. According to a recent post, Reid is a forgiver of all anyway, but I don't seek his forgiveness. In the big scheme of things, John, this bowsprit drama is a side show. When you write of our "deliberate and malicious attempt to defame this man", please keep in mind that we are simply trying to bring to light Reid's own actions or inactions. We erred with the bowsprit, but that does not mean that Reid should get a free ride. Reid's defamation is his own doing through deceiving sponsors/donors, apparently being a deadbeat dad, and dumping raw sewage into the Hudson River. That he'd take a completely inexperienced young woman on a 1000 day cruise through some of the most dangerous waters on the planet grossly unprepared in a bondo boat is yet another way Reid defames himself.

Lastly, John, Reid Stowe was arrested, convicted and served time in prison for the role he played in a smuggling operation that, according to court documents, brought 26,000-30,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States.

Do you really think anything we say about a bowsprit is going to do anything to defame Reid any more than he has himself? I agree with you that "deliberately impugning a man's character is wrong", but I judge a man's character by his actions, not his words. The man has no character, John. I'd be embarrassed to support him so publicly.

To address your last question of whether we are just mean spirited assholes or if Reid did anything to us - neither is the case. We didn't put the spotlight on Reid - Reid put the spotlight on Reid. For years Reid has been demanding attention to feed the appetite of his ego, which appears to be insatiable. Many people have followed him blindly (Hovians)- not knowing the real Reid Stowe. We are simply trying to alert people to beware of this demigod. He is not at all what he pretends to be.

Quite simply, John, he's an asshat.

- RD

P.S. - I Googled "Golden Rule" and appreciate your help there. I was looking for a new health plan. Thanks, John.

See Your FOI Document ...& Raise You One......

2008-02-08T17:21:00.001-05:00

The Report

2008-02-07T07:42:00.001-05:00

Thanks CScow!

OOOPS! Our Bad! About the sprit shit....

2008-02-06T08:38:00.000-05:00

After countless posts on Sailing Anarchy and a few posts here, we are humbled by the information appearing on 1000days.net from the US Coast Guard regarding a collision at sea. The report from the USCG confirms that on May 5th, the schooner Anne hit a Maersk freighter. The bowsprit of the Anne was indeed damaged by a ship that the Anne hit.

We here at 1000 Days of Hell bow our collective heads in shame, which is made difficult by the wagging tail between our legs as we whimper in anticipation of our efforts with the Freedom of Information Acts in NY and on a federal level regarding Anne's discharge of raw sewage, Reid's collision with the law and his problems keeping up with his familial obligations financially.

Congrats to Reid, his sponsors and his shore team for debunking what has become the urban legend of the high seas.

It is hoped, based on the USCG report, that 1000 Days at Sea will "step up" as we have and tell the story as it has been reported by the USCG. The Anne was not hit by a ship. The Anne hit a ship....a very large ship....while someone was on watch.....on a rather large body of water..... We invite you to watch Reid's pre-cruise chat regarding the dangers of hitting big ships at sea.

We're going to leave the blog entries regarding the collision in tact for the record, so that Reid and his shore team can point to us in our tinfoil helmets as naysayers and haters and perhaps garner some additional PayPal income from the controversy. After all, without the generous donations of an adoring public, Reid's back child support would continue to grow and we are a blog site that puts family first.

We hope you enjoy this victory of integrity for Mr. Stowe. Freedom of Information is a double edged sword.

Do stay tuned......

Jesus - Talk About Tasteless

2008-01-18T02:04:00.000-05:00

She's flat, but she's hot.

Subliminal Messages from the Schooner Anne?

2008-01-16T14:03:00.001-05:00

Thanks SlowCruiser!

Hint - Morse Code

'Twas the Night Before Cheese Mast

2007-12-24T17:12:00.000-05:00

Pour yourself a nice hot ruddered bum, set up the kids with egg nog, throw another log on the fire and enjoy the spirit of a Southern Ocean Christmas aboard the Schooner Anne.

The Night Before Cheese Mast

'Twas the night before Cheese Mast, and there on the scow,
The lice were not stirring in her uni-brow.
Her net stockings were on, and revealed lots of hair,
Because no one stepped up, and donated some Nair.

Reid and Soanya were nestled, all snug in their bunks,
While she dreamt of Big Macs and of holding back chunks.
The absence of sex had made her such a wreck,
She thought about slicing that big vein in his neck.

When out on the topside there arose such a clatter,
Reid sprung from his bunk to see what was the matter;
To the upside down salad-bowl he speedily raced,
Over sprouts, under ivy - like a gazelle being chased.

The green tubes on the crests of the South Ocean swells,
Lit up the shrouds where the God carving dwells;
When what to his wandering eyes should he peep?
An Avon being pulled by denizens of the deep.

With a little wood driver who was too stoned to walk,
He knew in a moment that it must be Squawk.
More rapid than his ejaculations the sea creatures came,
Squawk whistled and shouted and called them by name.

"Now Ass Hat, now Douchebag, you Hovians en mass!
Hey Blog Ed, you fucktard, pull your head out your ass!
Reid's got bails of good shit! This'll be a great haul!
We'll take his whole dope stash, we'll leave him fuck all!"

As vomit of mung beans to windward do fly,
Right back in your face like a Three Stooges pie.
So down through the hole in the mainsail they flew,
Wishing they'd brought with them that special shampoo.

And then, in a twinkling, Reid heard on the deck
An ear shattering bouncing, like a child support check.
As he drew down his head, and was turning around,
Through the propane tank hatchway Squawk came with a bound.

Squawk was horny as hell, he was obviously lit,
He toked on a joint - said, “This is really good shit!”.
He looked down at Soanya lying there in her rack,
She looked like she'd seriously been hitting the crack.

She looked up at Squawk, with eyes of desire,
Squawk said, “What the hell? I might as well try her.”
Her body all bones from finger to tow,
And the beard of her clam was as long as they grow.

She reached out and took rigid Squawk in her hand,
You could tell from her breathing she yearned for Squawk more than land.
Her body had turned exact opposite of a jelly,
Her most prominent feature was her distended belly.

Squawk’s chubby was plump, as he slid under the covers,
Reid just glanced at them, crying, at the sight of these lovers!
A thrust of Squawks pelvis and a spank to her ass,
He tossed in a load from his balls made of brass.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
He grabbed all the dope, then he turned to the jerk.
He said to the sailorman, “What are you looking at Shmuck?
“I just scored the first “Space Analogous Fuck”

He sprang to his dinghy, and took off without linger,
He turned with a smile and he gave Reid the finger.
Then Reid heard him say, as he hung down his head,
"This is a totally fucking ridiculous thread!"

The folks here at 100 Days of Hell wish you all a warm, safe, and most jovial of holidays.

(Posted earlier on Sailing Anarchy.)

Irrefutable Evidence of 1000 Days SCAM

2007-12-19T23:57:00.000-05:00

Here's a screen capture from today's 1000 Days site (December 19, 2007,
Day 241, First Southern Ocean Storm):

Here's a screen capture from a site about Sub-Antarctic and Polar Bird Life (Click Here)

Same bird, same waves, same picture, same liars at mission control. No mention to their readers that the picture was not taken by Reid and Soanya. No mention that they pulled it from the web. No credit to Angus Wilson, the photographer.

They'll probably pull the picture once they realize they've been caught in their deception, but we've got full screen shots to prove the whole thing if they do.

Can they be trusted in anything they post? Is Soanya all right? Are they where they say they are? Are the blog updates really the work of Reid and Soanya? Are you donating money to this scam?

Fool me once......

Warm Holiday Wishes

2007-11-29T23:51:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,

1000 Days of Hell likes to poke fun at Reid and Soanya in the spirit of good humor. In the spirit of the holiday, however, we'd like to take a moment to express our sincerest wishes that Reid, Soanya, their families and supporters have a very happy holiday season.

This being their first holiday at sea, we put together a little e-production to let them know that we are thinking of them and wish them the best. We hope you enjoy viewing it as much as we did creating it.

To view, please click here.

Warmest regards to you and yours,

1000 Days of Hell

A summary of events so far

2007-11-27T13:12:00.000-05:00

From a sailing anarchy member...

Thank God I did not start reading this now! There are a lot of pages and topics and you really should read the 1000 days at sea and the 1000 days of hell in their entirety. You have to read from the beginning to truly understand the insanity of everything. You can skim over it and get the general idea, but you really cannot understand how crazy this is. Most of it is just plain entertaining on the scary side. A few weeks ago someone else asked for a summary. I suppose it is something others will ask for too, so try this...

crazy guy cons people for over 10 years to give him money and crap to sail to Mars
crazy guy cons girl to be his sex slave for a 1000 days
couple leave and try to get blown up by Navy
unable to get the Navy to kill them, they attempt to smash into container ship
unable to hit it, but due to the weak vessel, they wreck the bow sprit and blame those of us who did not give them money
duct tape and drywall screws now hold the ship together
in order to keep from dehydrating due to runny shits from the all sprout and veggie diet, the couple consumes enormous quantities of cheese (also donated)
they eat partially digested fish found inside another fish
they drift
they drift
they drift
the boat leaks
the diesel tank leaks
the toilet leaks
Reid leaks on the yoga table
there are thousands of pounds of coal reacting with the water trying to self ignite
they show us a picture of their life raft
they stop at an Island and accidentally send us a photograph of it
Reid gets stuck in the rigging and has to have sex slave bring him down
the couple get scurvy
Reid finally cleans the bottom with the sails up and boat moving
the propane bomb is exposed and then covered back up with bedding and drywall screws
the rest of the bedding is wrapped around the entire boat like an wacko house to keep Sonya from getting hurt when she tries to break out
the sails rip because no one donated sail covers
Reid has to quickly super glue them back together to make it to his drug drop
And finally, everyone here plays a little game by posting comments on Reid's blog.

Merits of Reid's Mars Ocean Odyssey

2007-11-25T12:27:00.000-05:00

On Reid's web site he has a media brochure that contains a mission statement and a list of goals he said he would achieve during his 1000 days voyage. With the Anne disabled in the southern ocean after 220 days lets see how he is getting along.

Goals
1. To obtain valuable information on the physical and mental stress which must be overcome during such an extended voyage. The solitude that will be a major part of this journey will give insight into man's tolerance during an extended isolation from land.

Do they have a baseline physical and mental examination before they left. Are they collecting data. Do they even have a scale? Hardly.
Isolation? What Isolation? They are in constant contact with their "mission control" and begging for intellectual support regarding challenges they encounter. Finally, it seems that they have planned a rendezvous during the journey. Presumably that still meets their goals though as long as it is out of sight of land???

2. To evaluate the effectiveness of various psychological support techniques when applied
under actual field conditions and examine ways to resolve interpersonal conflicts.

Following a program are we? Applying a variety of methods? Following scientific methods and principles? I don't think 'being nice' is a program or basis for study.

3. Critical information will be developed not just for survival but for sustainable human existence. This would include food, clothing, boating equipment, communication and a host of other items that while seeming insignificant during normal life on land, may assume critical
importance under the stress experienced by isolation.

This could have been applicable if the boat wasn't 40 years old, based on an outmoded design (particularly inappropriate for short-handing), using archaic materials, leaking into the food stores, and requiring constant supervision and maintenance.

4. We can increase our knowledge of the southern oceans through daily recordings of
water, air temperatures, wind speeds, water and atmospheric pollution and ozone depletion.
Through these records we will gain insight into our ultimate dependence on our environment.

In a post on their blog Soanya admits that they don't have as much as a thermometer to collect water temperatures. They have no instrumentation what so ever to accurately collect ozone, pollution, or wind data.

5. Education components are planned to instruct those who follow the voyage. Subjects to be
studied are: marine and atmospheric sciences, satellite communication, celestial navigation,
computer technology, sail boat repair and maintenance, nutrition, gardening, health,
physical education, geography, oceanography, math, world history, languages, psychology as
well as a host of other topics.

The interactive education components that were scheduled with various groups all seem to have canceled. The regular educational updates have not been happening. Sat com, navigation, computers, health(he has scurvy)??? Is he an expert or authority in any of these disciplines? The boat that Reid is sailing was built using obsolete technology that people don't care to repair... Is it useful to know how to repair a black and white television? Reid can't find the only oceanography text that he has on board. Finally, he has not succeeded to teach his even partner Soanya the most basic sailing skills in 220 days.

6. To inspire others to voyage beyond human expectations.

Personally I hope that he inspires no one to voyage out in such a haphazard, unprepared manner; endangering not only their own lives but those of rescuers as well.

7. To promote a global message of hope, peace, perseverance, achievement and excellence..

Hope? For what? Peace? How? Perseverance? Likely. Achievement? Suspect. Excellence? Not by any standard. Unfortunately for their own safety he should have turned back before entering the southern ocean. He is setting a very poor example for other sailors.

Clearly he has not met any of his goals. Unfortunately this entire farce has been without any merit or value(other than entertainment) to anyone what so ever.

Reid's Safety Equipment (this is a life raft)

2007-11-25T11:49:00.000-05:00

With the wheels rapidly coming off this farce I thought it would be a good time to revisit Reid's life raft and safety equipment.

It may not be entirely clear to someone without offshore sailing experience how important having the correct safety equipment is. Reid's theory about safety equipment usage: "The use of an open rubber boat as a life raft is debatable, but it will work as it has on numerous occasions, most notably by Ala(i)n Bombard who purposely took an open rubber boat with very few supplies across the Atlantic in the seventies." Is misguided and based upon the original theories of Alain(misspelled by Reid) Bombard from Alain's voyage in 1952(rather than the 70s as stated by Reid). Great strides have been made in life boat technology in the 55 years since Alain's journey, in part based upon the research of Bombard. We wouldn't want the uninformed to get the wrong idea from Reid's actions so...

Lets begin with an examination of of life rafts:

This is a SOLAS(safety of life at sea) life raft...

It has features like:
- overhead cover to protect from exposure, flooding, and roll over
- a boarding platform
- rapidly filling ballast to keep it upright and under control in the water
- redundant flotation tubes
- a sea anchor to keep the raft upright and stable
- manual accordion inflation to top off the flotation tubes
- and insulated floor
- additional supplies such as flares, VHF radio, EPIRB, food, and a water maker
- storage case so that it can be gotten on deck, ready to deploy in 45 seconds
- a secure mechanism to attach it to the boat and keep it upright after deployment
- automatic upright inflation/deployment in the water within 15 seconds

This However is an inflatable dingy...

Reid's "life raft" features:
- 6 oars to row to shore

- a foot pump for inflation

- takes 15 minutes to inflate with a foot pump on a stable deck with no wind to carry it away. takes 30 minutes to inflate on a pitching deck if the wind and waves don't carry it away.

- stored somewhere in the cargo hold in a plastic bag labeled "life raft"

- easily deployed overboard partly inflated by a gust of wind or wave

While carying a life raft isn't a coast guard requirement, even the Bumfuzzles knew better and they only had 1 sailing lesson before they left sailing around the world for 3 years.

As well....

On Reid's web site he asserts that he has something called a EPURB(should be EPIRB for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) that would signal authorities for a rescue if he gets into trouble. The following is a photo from Reids web site:

In fact it is a photo of a model of EPIRB that has been rendered obsolete by a change in the radio frequencies that are used. If he turns on this beacon hoping for a rescue he will be VERY lucky if anyone responds.

RE: The matter of The Sea vs. Reid Stowe

2007-11-21T13:30:00.000-05:00

ED: The following is an open letter received by the 1000 days of hell team:

Dear Mr. Stowe,

First of all, let me begin by explaining to you that “The Sea” is a Limited Liability Corporation registered in Delaware whose main shareholders are the North Pacific, South Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. Non-voting, minor share holders include the lesser bodies of water throughout the world including the Mediterranean, Caspian, Black, Great Lakes, etc.. Collectively, we are “The Sea”. As Chairman of the Board and CEO of the corporation, I retain the title “The Sea”.

Being The Sea, I am usually too busy to address such matters as posts to a blog site referencing me; however your blog was recently brought to my attention as meriting a look. After a tertiary scan of the site’s content, I dispatched a few very trustworthy sea mammals to reconnoiter your vessel and provide me with a verbal report. It was a tedious report indeed due to the content as well as the fact that the whales were laughing so hard throughout; they had plankton coming out of their blow holes. The report they made was less than flattering to you and your endeavor. It is apparent from both physical observation and from your own reports that the schooner “Anne” is not safe for travel upon my surface. The sooner you remove yourself from me, the less likely I will be to remove you from said surface without benefit of land.

Beyond the physical observations, your blog has made some claims that I take issue with. I appreciate the importance of good public relations as much as anyone and the use of “The Sea” has served me very well over the centuries in literature, poetry, etc. The vast majority of references to “The Sea” have shown a great deal of respect and have served to instill in seafarers and landlubbers alike the respect that I deserve and demand. Your words and your actions, however, are contradictory in nature and you make certain assertions that are completely inaccurate.

While you have on occasion referred to your respect for me, the act of leaving NY Harbor for the open ocean in that “boat” is a blatant affront to your supposed respect. Also, your post dated November 7th states, in part, “Our contentment to just be here pleases the sea.” I’ve checked and double checked all my correspondence for the past 210 days and there is no record whatever of my endorsing you and your inane efforts. I didn’t even know of your existence until a couple days ago and I can assure you --- I am not at all pleased.

For the above reasons, and based on my responsibility on behalf of shareholders to protect “The Sea” from defamation, blasphemy and general disregard, this letter shall serve as an official notice to you to cease and desist the use of the term “The Sea” for the duration of your journey. Should you ignore this order, I will be forced to turn this matter over to our legal department as well as EWCO (Enormous Waves Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary company), for further action.

I tried to post this letter to you direct to your blog site, but was refused. I am posting it here as I was informed that you had recently made posts directly to this site. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through this forum or at the address below.

Sincerely,

The Sea

69 Neptune Plaza
Suite 1200, Mail Stop 420
Atlantis

P.S. - If you have any doubt as to my ability to influence your chances of survival, I want you to think about what happened to your sail yesterday. I sat next to The Wind at a Rotary luncheon over the weekend and we had a brief chat about your trip. The Wind ripped that seam out of your sail just for shits and giggles.

If only this were a movie....

2007-11-15T10:55:00.000-05:00

Soanyas heavy weather dress for success

2007-11-14T19:12:00.000-05:00

Soanya's View:
I spent the better part of yesterday and some of today repacking my copious bags of clothes. Before we left of the voyage, I had packed them into smaller plastic bags like a large shopping bag rather than a large garbage bag. Some of them got holes from being roughly handled and they got all mixed up as I took clothes out for the different temperatures we've been having. Every single piece of clothing was made of latex. I have seen the consequences of being lax with this rule. The damp environment of the boat is the perfect breeding ground for mold. They come in many colors and in every corner despite the applications of bleach and other cleaning formulas. The worse is when the mold grows on clothing, because then it doesn't want to come out without a good washing and even then it might stain. Putting it in the hot sun helps, if the air is dry, but it is still no cure for the common mold. The most effective plan is to stick with latex, which is airtight and waterproof.

Most of the clothes were in good condition. I found a lot of clothes I wouldn't wear on the boat. There is a bag of latex office clothes that is simply incongruous with being on a boat (or in an office, really). There are the edible shirts and skirts that couldn't handle roughing it. There are some clothes that it's just never the right weather to wear, too hot for summer, too light for winter. Sometimes the table stops talking to us and begins to hum a little tune. I thought the high heels would be great for a romantic evening with calm seas, light air and a humming table. Now I wish I had brought more flats. I have a bag labeled “for the far, far future.” I'm not sure just how far that is, but I know I won't be going into that one anytime soon. I don't know what kind of clothes is in it, but I must have thought it impractical for the present. So I only wear about half the clothes I own and that's divided between the summer and winter clothing.

A lot of people have asked “How do you pack clothes for three years?” When you don't have any social events to attend, it's pretty easy. There are no outfits needed for dinners, clubs, meetings, conferences, shows, weddings, funerals, birthdays, holidays, etc. There is an outfit for every occasion, but here on the schooner the best clothes are those that are comfortable and weatherproof. One of my main concerns in preparing for this voyage was having weatherproof clothing and something I can wear to the beach. I realized very quickly I didn't have much in that vein. When you live in the city an umbrella will get you from the subway to the building just fine and a heavy jacket over a sweater is good for panhandling. I had to learn to dress in layers, to be waterproof from head to toe, to wear super thick socks or two pairs at a time and even how to wear a ball gag for silence and not style. In short, I had to learn to dress as if I were with a lunatic. I realized it wasn't that bad, and so long as I had access to the dry cleaners near the marina, clothes should be the least of my worries.

Urgent Media Release

2007-11-08T18:53:00.000-05:00

MEDIA RELEASE: ALL SHIPPING LINES

REGRET TO ADVISE NO LONGER ABLE TO OFFER SHIPPING INSURANCE FOLLOWING REPORTS OF UNACCEPTABLE FLOATING (?) RISK TO SHIPPING STOP.

ACCORDING TO RECENT SOURCES, THERE IS AN UNREGISTERED FLOATING BLACK OBJECT AWASH WITH LEAKING DIESEL, LOITERING NEAR SHIPPING LANES WITH A PROPENSITY TO RAM COMMERCIAL SHIPPING STOP.

THIS MAY BE THE INSURANCE BLACKLISTED VESSEL "Annie Horibilus of Antigua".SUCH VESSEL IS ALLEGEDLY ARMED WITH A 1200 LB PROPANE BOMB MOUNTED AT DECK LEVEL, IN THE FORM OF THIRTY 40 LB PROPANE BOTTLES STOWED IN AN UNSEAMANLIKE MANNER AT THE AFT END STOP.

COLLISION WITH A 1200 LB PROPANE BOMB AT 20 KNOTS REPRESENTS AN UNACCEPTABLE INSURANCE RISK STOP.

WE REALISE THAT OUR CESSATION OF INSURANCE SERVICES MAY LEAVE A VOID HOWEVER UNTIL SUCH RISK IS REMOVED, WE CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR RISK TO CARGO OR PASSENGERS FOR THE NEXT 1000 DAYS STOP.

PLEASE MAKE IT STOP STOP.

SINCERELY,

PUBLIC ACTUARY
LARDS OF LONDON
SHIPPING INSURERS TO THE WORLD.

Reid Crosses the Line

2007-11-03T19:53:00.001-04:00

On November 3rd, Reid Stow published a blog entry on his 1000Days at Sea website comparing his Cheese Ocean Fantasy to the hard work that soldiers from countries all over the world are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whether you agree with the politics of the mission in the Middle East, we are all united in support of the troops abroad, and cognizant of the very real danger they face every day. Many of us are outraged at the fact Stowe could possibly draw comparisons between what he is doing, and the risks and dangers faced by our soldiers abroad. I am not alone in having family who have and will serve overseas. Below are my thoughts about Stowe’s comparisons to the brave men and women selflessly putting themselves in danger at the request of their country, with the hope and belief that they are creating a better world for those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Weed Fucking Stowehurst, are you out of you damn mind? (Rhetorical question, answer is obvious)I come from a military family. My mother and both uncles served, and continue to serve in the Canadian Forces. My three male cousins are all enlisted, and one has done 2 tours in Talibanistan, with another to come next year. I have spent over a year volunteering with elderly veterans at the local veteran’s hospital; men who are full of courage, yet so modest about how they have contributed to their country and world. These men touched my life and shared their harrowing stories of serving in the WWII and the Korean War with me. They crossed the Atlantic many, many times, with the knowledge that it was only luck that prevented a torpedo from penetrating the hull of the vessel they sailed in, aimed for the propeller shaft they stood next to. Some of them were captured and spent time as prisoners of war. I know one man who was within minutes of his death at the hands of the Hitler Youth, only to have his life spared by a German military officer at the last moment. That is courage. This post PISSES ME OFF!

Everything from following orders, to the rifle range practice, to training with the Air Force Scuba club in the Philippines gave me the knowledge, skills, and confidence that I have used throughout my life.

Really Weed? I didn't realized they taught lying, scamming, freeloading, womanizing, drug running, avoiding responsibility, laziness, deception, and fucking sprout growing in the Military.

Our voyage may seem to be a fantasy dream come true, but it also has elements similar to military duty. The sea is a dangerous place to be and no one on any boat is totally secure.

Oh really Weed? As dangerous as Iraq or Afghanistan? I didn't know that.Funny, in all the time I've spent sailing I've never sailed over an IED. I've never picked up pieces of my best friends body. I've never been shot at. I've never been subjected to incoming artillery. No one in the crew ever detonated an explosive device attached to their body. I've never gone days without being able to sleep. I've never been hit by shrapnel. I've never had to sleep with a gun beside me. I've never been woken up by alarms announcing incoming fire. My family has never sat at home, anxious and scared because they haven't heard from me while I'm away at a regatta, and they certainly have never spent months full of anxiety wondering if they would ever see me again. I can clearly see how your voyage is just like military duty.

We are continually faced with challenges and we have to come up with creative solutions immediately. We overcome our problems.

Last time I checked Capt'n Crunch, all of your problems to date are a direct result of your own poor ass preparation. You haven't faced any serious weather at all. Last time I checked, there was no one ORDERING you to go to sea to drift aimlessly until you sink.

Imagine the logistics necessary to have everything you need for 1000
Days in a dangerous, high performance environment!

You call it logistics, I call it begging and scamming. High performance environment? You can talk about high performance when you break 6 knots (yes, I’m being generous in my definition of high performance). There is NOTHING high performance about what you are doing. Just STUPID!

The list of skills is also long. Responsibility, commitment, honor, presence, courage, selflessness, patience, clarity, strength, agility, and keeping your head when things get out of control are words that apply to your situation and ours.

Honor Weed? There is no honor to what you do. Courage? No courage, just stupidity and ignorance. Selflessness? Laughable!! No one but YOU benefits from what you are doing (unless you count the ample fodder for parody and resulting entertainment). How many schools have you built Weed? Can little girls get an education now because of what you do? How many roads and bridges have you built? How many lives have you saved? Responsibility? You have done nothing your whole LIFE other than run from responsibility! Keeping your head when things get out of control? Talk to us when things finally get out of control Weed, and we'll see how you and the Devoid Ho are making out then.

When you are finished with your calling and we are finished with ours and you want to go sailing, contact me and I will try to give you advice and help.

God help me! Weed, you are the last person on earth any SANE person would consult about sailing!!!! Don't you think so damn highly of yourself!
We encourage you to share your thoughts on Stowe's comparisons by emailing us or commenting on this entry, or share them with Stowe directly by posting here.

This post is dedicated to my wonderfully brave, strong, responsible, honorable, selfless cousin, who will be doing tour 3 in 2008. Come home safe, Dave. I love you lots.

From Ellie regarding the annonymous opinions..

2007-10-30T17:16:00.000-04:00
SA's own Ellie wrote this in response to the anonymous letter to the editor at 1000days. Unfortunately they didn't find it fit to print, we don't have those same standards here.

Dear Editor,
Thank you so much for posting yet another Anonymous opinion. We can all use more of those. It is surprising to say the least, that you would be willing to post something from an anonymous person who so obviously thinks your voyagers and their quest are of so little importance. While I agree, it is certainly a contradictory opinion to Ried’s own and that of many of your readers. Did anonymous really say, “I seriously doubt there was a single person who looked on this as something serious”? Not one single person, hmm, no family, friends, contributors, blog readers. I guess they can all rest and read easier now knowing that Anonymous has proclaimed there is no longer a need to take Reid and Soanya seriously. That’s a relief, because I was seriously concerned for two human beings out on the wide ocean in a leaking vessel.

Who, but Reid and his followers, has ever touted him a seaman with a mind-boggling sailing resume? He set his own rules, one of the most important and “written in stone” ones being without sight of land and no outside assistance (meaning “people” though he maintains constant contact). Anonymous is correct in one thing, Reid has left himself the opportunity for him and for you to be able to view his voyage as a success regardless of fulfilling any of the goals he set. It is his and many others’ opinion that it has already been a success, so why the insistence of venturing into the Southern Ocean? It is Reid himself who exaggerates; even his mama says so. He has exaggerated the importance of his mission, his ability and the integrity of his boat.

Reid’s lack of seamanship is painfully obvious to anyone with an ounce of sense or experience. His posts talk for him. If it seems he can’t sail, it is because it is proven so in what he writes. There is not a day that goes by that Reid has not attempted a grasp at straws to tie his voyage into something bigger than himself, a service to mankind and something for the world to recognise. He begs that we cheer him, acknowledge his vision, achievements, value and skill, advise him on problems that should have been taken care of before departure, even pray for him. Yet when asked simple questions about the condition of his boat, it’s rigging and sails or his safety equipment he acts as if this information is on a need to know basis and condescendingly implies that his readers don’t need to know. His journey may indeed be spiritual and personal; he would do well to leave it at that. He made this about sailing, he made it about NASA, he made it about seamanship, he made it about breaking or setting a record, we did not. People who are truly unique and different do not have this burning desire to be more than what they are. They do not suffer delusions of grandeur.

Reid is not different, Anonymous. As a matter of fact, he is so common as to be cliché, so uncolorful a character as to be mundane. The investigation into Reid’s past stemmed from inconsistencies in his own claims. While Anonymous may find this all very boring others might find these facts to be even more interesting than circles in the Atlantic at 2 knots of boat speed. Anonymous sounds like someone’s mommy, “don’t worry, dear, they are all just jealous”. I assure you, none of the people researching Reid’s past and lies (or exaggerations if you prefer) is remotely jealous. The purpose of finding the facts through Reid’s lies is a character study. So far, I have seen nothing to envy. No one has capitalized off of Reid except Reid and his following, there is no vendetta, and there is no hate. There is plenty disappointment and more than a little disgust. I will not trust him because his actions do not inspire trust. His character does not warrant blind faith.

Anonymous does not think they will make their goal, yet is ready to cheer and laugh at the effort. So what is it Anonymous, a joke or an inspiration? Are you simply so confused or ignorant that you have joined Reid in grasping at straws to justify proceeding into the Southern Ocean? The boat is cracked and leaking, threatening the structural integrity of the hull and allowing in saltwater that will corrode hose clamps, electrical wiring and connections and basically any and everything metal including the very framework of the hull. He left safe harbor with diesel tanks that are leaking and degrading the hoses in the bilge below the water line. When the hoses start splitting there will be hell to pay, I wonder if he has spare hose and plugs. He has filled a boat that has a carved wood interior and leaks with charcoal creating fire hazards, he has paint and possibly varnish, teak oil and some mineral spirits or acetone and the like aboard. Let us all hope he at the very least has also filled his boat with fire extinguishing systems. His sails are degrading and in dire need of constant repair, they will likely blow out in tatters in significant weather. He has a damaged engine with no spare parts. He has a damaged bowsprit (either from failure or collision, neither of which bode well for him in the seamanship department) which limits the ability to make headway in rough seas. The boat has a foul bottom (not cleaned or inspected for 5 years) which again limits the ability to make headway and also threatens the integrity of the hull. AND nearly all of these problems existed BEFORE he left harbor. You tell me, is this folly or farce? Then we can go back to laughing along with Anonymous.

Joining in a fool’s mission does not make a woman brave. Blind trust in someone else’s ability does not make a woman adventurous.

According to Anonymous we should all have a shot of tequila and laugh at the tired old cliché of an egomaniac floating the oceans accompanied by a woman half his age. I guess that goes for your young readers as well since you, Editor, felt the recommendation deserved the front page. I’d rather be able to read this blog and learn something I didn’t know, share knowledge when I can and laugh at the absurdity where I find it, yet i, who sign in with my real name and email address, have been categorically banned from making further comment to your blog. What is really sad is this could truly have been something worthwhile, spirituality and sprouts aside. It was presented as such, but falls sadly short at every turn. So now the only thing worthwhile is to try to attempt to talk them in so that no one has to risk their lives to save them and to enjoy the parody of the other blog. If the parody cuts too close for you all you might ask why. Why do you applaud Anonymous’ laughing while condemning others for doing the same? Are you all angry because your adventurer has been proven false? Why is Reid and his editors withholding information, refusing to answer even the most basic of questions and feeding you misinformation, and do you even know the difference? Would you rather go the “ignorance is bliss” method of sailing or learn the “prepare for the worst and hope for the best” method? It should be easy enough for the more intelligent reader to distinguish the difference, the former is for those interested in gods and prayers for spare parts, the latter for is everyone else.

elle

Letter to the Editor --- from Sergei Krikalyov, a Russian Cosmonaut who holds the record for the longest time in space - 803 days.

2007-10-26T17:07:00.001-04:00

Dear Mr. Editing,
I much wanted go to the oceans for 1000 day since I little boy. I hear many times the stories of peoples go on the boat for many times and I want to go too someday. My mother, she no want I go to ocean on boat. She will did miss me too very much for that. My father no want me go on boat too, for he think boat very dangerous and maybe break and I sink in the ocean to death. I very want to do this much as boy and dream this many times when sleep in my bed. I want for to make this dream real and have much fun on boat exploring wet places with beach.

When I fourteen years my mother, she gets the bite of goat on elbow and she get very sick. She die from this but goat still OK, so my sister not having mother but she still having the milk. When mother die, my dream is closer, for because she dead now and not miss me if I go on boat. I want leave very soon then, but my father sayings I need for to prepare for trip. He saying best place to learn of loneliness and relying on self is in space and USSR will shoot me into space to learn these stuff and he not have to pay.

Father he talk at my uncle Boris that work at space office and he say many peoples in space but never anybody go on boat for 1000 days. Uncle Boris saying to my father I being stupid for to try and go for the water even for 200 days. My father giving him 4 bottles good vodka and my uncle let me go for to space schooling. I putting my socks and underwear and clothes in bag and ride on bus to space school. I study very hard and get very tired because food not good so much at space school. I training very much at school for six years and many times I want to go home. But I stay for because if I going home then not being prepare to go on boat for 1000 day, so I stay. I do test onetime that I spin very much and I am only student for to not throw up. The next day I shooting in spaceship off of earth.

I get in space on spaceship and then attaching to space station where to I spend much time. I’m being very bored in space looking out windows at earth and waving much to father and sister who don’t see too far away as me. I being sad much and read same book many times. I sneezing once and the juice of sneeze stay float in air for 3 days. When I get very much sad I look out window for to see ocean and dream of floating for 1000 day in boat. My dream of boat make me stay and not go back to earth when till comes 800 days. When I go home to earth I stepping one foot of closer to my dreams. The doctors checking with my body, and but for I weigh more I very health.

My father was meet me at the space doctor building and telling me another man making 1000 day trip in the boat. I read of this and am sad for to not be first. I sad of spending so much time in prepare for this. I go back to village with father and I am moping much times. Much years go by when this other man delay from somethings and not go on his boat to 1000 day. When he at last leave from the land, I am happy for this to happen, but I am sad it is not me. I spend time with my father and sister and our goat at days time, and in the nights I still dreamings about my boat and the oceans and this other man that has bring with him a small lady.

I go to library at local university and on internet I see where they go for to draw heart on top of water. I look at pictures and see they go circles of not the shape of the heart, but maybe if heart squished on road. I watching thems sailing and to hitting big ship and break theirs boat in the front part. I see pictures of the broken bathroom and they shovel those clams on under of boat. I see of them fishings and eating weeds. I watching them get for no fat on them any more and they starves. I read they breaking boat motor and that the ocean coming into boat. I see their sails are breaking and they need to fix many times. The sails for to push boat don’t push boat when wind is on them and boat not to move.

I am worried of these peoples on boat so I calling Uncle Boris and tells him of this. I tells him that our country must do something for to make for better boat trip in next time some peoples want to do this. I ask Uncle that Russia can sends someones to Mars so we can be learning how to take long trip on boat and not drowning. My Uncle saying that this good for reason go to Mars and Russia will do that soon. This will be good experience for to help peoples who want to go on boat for long time.

Stowe Supporters - Encouraging "Exploration" or Blood Sport?

2007-10-25T15:08:00.000-04:00

I read the last post on the 1000 Days blog “On This Planet and Beyond, Live Your Dreams” and was encouraged that there seemed to be a small hint that R&S might consider cutting the voyage short. He allows that they may have already set a record for a man and woman at sea and the “longest non-stop space analogous mission to take place on this earth.” I have no idea what that means, but if he does that – kudos. While I’m encouraged that they may be reconsidering their options, I am very concerned by those on the blog who continue to egg them on.

I understand how a dynamic personality like Reid’s can sway people’s thinking. The words he and his supporters have used are awe inspiring. Words such as “explore”, “expedition”, “voyage”. In fact, Reid’s departure press release describes him as an “extraordinary explorer”. An explorer is one who, according to Mr. Webster, investigates unknown regions. Mr. Stowe has never, ever, ever, been to an unknown region of the sea. Far from being unknown, in less than 200 days he wandered into a missile testing area and was asked to leave, and then he was hit by a tanker. Based on his experience thus far, it actually seems pretty crowded out there.

One of the biggest land-based problems he has right now is not this blog or some of the SA crowd, it is the people who are supporting him and encouraging him to go on, even into the Southern Ocean, one of the most inhospitable and dangerous places on the planet to be in a boat. You can discredit me because I’ve never been there, and I have no desire to go there - ever. But real explorers, military/commercial shipping and highly qualified sailors have experienced the Southern Ocean and shared their stories of the absolute and destructive power of wind and waves as well as the unpredictability of storms. Wikipedia says of the Southern Ocean, in part:

“The ocean area from about latitude 40 south to the Antarctic Circle has the strongest average winds found anywhere on Earth.”

The boat’s old and leaking. The rigging’s old, and the skipper is not quite in his prime of his life. There are only two people on board. Soanya hasn’t got the rudimentary knowledge or experience and Reid is weak from a poor diet. The boat, the sails and the spars are old and all they’ve apparently got in case they need to abandon is an inflatable, open raft. If they enter the roaring 40s and they do survive, I’ll be as relieved as anyone for their safe passage (though certainly more surprised). But I won’t be encouraging them to press on. To do so is terribly irresponsible.

I’ve had a good time poking fun at these two, and will continue to do so, but if this turns into a tragedy, I’ll be able to sleep with a clean conscience. Those SA folks who try to taunt Reid off the ledge are MUCH more responsible than those of you, who in your blind ignorance of what’s at stake here, are imploring him to jump.

Reid's lies...

2007-10-22T14:28:00.000-04:00
Reid Stowe is a profligate liar, misleading his followers, the news media, sponsors, and anyone who would listen. Again and again and again. While we have heard of numerous lies that Reid may have perpetrated, we have only posted those that we can verify. In no particular order...

- Reid Stowe lied about setting a record regarding sailing a small boat across the Atlantic: In a TV interview by Harold Channer which aired August 4, 2003

- No one had been to Antarctic before Anne: In a TV interview by Harold Channer which aired August 4, 2003

- Reid Stowe lied about having a collision with a freighter: Again and again and again to anyone who would listen

- That NASA has an interest in his "mars ocean odyssey," However NASA has actively disavowed any association with him: Again and again and again to anyone who would listen

- The very premise of Reid's voyage has come into question after this photo was found on his web site of him planning a Rendezvous during the voyage.

- Reid's claims: "A feature written about the Explorers Club of New York by Conde Nast Traveler describes Reid as being the "genuine article, with an old-fashioned spirit of adventure" and "a man with that rare combination of unbridled passion and impetuosity." Nicholas Sullivan, president of the Explorer's Club, adds that "By virtue of his Voyage of 1000 Days, Reid will be one of the greatest explorers ever."" However a search of Conde Nast Traveler finds no such article.

- Reid misleads anyone who will listen about sailing up the Amazon river on his home made catamaran : Perhaps he may have sailed in the Amazon basin but any sailor knows that clearly there is no way he could have sailed a catamaran(without a motor) up the Amazon river.

- Reid mislead his sponsors and lived off their gifts for 10 years (doing nothing), while telling them he would use it for the trip.

- He mislead everyone about his level of preparedness for this journey (which is probably the worst of all,as he will kill both himself and Soanya)

- Reid has claimed credit for artwork that was created by his ex wives.

- Reid lied about being knocked down three times: Telling the story at one place he says three times, and at another place he says 1 time.

- This may seem trivial to a non sailor but could be extremely important... Because Reid has told 4 different versions of the story, it is unclear where Annes' masts were from Danish forest or NC: Masts from the Danish forest would have much more structural integrity than those from his back yard.

Does anyone have anything to add?

Trousers Ablaze – And They’re Full of Shit

2007-10-20T10:31:00.000-04:00

According to Wikipedia, between 1973 and 1976 Reid Stowe traveled the Atlantic making two crossings, one of which was solo. The vessel was a 27 foot catamaran that Stowe had constructed at his family beach house in North Carolina. According to Wikipedia, “The catamaran was, at the time, the smallest vessel to navigate the North Atlantic.” The reference Wikipedia sites is an interview conducted by Harold Channer on July 31, 2003 and which aired August 4, 2003. In that interview, Mr. Stowe himself states, “... I sailed the smallest boat across the Atlantic Ocean…”

This Stowe cat was not even close to being the smallest vessel to navigate the Atlantic. There were at least 20 boats that made the Atlantic crossing before 1973. That’s a very conservative number because it only includes boats under 20 feet in length who sailed point to point across the ocean – it doesn’t include circumnavigators who simply crossed the Atlantic as part of a larger effort or even - yes - rowboats. A 20’ boat crossed from Ireland to Boston as early as 1870. In 1965 Robert Manry sailed from Falmouth, MA to Falmouth England in the 13.5 foot Tinkerbelle. That’s HALF THE SIZE of Mr. Stowes “smallest boat to navigate the North Atlantic”.

What record could he hold, then? Smallest boat to make the trip both ways? Nope – that honor belongs to Fredrick Norman & George P. Thomas who sailed from Gloucester to Cowes and back again in 1880/81. Oh – and their boat was a strapping 16 feet long.

Could he hold the record for the smallest catamaran to make the trip? Or the smallest to cross in a self made boat? No and no.. In 1957 a gentleman named Jim Wharram crossed in a 23 foot catamaran with a couple of German ladies in a boat he built for about $420.

Oh, and regarding his Antarctica Expedition, in this same interview Mr. Stowe says of that trip – “It’s really dangerous, that’s why no one had done it”. In fact, over 70 private boats had made the trip before the Anne did in 1986 including Americans Robert and Nancy Griffith and their son Reid (coincidence). In 1970/71, fifteen years before the Anne dropped anchor for a beer and a barbecue and then skedaddled back to warmer waters; the Griffith family had already circumnavigated Antarctica.

Not first boat, smallest boat or even smallest catamaran to cross the Atlantic once or twice. As far as the Antarctic trip, they had sold out of the “been there-done that” T-shirts before the thought of traveling to the bottom of the world had even crossed Stowe's mind.

Being very generous, then, here are the results:

Atlantic Small Boat Navigation – 20^th Place
Race to Antarctica – 70^th Place
Bull Shit Artistry – 1^st Place

Come on up and get your Pickle Dish.

References:

For supporting data, I relied heavily on two sources. For the Atlantic crossings I relied most on Microcruising.com section “Famous Small Boats” found here http://www.microcruising.com/famoussmallboats.htm. A comprehensive list of Antarctic trips is found on a page titled Antarctic Sailing Chronology (Yacht Cruises to Antarctica) http://www.sy-lundi.de/chronology.html. While I used these two sites as primary sources, I verified all the details contained herein with other sources and can provide them on request. Here’s the Interview with Stowe and Channer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkK3CS6qAo4. If you’d like a list of times where I culled important information, feel free to e-mail me with your request (nobody should have to suffer through the whole hour).

Rendezvous?

2007-10-19T11:27:00.000-04:00
No outside assistance? Seems like they have more contact with dry land than most.
Reid actually thanks all the outside support he has gotten in regards to small problems along the way. I believe that is outside assistance. And today I was coasting through the gallery section of 1000days.net and ran across one pic that made me scratch my head. That would be pic #43 in Captain and friends. Am I the only one seeing a problem here?

On behalf of Suzanna Bowling

2007-10-18T22:59:00.000-04:00
Suzanna wrote this in response to a comment...

Dear Tennessee,
Maybe I can answer this. You confuse not wanting to see anyone else get hurt or allowing the public and sponsorship being duped and lead astray by lies to continue, as negative and angry. From my experience you sound like the letters the followers of Reid have sent me. Just because you stand and unveil the lies does not make you angry, it makes you informed. Do you realize you mention anger over eighth times in your letter. Maybe it is you who are angry that people stand up and say, “The Emperor has no clothes”. The reality is the emperor is naked and people aren’t afraid to say it and the ones that do are labeled angry. True in America we are allowed to be stupid but do you have the right to lie to sponsors saying you are a non-profit? I know for a fact he did this. When those sponsors try and take off the donation you don’t think they will be hurt? You claim nobody’s been hurt. I can name several people who have. The University of Rhode Island who Reid took their equipment under false pretenses and when they asked for it back he ignored them. It took them years to even find him. I know I have the letter asking for it back. There are more people who have been hurt but the level in which it was carried out is not mine to expose. I can tell you he trashed my stuff, lied about my character and stole my phone book and called everyone in it to either get donations or tell them I was crazy. I spent over a year hearing about it. Don’t think that hurts? Think again because all I did was try to help. Again I have proof of this.

You don’t think the ocean will be hurt? It takes a million years for glass to dissolve yet Reid throws it overboard for fish homes. Fish eat the glass and die and or bleed to death. The bowsprit will take over 450 years to dissolve; yet he again nonchalantly chucks it overboard instead of taking responsibility. Oceans can’t speak up.

As for NASA: The “Ocean Mars” thing was turned down by NASA case # 00027 90. The 90 in the end stands for the year. The dismissal was by Robert Helmreich and William L Smith.

You continually state that Reid has not hurt or will not hurt anyone. Really? Are you so naïve to think that the people who are allowed to read and respond to Reid’s blog won’t get the great idea of they can do it too? I was invited by Reid and Soanya publicly and illegally to read their website and blog. Read it and tell me again someone won’t get hurt. What about all those who believe in him? Those who vicariously live their lives through him won’t suffer. He lied about hitting the ship. That was slanderous to a company. Again nobody got hurt?

You are a little mixed up in whose hating who. Read the comments in “Void Ho”, Trash and Did they hit the ship. When the cult of Reid found out I came here hate was really big in their vocabulary. It just transfers to who is next into seeing through the sham. They hate me because I have proof and it is completely damning. They’re afraid it will get it into the right hands. They attack because they are scared that they’re hero will be debunked and so will the vicarious lives they lead through him.

Note to all 1000 day participants. This is the legal definition you need to memorize. “Slander is an untruthful oral (spoken) statement about a person that harms the person's reputation or standing in the community. Because slander is a tort (a civil wrong), the injured person can bring a lawsuit against the person or persons who made the false statement. If the statement is made via broadcast media -- for example, over the radio, on TV, or Internet -- it is considered libel, rather than slander, because the statement has the potential to reach a very wide audience.”

Once you have put yourself in the public eye by your own means the laws are quite different. Reid seeks out publicity. I do not!

Better have proof of anything you say because I haven’t said anything, which I cannot prove in a Court of Law!

Hopefully this will have answered your questions.

Sincerely,
Suzanna

The story of the Mars Rescue Odyssey

2007-10-16T11:16:00.000-04:00
So here is what happened with the "Rescue Mission"

First of all I want to preface this: We (the rescue committee) have discussed what to reveal about the mission and have decided on what follows. We will not reveal any more information and did not collect any viable evidence that Reid was not where he says he is. If we had found Reid and made some video tapes that would have been an entirely different circumstance. In absence of that though, no further information as to the identity of the rescue crew will be offered. If someone wants to contact the crew of the boat(Kiwis living in Spain currently sailing somewhere in the southern ocean) for subpoenas, affidavits, or statements I suspect there will problems reaching them.

The first target for searching was the last reported position from the Reid Stowe web site. The "Rescue" ship arrived on station at about 20:00 local time, about 4 hours after the coordinates were posted to Reids web site; with their calculated 2 knot drift rate we thought they should easily be in range, and commenced a radar sweep of the area out to a 25 mile range setting. No dice, and rescue crew reported in. After some thought by the rescue committee at the "rescue coordination center(local pub)." We thought about sending them around in a search pattern but didn't want to find the cheese scow in the dark. There was as well a concern that the Anne might be lights out so we told them to button things up for the night, but keep a sharp lookout to avoid a bowsprit collision with an unlit boat.

That afternoon I reported on SA that the rescue crew had arrived and found nothing. A fellow that goes by Bloodygazza did some research and found a source of raw position data, regularly updated, on the Metocean web site. He calculated a position for the rescue crew to start searching at first light...

The rescue crew got up early and headed out to do another radar sweep at the calculated position at first light... Again nothing. At this point it was becoming obvious that Reid Stowe didn't want to be found so they shut down the radar (Reid claims to have a radar detector) and waited for new instructions.

We then got the next position report from the Metocean web site and sent the crew there straight away. It took them about an hour to get there and they lit up the radar again. Nothing again! So we had a conference...

We decided that obviously Reid was not where he was purported to be. He was clearly hiding and we were on a wild goose chase without air support. So we told them to stop the search and head to port.

When the rescue crew arrived on scene and didn't find anything, a member of the media contacted Reid's media contact for comment, the fellow responded with an email that stated that "Mike(the reporter) was a threat to the Anne and he was going to contact their Coast Guard liaison." Mike asked to talk to talk to their Coast Guard liaison but his request was ignored.

Our post action analysis, though this is all supposition: Reid probably knew what was going on and didn't want to be found... We are not experts with Reid's tracking equipment, but I would expect that it has been designed to operate reliably and accurately. I don't suspect that it has been hardened from tampering or modification as we know(from their own posts) that Reid was able to locally manipulate the equipment when there was a problem with it. After analyzing several days of posts posts to their blog and tracking data; We suspect that...
1) They have figured out how to manipulate the local time setting in the Metocean tracker and have put in an offset of at least 24 hours. In other words today we are seeing where they were at least yesterday.
2) They dropped their radar reflector.
3) They may have dropped their sails
4) They detected the search radar on their detector.
5) They motored on an evasive course as we see from their course data.

We regret that we posted ahead of time what we were up to and gave Reid a chance to evade detection. THE NEXT TIME we will not give him any advance warning, and without him taking an evasive course should be fairly easy to find. WATCH OUT REID, there will be another attempt when the opportunity presents itself!

In response to concerns about how we would approach the idea of actually rescuing the crew of the cheese schooner Anne...

The idea of approaching the cheese schooner under the circumstances is actually pretty dicey. I would not encourage ANY single hander or cursing couple to do it alone. Think about what could be going on there... Either or both of them could be totally nutter. Either could have killed the other. They might be armed and nuts as well. This could be more treacherous than a Coast Guard boarding of a drug runner, at least drug runners would generally be predictable.

Say she was on the cheese schooner, yelling to the rescue crew "please take me." If Reid didn't want to let her go there wouldn't be a lot of choices to rescue her short of boarding the boat(PIRACY).
Say we did board the boat to get her, who is to say that Reid isn't going to start shooting at us with whatever pirate repellent system he might have rigged up?
Say Reid lets us send the tender over and collect her, who is to say that he or the Reed Hovians wouldn't try to make some kind of nutter abduction claim afterwards.
Now if she jumped in and tried to swim for it, we would have had a potential problem... The rescue boat was told to stand off at a distance that neither of them would try to make a swim for it until the situation was clear.

On the other hand, say that Sayanara wants off and Reid wants her off too. That is a whole different situation...
The crew was told to refuse to take only Sayanara, that would leave Reid alone on a boat that would be impossible for him to handle. Instead they were to try to negotiate that both of them would come onto the rescue boat and tow the cheese schooner. OR, if Reid was willing, to bring Sayanara onto the rescue ship and tow the cheese schooner with Reid still aboard to the nearest port.

While we were interested in a good laugh we were not interested in becoming the target of a criminal prosecution in a third world country or a nutter with a flare gun.

A refreshing new voice

2007-10-16T11:03:00.001-04:00
The following is the first post from a new www.sailinganarchy.com member who goes by the logon Luna. Her post seems to sum up what many people are feeling:

Well I've been following Reid and Soanya for a while and quite honestly he scares the crap out of me. I lived full time on a cruising boat in the Caribbean for 5 years and cannot imagine going anywhere offshore without spares. But aside from that, Reid just lies and lies. He says recently that the engine was professionally rebuilt but if you look on their website under Gallery, you'll see him and Soanya working on it. But my big question is this - what difference will it make if your engine runs or not if your prop and shaft are so fouled? If his hull is covered with barnacles and crap, his prop is a disaster for sure.

Another thing too -- another Reid lie. In late April he says he and Soanya slept through the night as he couldn't see any boats around. Now this was while he was still near shipping lanes. So duh! what kind of a surprise is it he came close to a ship on May 6th and he didn't know it was there. I don't buy the "ship hit me" story either -- the people at SA make way more sense that Reid does. And he shows a CARD on his website as part of their equipment for the trip.

He is definitely ill - physically and mentally and there is no way they will survive a storm. One man cannot manage those sails and Soanya will freak when they start trying to hand steer that fouled boat in 20 ft seas and 40 knot winds. Their diet does not afford them the strength to handle anything more than what they're in now. This story has gone from silly to scary. And now Reid's praying for a diesel mechanic. Well all the lah lah ooh and aah folks who think the photos are cute and they're so brave on the heavily sensored blog don't know anything about sailing or boats. Only the SA crowd do and he doesn't want to hear the truth!

Whew! I feel so much better now getting that out of my system!

Avon now makes a Life Raft.

2007-10-16T10:17:00.000-04:00
The following is my first post in the Couple Cruise for 1000 Days thread on SA. This was from the good 'ole days; a time when the good Cheeseship Anne still had her bow sprit, when both Reid and Soanya still had measureable body-mass-index, the Reidhovians kept their blind support quietly to themselves, and poor Daniel Hansen's stomach didn't churn at the thought of parmisean on his pasta supper.

See the original post here:http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=52463&st=0&p=1149790&hl=life%20raft&#entry1149790

Posted on: Apr 23 2007, 05:52 AM
I was reading through his experiances, time at sea, preperation, etc, and was actually starting to think he's got an idea of what he's getting into. I still figured he was bat-shit crazy, but you need to be a little differently abled to leave for 3 years. Then I found this.

"Pumping Up and Examining Our Rubber Boat/Life RaftIn a break between snows and gale force winds, we pumped up and examined our rubber inflatable, which will also serve as our life raft. When our friend, Charlie Doane an editor of Sail magazine, gave it to us, I told him we hoped to keep it inside and will never use it. But prudence and careful planning to the best of our abilities demanded that we familiarize ourselves with our equipment in case we had to use it. Having had experience with rubber boats, pumping it up and restowing it was straight forward. We had a patch kit, two foot pumps, and three sets of oars. The use of an open rubber boat as a life raft is debatable, but it will work as it has on numerous occasions, most notably by Alan Bombard who purposely took an open rubber boat with very few supplies across the Atlantic in the seventies. We will discuss in an upcoming blog our survival bags and strategies for abandoning ship"
Taken from : http://1000daysatsea.blogspot.com/2007_03_23_archive.html

If this really is the donation from his ex-wife, I love the gesture.

The alleged collision

2007-10-15T10:28:00.000-04:00
While Reid Stow claims that during the 14th night of their voyage; the bowsprit of his boat was damaged in a collision with the 1000 foot container ship Maersk Dundin, it has become clear that this is untrue. Using entries from their own web site and contacts with the marine industry, the users of www.sailinganarchy.com have definitively proved that they collision could not have happened:

Prior to the collision the the bowsprit of Reid's ship Anne had a figurehead lashed to the bow pulpit. If there had been a collision between the 70 ton Anne and a 1000 foot container ship, clearly the wooden figurehead would have damaged if not destroyed. From the photos in this blog post it is clear that the figurehead is undamaged. Figurehead Recovery Photos

The pipe that the bowsprit was fabricated from has been identified from Reid Stow's photos... It is clearly inadequate and the mode of failure has been identified.

There is no insurance claim or official Coast Guard investigation... Contacts in the marine industry have contacted the owners of the container ship and commented on the lack of an insurance claim or investigation.

It would have been impossible for the damage to have been caused by a collision with small ship let alone a 1000 foot long container ship traveling at 20kts... In such a circumstance there is no such thing as a glancing blow! If there had been an actual collision there would have been lots of collateral damage to the boat. If the Anne had been close enough to hit the ship with her sprit, the displacement from the ship would have "sucked" the Anne in and there would have been several more points of contact. As well, the masts of the Anne would have been crushed against the side the ship.

The most likely scenario here is simply the failure of an untested part of Reid Stows rig due to inadequate design. As well, if Reid was close enough to read the name of the ship; The wake from such a large vessel traveling at speed would be roughly 2 meters high. High enough to hit Reid's sprit from the side, causing the damage that we see here.

The big question is why would Reid lie about it... There are several theories why he would do that

NO collision. Enough said!

Mail Call~!

2007-10-14T17:23:00.000-04:00
We hear back from Bemused and Confused in TN - He is no longer bemused, so we are getting somewhere - He is still confused - Hopefully we can remove the confusion and return to the bemusement that seems to be our stock in trade:

My question was not why are you so negative, but why are you so angry?

I’m in agreement that this is most likely a fool hardy, doomed to failure endeavor, but I'm still left with my original question. Why are you guys so angry?

Maybe Stowe is incredibly stupid – why does that anger you? This is America and we are free to be stupid.

Maybe he is a rotten, inept, ill-prepared sailor – I understand your commenting “negatively” on it, but why does it anger you so?

Maybe he is a deadbeat dad that has had been in jail – shame on him, but why does that anger you?

I know NASA won’t give him the time of day, but if he has delusions that something of scientific value will result from his trip – what’s it to you?

So he talked some gullible sponsors into giving him money – “adventures” have done that throughout history – let the buyer beware - why does that anger you?

So he’s sweet-talked some young coed into spending 1000 days alone with him at sea – sounds like the premise of a bad porno movie – but she’s an adult (albeit a very idealistic and naive adult) and free to do any damn thing she wants. Why does that anger you so much?

I understand that you think he’s a charlatan on a fool’s journey (and you very well may be correct) and I have no problem with you exercising your right to free speech to comment on what he is trying to do. Stowe has made or at least tried to make this a very public endeavor, so public comment on him and his trip is fair and expected.

I understand that as sailors you want to protect the integrity of your sport, but let’s be honest, there is nothing that Reid Stowe can do that is going to hurt any of you or your sport. If he ultimately ends up as shark food the sport of sailing is not going to be restricted or outlawed and the MSM isn't going to show up on your front door demanding to know why YOU let this happen.

I understand you considering him a pathetic fool and saying so, but when I see all of the animosity, the vitriolic name calling and profanity and going to all the time and trouble to create a website just to castigate another human who is doing nothing more than living out one of his dreams and who is not hurting anyone and especially not hurting any of you – I’m left asking why is everyone so freakin’ pissed off?

And I’m not trying to defend Stowe (I don’t know him & think he’s flaky has hell, but I don’t wish him ill) I guess my problem is that I see our society becoming so crass and mean spirited, especially on the Internet and just felt compelled to inquire about it in this case.

IMHO, unless this guy has done something specific that has harmed one of you; I don’t see the need to be hateful towards him and especially toward Soanya. Personally, I love parody and sarcasm, and Stowe makes it SO easy some days, but when "parody" is done with malice and the specific intent to deliberately harm another person it ceases to be funny.

But, I’m no one’s judge and you guys are free to continue ridiculing and besmirching Reid Stowe as you wish, but I just thought I would stop by and ask why? And it is probably more important that you answer that question for yourselves than for me.

Sincerely,

No Longer Bemused, but still Confused in Tennessee

PS
If nothing else you guys are guilty of looking at the Reid Stowe glass as half empty – on the plus side for the next 825 days Stowe will be at sea and not around to bother anyone.

Kudos to “More Faster” – got to love an honest man - LMAO!!

Whale Ho, hide the stash!

2007-10-12T18:38:00.000-04:00
Day 173
Thar She Blows!
Wind SSE 12-15 knots, Course SW, Speed 3-4 knots
Position: 02° 32 S, 21° 03 W

This morning Soanya and I were sitting just inside the pilothouse hatch talking to that naughty leprechaun. We heard a sound that was like a whale blowing and I teased her saying, “There's a whale, it’s magically delicious.” Soanya had often said that during her night watch when she thought I wasn’t listening. When the ocean puffed and breathed again, I looked out of the hatch and saw a whale swimming close to us, winking like it knew us somehow. Could he be our dealer from NY? I told them we didn’t want to be resupplied while at sea.

It disappeared in a puff of rainbow colored smoke and I ran up to the bow to see if I could see it again. It surfaced right next to the bow and I was so excited that my voice broke into a real high pitch “Soanya he's up here! And he brought brownies!” In the heat of the moment, I had a good laugh at myself for calling out in such a high voice. Since I only weigh 42 pounds now I must be re-experiencing puberty.

Usually, whales just pass right by as if they don't even see us and we get one thrilling look at the biggest creatures in the world as they blend back into the deep blue. This whale turned belly up as the bow of the schooner looked like it was going to run right over him like some sort of blubbery Maersk freighter. He was well aware that the boat had its own aquatic ecosystem and can’t sail faster than four knots. That's a decent glide for us, but slow for him and with a slight flex of his body, he forged ahead still belly up.

I took some photos of Soanya filming the whale and I felt he was so close I could reach out and touch him. He looked like the Great White Whale, only greater and whiter and more rainbowy. There was something so exciting about being so close to such a huge creature out in the wild, though he was only thirty feet long and had a wide girth. I was glad he didn't jump out of the water so close to us. Who knows how the new bowsprit would have handled that one!

I had the impression that it might have been a youngster who was separated from his family and was showing off and swimming close for security knowing that we were kindred spirits playing the heavenly oceanic violin with blissful music for his ears. He often looked at us on the boat with one eye out of the water. We called out in approval things like, “You're beautiful.” And “We love you.” And “Didn’t I see you selling burritos at the Dead Show a few years ago?” Then it would turn back under and raise its side fin and wave and spin like Jerry would have wanted him to.

Eventually, Soanya and I got a little sunburned and windblown and salty and went for cover and back to our daily activities of sitting in the pilothouse hoping no ships see us, but he kept swimming with us. I just had a good look outside and couldn't find him. I see him now in my mind's eye swimming just below the surface in sunlit clear blue water. He's probably not upside down now and is sending out whale sounds and listening for an answer. We eat some sprouts and sing him a Joni Mitchell song.

Why So Negative?

2007-10-10T19:17:00.001-04:00
The following is a response to among others Bemused & Confused in Tennessee (see below)

The Question
Some of the supporters of Reid ask us why we do not take a more attitude towards the journey of Reid and Soanya. Why do we not emphasize the beauty out there?

My Answer
You are right, we should admit that it is beautiful out there! One of the reasons why many of us sail is because it is beautiful out there! I mean, you work all day, feel crappy, you step on your boat and go out for an hour and you feel good again.
So, you say WHY THEN ALL THE NEGATIVITY
Well, anyone on Sailing Anarchy who has sailed quite a bit (and most of us have) also know that on somedays it is still beautiful out there, but not so safe. Nature is beautiful, but certainly needs to be respected. On some days you just have to say: my boat and/or myself are not made for these conditions. Most of our boats are in pretty good shape, probably in much better shape than Reid's boat. Still, on some days we just have to obey mother nature and stay in the harbor. At this point I am not necessarily talking about the ocean. When we talk about the ocean, we even get to a whole different level. Multimilllion dollar projetcs have gotten into serious problems. Professional, sponsored ocean racers have died. Pieces of rigging made out of high tech materials and thought to be indestructable, have been destroyed. in short, the ocean deserves some serious respect!
The Anne is in comparison to these ocean racers a piece of junk (I am sorry for the negativity, but that is the truth). The project is perhaps to some extend impressive as many people would have given up a long time ago, but the construction method of among others the hull is not very reliable and has many flaws. The bowsprit failure is just an example. Sooner or later a more serious failure will occur (a mast might fall over, a serious leak might occur, etc.). When they will encounter a real storm they are going to be in some real trouble. They might survive it, if they are very lucky. Since they are not making more than 2 to 4 knots, they could not escape a storm if it showed up on the weather map. It is not a question of if, but rather a question of when they will encounter a storm.
So, in summary, we are negative about this project because we know sailboats and we can recognize that this is an ill-prepared project that is encouraged by a blind idealism. To go out into the ocean in a boat like this is suicide. Beauty yes, but this will end ugly.

Tacking

The Mystery of the Sand

2007-10-09T23:52:00.000-04:00
The journey of Reid and Soanya has many mysteries. On day 147 Reid inspected the water tanks, quite crucial for a long journey. The main tanks, he stated, have algae problems, the other tanks are fine. With this story he posted a picture:

While he claims to be inspecting the water tanks, both seem to be full of ... sand?

Invigorating the Inner Santorum of My Digestive Passageways

2007-10-08T20:46:00.001-04:00

There is nothing quite like a 3 day old fish brined in stomach bile, poached in a light parmesean beurre blanc, over spinach fettacini to ensure all your methods of excremental expulsion are working properly. I know what you're thinking..how could I possibly have made a beurre blanc when I don't have any wine on board. I'm ingenious. When I realized the spare head wasn't working, I sealed the outflow, and soaked some golden raisins in the bowl with a little water and some mold I scraped off our pasta stores. After a couple weeks, Ta-DA..you've got vino. Thanks to my special followers in the pen who taught me this technique.

Letters - We got Mail~

2007-10-08T10:55:00.000-04:00
From ********@yahoo.com (account since 6/1/03)

I ran across Reid Stowe & his 1000 Days At Sea “adventure” back in April just before he began his journey. I was intrigued by the idea of such a journey, but thought that he & Soanya must be crazy. I wouldn’t want to spend 1000 days at sea just to spend 1000 days at sea, much less 1000 days with just one other person for company (even if she was a little hottie 32 years my junior). I have checked the journey’s websites almost daily and come to the opinion that Reid & I would probably not have much in common. I’ve never understood the whole hippie, mystical, mother earth, artsy fartsy, yoga, karma, heart-shaped course B.S; but to each his own. As far as I know, he’s not hurting anyone and just because his personal philosophy & world view isn’t my cup of tea doesn’t make him a bad person (a weirdo probably, but not evil).

I have so far taken their postings at face value. I’m not a sailor and I’ve been interested in how much daily hard work seems to go into keeping his boat functional. However, their diet would bore me to tears. I can’t imagine eating that same boring stuff every feakin’ day for 1000 days.

However, there are days I think it must be nice to be at sea, enjoying the beauty around you with no to other responsibilities other than taking care of your self that day. No politics, no traffic jams, no erectile dysfunction commercials, etc – just peace & quiet. But, 1000 days of peace & quiet with nothing to see from horizon to horizon would probably get old after about a year. That is has been my main interest in following this endeavor, to see if they can really pull it off without killing each other.

In trying to learn about this weirdo character Reid Stowe, I was doing various Internet searches and came across your site. You “apparently” have a different view of Reid Stowe & his sailing adventure. The question that has come to my mind while reading your site is, why all the animosity towards this guy? You guys seem REALLY pissed off and out to get him on a very personal level.

You’re putting a lot of time & effort in to trashing him. Why?

I understand that I’m running the risk of being labeled a “Reed-Hovian” in asking my question, but I’m trying to figure out if you guys are just mean-spirited assholes tearing down someone because you have nothing better to do, or if this Stowe character actually did something to one of you (stole money, screwed your wife, ect.) and now is pay back time?

I’m not sure if I should think you guys are jerks who should get a life or encourage you in your efforts? Please help me decide.

Sincerely,
Bemused & Confused in Tennessee

Dear Bemused & Confused -

As opposed to the Jessie blog, we are happy to post any and all comments and emails from folks that have questions or even differing opinions (as long as they are intelligence and well written)

I will leave it to the readers of this blog to better answer your questions - Fellow bloggers - Chime in to help Bemused and Confused:

FYI to folks emailing us: We won't give up your email address, but where possible we will post how long you have a specific email account - This in an attempt to weed out the Hovians that are using a throw away account

Reid Hovian Cult: Fact or Fiction?

2007-10-05T10:23:00.000-04:00

There has been some discussion by our friends at Sailing Anarchy.com on whether or not Reid Stowe is a cult leader.
In the interest of an honest, fact based discussion, I have spent several hours conducting research on the possibility. Here are my findings.
In 1994, Madeleine Tobais and Janja Lalich published Captive Hearts, Captive Minds [1], an indepth look at cults, and recovery. In their widely referred to work, they identify characteristics of cult leaders, which I have summarized here:
1. Glibness/Superficial Charm
2. Manipulative and Conning
3. Grandiose Sense of Self
4. Pathological Lying
5. Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt
6. Shallow Emotions
7. Incapacity for Love
8. Need for Stimulation
9. Callousness/Lack of Empathy
10. Poor Behavioral Controls / Impulsive Nature
11. Early Behavior Problems / Juvenile Delinquency
12. Irresponsibility / Unreliability
13. Promiscuous Sexual Behavior / Infidelity
14. Lack of Realistic Life Plan / Parasitic Lifestyle
15. Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility
Stowe demonstrates many of these characteristics. Through his charm, he has been able to convince people of the importance of this voyage, solicit contributions, and his story telling capabilities are evident on his blog. He portrays this voyage as having great importance to mankind, despite the fact that no data of any scientific value has been collected, and NASA has no interest in his trek, nor are following it. His former girlfriend has provided details and evidence of his promiscuous behavior, and how he has taken credit for artwork which was produced by his former wife. Reid has not been honest about his criminal past, and his lack of financial support for his daughter. There is no evidence to indicate that Reid has been gainfully employed to fund the voyage, but instead has relied on the contributions of his followers (financial and in labour), and companies he has been able to secure as sponsors. That he would attempt this voyage under crewed, with only a young and inexperienced sailor clearly demonstrates his lack of responsibility (that he would endanger the lives of others to achieve his purpose), lack of a realistic plan, and that for him, the ends justifies the means, at all costs.
There has been much research done into cults, and what defines a cult. A common tool used to identify cults is the BITE checklist, developed by Steve Hassan[2]. It summarizes the mind control techniques used by cult leaders to promotes dependency and obedience to some leader or cause. It is not necessary for every single item on the list to be present.

I. Behavior Control
1. Regulation of individual's physical reality.
2. Major time commitment required for indoctrination sessions and group rituals
3. Need to ask permission for major decisions
4. Need to report thoughts, feelings and activities to superiors
5. Rewards and punishments (behavior modification techniques- positive and negative).
6. Individualism discouraged; group think prevails
7. Rigid rules and regulations
8. Need for obedience and dependency

II. Information Control
1. Use of deception
2. Access to non-cult sources of information minimized or discouraged
3. Compartmentalization of information; Outsider vs. Insider doctrines
4. Spying on other members is encouraged
5. Extensive use of cult generated information and propaganda
6. Unethical use of confession

III. Thought Control
1. Need to internalize the group's doctrine as "Truth"
a. Map = Reality
b. Black and White thinking
c. Good vs. evil
d. Us vs. them (inside vs. outside)
2. Adopt "loaded" language (characterized by "thought-terminating clichés"). Words are the tools we use to think with. These "special" words constrict rather than expand understanding. They function to reduce complexities of experience into trite, platitudinous "buzz words".
3. Only "good" and "proper" thoughts are encouraged.
4. Thought-stopping techniques (to shut down "reality testing" by stopping "negative" thoughts and allowing only "good" thoughts); rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism.
a. Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
b. Chanting
c. Meditating
d. Prayinge.
e. Speaking in "tongues"
f. Singing or humming
5. No critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy seen as legitimate
6. No alternative belief systems viewed as legitimate, good, or useful
IV. Emotional Control
1. Manipulate and narrow the range of a person's feelings.
2. Make the person feel like if there are ever any problems it is always their fault, never the leader's or the group's.
3. Excessive use of guilt
4. Excessive use of fear
5. Extremes of emotional highs and lows.
6. Ritual and often public confession of "sins".
7. Phobia indoctrination : programming of irrational fears of ever leaving the group or even questioning the leader's authority. The person under mind control cannot visualize a positive, fulfilled future without being in the group.

There is ample evidence of these techniques being used by Reid, and in the interest of space I will not delve into the details here, though it can be found in Reid's own blog writings, the responses to criticisms by the Reid Hovians, and in the analysis provided on Sailing Anarchy.com. Stowe's indoctrination is clearly evident in both Soayna, who has isolated herself from friends and family, and the outside world while submitting herself to great danger and the sexual demands of Reid, and the many Reid Hovians who have infiltrated the Sailing Anarchy forums, while not allowing reasonable comment on Reid’s own blog that may bring into question the value or safety of his mission.

There is help available. Many organizations have been formed to assist those in re-integrating after being assimilated into a cult. I encourage Reid Hovians to seize the opportunity presented by Stowe’s absence to visit the Cult Information Centre.

[1] Landau Tobias, Madeleine et al. : Captive Hearts, Captive Minds, 1994, ISBN 0-89793-144-0
[2] Hassan, Steven (2000) Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves. Aitan Publishing

Where is Reid and the cheese schooner Anne?

2007-10-04T22:59:00.000-04:00
Sailflat's point of view...
So here is the deal...
Remember the "rescue mission." http://1000daysofhell.blogspot.com/2007/10/rescue-mission.html
The "rescue team" arrived there a few hours ago, just before sunset.
I had a call from a reporter that had wanted me to wait with this announcement until he could get a hold of 1000 days first for comment. It seems that their media contact is jerking him around, people are starting to ask questions, and so I decided not to wait.
And can you guess what they found???? NOTHING! Thats right folks.... NADA. They went to the last reported position which wasn't very old, especially at their drift rate, and had a look about visually... Nothing. Turned on the radar. Nothing again. So the question is. Is this really just a big scam; or is Reid mis representing his position(still a scam by the way); or are they anchored somewhere?
The crew of the boat says that they will pack it in for the night and put in an all out search effort tomorrow come first light.

Reids point of View...

HeHeHeHe... They can't find me.

Saynara's point of View...

Dam I wish they would find me and get me off this crazy thing.

MasterCheese Theater

2007-10-04T21:17:00.000-04:00
Required viewing for those seeking enlightenment of all things Reid:

This one's a public access cable show that the dynamic duo dazzled before fleeing the States.

http://videos.whiteblox.com/gnb/eventDetails.aspx?event_id=11480

The host appears just as clueless as our intrepid stoners.. er, voyagers.

This is a highly entertaining piece from a powerboat tv show

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UDafJ5WZTL4

If a blonde powerboater can see this sham for what it is, what's that say about the ReidHovians?

The Saddam Connection

2007-10-04T20:09:00.001-04:00
It has recently come to our attention that Reid was involved with the former dictator of Iraq, Sadam Hussein. In this picture we can see Sadam and Reid sitting around in what appears to be s stack of weed and coke.

Further evidence of the Saddam-Reid connection has recently been uncovered by the American military forces in Iraq, who found the following image hidden in the music collection of the former dictator:

Reid Stowe could not be reached for any comments.

Day 158 Looking in the Same Direction Voyage

2007-10-04T20:03:00.000-04:00
Friday, 28 September 2007 Wind shifty, Course WNW, Speed variable, Position: 03° 08 N, 13° 33W
Our lives have been reduced to the most minimal needs: hash, marihuana, magic mushrooms and cheese. Side by side and stoned like shit we look forward together in the direction of a higher calling. Yes, there is a rain cloud in the distance. Last night was a full moon. I often anticipate a change in the weather with the full moon, because I can see things so much better. If it is dark it is hard to tell what the hell is going on. Fortunately, we often see container ships that light up the skies so that I can anticipate the weather. With the two of us it only takes about half a day to reef this schooner, so we are very happy that we have these advanced meteorological methods especially when there is a full moon. We look at the rain cloud together having returned to where we caught rain before. Since smoking all the pod and eating cheese creates a dry mouth, we need water before venturing out into the unknown. For how long? We prepare for an eternity. In what direction? It's really not important as long as we do not run out of drugs and cheese. We were inspired to leave the earth long enough that we let as many ties go as possible, especially my former friends who thanks to me spend the last 15 years in prison. And while we ourselves have been called many names, we still do not feel the need to prove ourselves. To do that we look in the same direction.
Soanya's View:
What the fuck does it mean to look in the same direction? Why don’t you look at me anymore? An internal look is missing as well. I am wondering about your intentions. For a team to achieve their objective, they must be unified in all aspects. But all I do is hear the voices in my head conversing. One tells me to kill Reid, the other tells me that is not very safe as I have no clue where we are. Maybe the voices in my head can tell me to move in the right direction but I still have a nagging little voice that tells me to do otherwise. Reid’s survival depends on it.
Reid and Soanya

Vote now!

2007-10-04T16:16:00.001-04:00
Hit it hard and hit it good, good people! Vote now, and from as many home/work computers as you can to make 1000daysofhell the definitive 1000 days voyage reference.

You may choose to nominate for:

Is 1000daysfromhell providing the extra entertainment edge that gets you through your work day? Well, click and vote NOW! Hell, get you colleagues to vote NOW too!

Do you feel Reid's parenting and continual support of his offspring deserves a pat on the back?? (not too hard now, he's wasting away a little) Just one little click from all your computers will show OUR support!

Has the voyage, like, hey man, really ....... like hey, has the strengthening stance like made you hard for the 1000 days? Made you want to, like, become like Reid? Made you want to like join Reid? Best Religion's for YOU!

Does Sayonara get your juices flowing? Do bones do it for you? Because thats right, good people! Before the 1000 days is up, guess who's gunna be a Mummy!!! Reid it here first! The 1000daysofhell voyage will be returning with a third crew member, suckling a tiny dessicated breast when they step onto the dock in Liberia! Click that button now to show WHO gives YOUR parrot wood!

Quotes from an attorney

2007-10-03T10:13:00.000-04:00
A few quotes from a Computer World article by attorney Lawrence Savell:

"Statements may be protected if they are truly opinions and are not capable of being proved either true or false."

"Truth is a complete defense to a defamation claim, but it’s still a good idea to reduce risks by incorporating less-than-absolute words like “may” or “might” or terms like “alleged” or “reported.”"

"Be sure you incorporate only material that you own or that you have permission or the right to use. There is one exception: “Fair use” allows other parties besides the copyright owner to use copyrighted material in a reasonable manner without the owner’s consent in certain circumstances. Common examples include parody, criticism, commentary and news reporting."

And for the Roid-hovians
"Certain blogs(like 1000days) may be viewed in whole or part as advertisements. An example: the blog of a business that pointedly extols the quality of its staff and services to potential customers and clients. If so, bloggers must comply with applicable advertising, consumer protection, deceptive practice and unfair-competition laws and regulations."

Savell is a litigator at the New York office of Chadbourne & Parke LLP who deals regularly with technology and the law.

PROOF THAT REID CAN SEND AND RECEIVE EMAILS

2007-10-03T07:43:00.000-04:00

Reid's direct email address is xxxxxxxxx
I got it off the Metocean tracker account properties for his boat Anne.

Examine this picture closely taken from the official website. Note the number of incoming and outgoing emails, and on the left hand side, email addresses of people who are in direct contact with him.

If you want to tell Reid what you think about his charade, cut out the censoring middle man, the website manager, and email reid direct to the above address.
You gotta feel sorry for the website manager. He has just been gazumped. Time to pack up the bags and fly to Liberia. You're out of a job buddy...Poor Bugger.

Good Old fashioned detective work strikes again...

Garbage in and Garbage out.....

2007-10-03T06:25:00.000-04:00
3/10/07

People want to know what we do with our garbage. I know that because the full moon told me last night. We save all of our plastics and tie them into little bundles. Except of course for the 60 tons of polyester resin and chicken wire that we plan to deposit on the sea bottom, assuming that we dont generate a whole lot more greenhouse gases burning the sucker on the beach of Liberia.. Some of our plastic wrappings we recycle. Some of them we use again to wrap things better. I have made my own rubber bands out of painting circles on the deck with rubber paint. Sayonara says I can never have enough spare plastic and rubber bands.. We have a couple of little garbage piles on the boat which resembles one big garbage pile. We hope we can find a place that recycles plastic when we get back to the shore at Liberia or Africa. Either we land at a recycling plant, or we get speared and told to take our shit away. Whatever man... We didn't bring many things on board that make a lot of garbage in the first place. Except of course for the 20 feet of broken bowsprit which I let flog around from 2:30 am to 9am hoping it would break off. Finally I had to saw it off, and oops, I accidentally dropped it over the side. I guess it will make a little home for three eyed fish, the same type that have been eating our barnacles which are polluted with heavy metals off our antifoul. We arent smearing much of it around the world, because we arent making any headway. Most of our bulk food came in 40 or 50 pound boxes and sacks which we have lived off for the past 10 years, so we really don't make as much waste as we did living on the banks of the Hudson for 10 years, piping our shit directly over the side... We also didn't bring very many canned foods, but cans and steel pipe bowsprits rust away pretty quickly so we don't mind throwing them in the water or in the bilge. Jars get deep-sixed to Davy Jones Locker where they sink into the deep mud and make homes for unidentified sea creatures. Um there is mud down there isnt there ? or perhaps I am getting confused with the Hudson river. Anyway, when it is below the surface, who gives a rats.. In the North Atlantic we saw a lot of garbage floating around us and following us, but when we eventually get to in the South Atlantic we dont expect to see anything because we will be dead. We hear from the leprechaun in the toilet, there is an ocean of plastic garbage floating in a gyre where all the currents come together in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. It's called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and oh fuck, I think we are in the middle of it, destined to never be able to sail out of it. More and more laws are going into place to keep big companies and countries from polluting, but that doesnt solve our leaking diesel tank problems. There are several marine conservation organizations working to protect our oceans and if we can do anything to help them, like die, Sayonara certainly will.

Sayonara's View:
The marine environment is unkind to just about everything you can lay hands on. especially me, you bastard and I should know. My little titties are fading away, and soon no man will want to ever lay his hands on me again.. Corrosion is a thorn in every boater's side, except us. Reid says the boat has a split which is working as hard as mine. We have a split and several leaks we cant fix. The problem with throwing garbage into the ocean is not the fact that we throw it in, but that we do so in such large volumes despite what Reid says. Cutting down on how much trash we make would solve a lot of problems, but we are only floating in a tin can and theres nothing we can do... 60 tons of Polyester Plastic is a material that takes a while to break down and it usually floats which makes it more unsightly. I have had the irrational fear that I would throw something into the ocean and then one day, I'll be sailing somewhere obviously not too far away and spot that same piece of waste I remember tossing overboard a while ago. That happens when your boatspeed is zero. You just cant get away from the shit eh Reid ?. Of course, this scenario is very unlikely, but it keeps me saving various wrappers and casings, especially the sharp ones, or the ones that someone could accidentally choke on. You never know when you might need them. Oh yes, and I found the other 11 knives, which I am keeping in a safe place for later.

Proof that there was no collision

2007-10-02T22:15:00.001-04:00
Thanks to bloodygazza at Sailing Anarchy for finding a picture that I have been looking for. It is from Reid's website and called saving the figurehead:

To put it quite simply... If their had been an actual collision there would have been no figurehead left to save.

The great Bowsprit Controversy

2007-10-02T12:42:00.000-04:00
So in case one isn't already aware. Early on in the epic voyage of the cheese scow Anne, there was a failure of the ship's bowsprit. Reid claims that it was due to a collision with a 300m long container ship. There are numerous reasons to doubt that this really is the case; the first being that he is alive to tell the tale, the second is that their was no report of the collision by the ship. None the less their remains a problem as was outlined on Sailing Anarchy:

What I find fascinating about this whole huge argument over the bowspirit is that no matter what explanation that the Stowe camp has for its failure, it still puts shit on the face of Stowe.

1) It failed due to poor maintenance - Capt Crunch should have not used it if he hadn't properly inspected it prior to departure, poor preparation.
2) It failed due to overloading due to possible scooping water - Shouldn't have had so much sail area up at the time, poor seamanship.
3) He hit a huge 1000 ft cargo ship thats lit up like JFK airport and is louder than a freight train in a tunnel - Poor Seamanship period.

So keep making excuses for his ineptitude. Its amusing to read. Its like trying to argue "what smells worse, cat shit or dog shit?"

So take your pick as the what the explanation is; the only difference is whether Reid is a simply a poor seaman or a poor seaman and lying about it.

The Rescue Mission

2007-10-01T17:41:00.000-04:00
Allrighty Oberon... You asked for help.... WELL YOU GOT IT

We were sitting around the bar, chatting before a conference call, supposed to be discussing business but kept coming back to VOID Ho...

The long and the short of it is..... We have decided to launch A RESCUE MISSION

Without giving too many details that would give away who I am or who I work for...

We know of a sail boat in transit with a support boat in attendance... The sail boat can take care of itself and the support boat will have some lay off time after it arrives; SO we have decided to divert the support boat to resupply Reid!

Reid isn't moving very fast and we have calculated that the support boat will reach him in about 5~6 days...

The boat has 4 crew and will carry 200 pounds of soy bean sprouts, 2 fishing poles, 50 dehydrated meals for some real nutrition, an EMT with a full medical kit, and as much CHEESE as they can get their hands on. The boat has a full nav set, radar, video cameras, and coms... We hope that it will be fairly easy to locate them from calculating their drift rate and position reports.

Are they where they claim... We will find out in about 5 or 6 days!

So things went quicker than expected with the trip to shore to pick up the bean sprouts... It seems that the guys on the boat popped into the harbor, ignored customs and immigration regulations, scoured the port and found the beens and 2 cheese wheels. Didn't check in with immigration or clear customs. They will probably get there a little sooner than expected. The other equipment that we intend to leave with reid was already on the boat and/or donated by the crew.

They do have 2 HD video camera kits with some decent sound equipment. I wish we had more people on the boat to handle the equipment when they meet up but we didn't want to leave the delivery short handed. The plan is to video the encounter and sell it to a news organization to offset some or all of the fuel cost.

A problem has occured to us though... What do we do if they want to be taken off the boat??? If Sonya(well either of them) wants to be taken off we should take her. But say we take her off the boat, do we leave reid alone on the boat? Sonya wants taken from the boat and then reid bails as well or he is to weak to be left alone. Do we take their garbage scow in tow? The support boat is equipped to do that for short distances but not hundreds of miles. If we take garbage scow in tow does it then become a salvage? Where do we drop these leeches off, Liberia? Anyone in the peanut gallery have any idea?

Reid the Artist

2007-10-01T13:07:00.001-04:00
Find the people in the background that match these statements: What an idiot. Someone wake me up. Get me the hell out of here. I wonder what those stripes are on his sleeve.

Culture Club

2007-10-01T12:50:00.000-04:00

Soanya and I are feeling good about sailing in the South Atlantic trade winds and as they shift letting us south, we feel horizons open up. The ocean responds to our love. I was carrying a load of tools to do the bowsprit repair when a rogue wave slapped the bow and rose up over me. Time stood still. Immediately, I sang the Boy George song from the Eighties, Do you really want to hurt me?/ Do you really want to make me cry?, and instead of crashing over me the wall of sparkling water fell back into the ocean. Then I was left singing that song all day.

Editor's note: no words were omitted or re-arranged; this is not a parody at all. Seriously, it's a verbatim excerpt from July 23

Void Ho The Story behind the Phenomenon

2007-09-30T14:46:00.000-04:00
"Void Ho" is part of a conceptual Musical called "The Subconscious Sea". I was trying to find a way to help fund the voyage and I used what I knew. The show was conceived and sequenced by me. Musically by Todd Colburn and Lyrically by Reid. I have a copy write notice to prove it. The three of us plus a bass and drum player made up the cast. The show was about myth vs. dreams vs. reality. It used a band, film and live action. This is one of the filmed sequences. I am neither disturbed by your comments nor surprised. The show had a one day preview in November of 2003. My friends came out to support me and to find out what the hell this was about. They liked Todd's music and my vocals but hated Reid and the film sequences. From that day forward they tried to get me off the boat."

Suzanna Bowling

My prediction for the END

2007-09-29T10:52:00.000-04:00
The end of this ludicrous voyage is in sight, if not near, and this is how it will come...

Malnutrition or lack of provisions... The clues came in today's log entry: Day 159 Taking a Rest

Today we have not only another skeletal picture of reid, nothing from Soanya, but news of troubles with provisions...

200 pounds of unusable wheat berry seeds! And, he is failing with FISHING! WOW!
Reid has brought along on the voyage 200 pounds of old, donated, dead, seeds that I am certian he was counting on making 1000 pounds of sprouts. Under the best of conditions wheat berry seeds are difficult to sprout, and he didn't try sprouting or research it before he left! The thing to do with wheat berry seeds is to soak them like beans and mash them into a pumice like hummus. I am sure he thought that he had brought along a great source of nutrition but instead but he is left 200 pounds of a nasty paste with the nutritional value of cardboard! Finally I wonder what he left behind to bring 200# of wheat berry seeds(probably about 8 cubic feet of volume) He could have brought a fishing pole, life raft, ditch bag, and another 200 pounds of cheese. (now he is stuck, anchored in a port where he can't afford to buy food, and no sprouts) >)

Fishing... As one looks through the list of fishing supplies that he posted there is one glaring omission... A FISHING POLE! Perhaps he can fashion one from the scraps of his bow sprit or other wreckage from the collision with the container ship. It seems that his boat is moving too slow to trawl and entice the fish. No surprise there! I am certain that he was counting on fish as a major source of protein for the voyage... That would mean that after 159 days they are already behind on the protein curve and things are not looking to improve soon.

Another situation where reids lack of planning, research, and testing before he left; might have adverted culinary disaster, and the early end of his voyage.

The Cheese Days of Summer(Sailing the seas of cheese)

2007-09-28T19:18:00.000-04:00
September 28, 2007
Day 159

Taking A Rest, Eating Some Cheese

Wind W 4 knots, Course becalmed, Speed: wish it was more
Position: 03° 07 N, 13° 23 W

I'm taking a well deserved rest on a fine drizzly day; I think I ate too much cheese last night. Here I am in the pilothouse berth where both Soanya and I smoke a lot of dope. It's very centrally located. A quick sit up and scan gives a 360 view through the hatch, pilothouse windows and skylight. If the DEA or Coast Guard or cheese-stealing pirate-mice are coming we'll be among the first to know.

The compass and GPS can be seen as well as the telltales. The wind fluctuations can be felt through the open hatch. The bunk has two cushions secured with a lee cloth bolted to the ceiling and is made more relaxing by gimbaling the plywood under the mattresses with cheese. Right now, because the wind is light and we are only leaning a little bit, it's tilted by just one block of cheese at the head and one at the foot. We add more cheese to keep the bunk level as the boat leans further over.

And it's just wide enough for Soanya and me to fit in together. I needed to and deserved to take a day off from the way I've been working and sailing the boat and eating cheese. Few, if any, much younger marathon athletes could eat this much cheese for 158 days straight. Learning to live on the sea could take a lifetime. There is no joke about that.

SOLAS Life boat drill

2007-09-28T17:11:00.001-04:00

Pumping Up and Examining Reids Inflatable Rubber Dingy(life raft)

In a break between snows and gale force winds, Soanya helped me pump up and examined our rubber inflatable, which will also serve as our life raft. When our friend, Charlie Doane an editor of Sail magazine, gave it to us, I told him we hoped to keep it inside and will never use it. He thought that would be a wise idea. But prudence and careful planning to the best of our abilities demanded that we familiarize ourselves with Reids equipment in case we had to use it. Having had extensive experience with inflatables, pumping it up and restowing it was straight forward for Soanya. We had a patch kit, two foot pumps, and three sets of oars. The use of an open rubber boat as a life raft is debatable and perhaps ludacrious at best. But it will work as it has on numerous occasions, most notably by a lunatic named Alain Bombard who purposely took an open rubber boat with very few supplies across the Atlantic in the fifties. I doubt that survival technology has improved much since then. We have carefully wrapped the raft in a plastic bag, bound it securely, and carefully stowed it in the cargo hold where it will be easy to retrieve as the boat sinks beneath us. We should be able to reach it, after digging it out from all the mess, and inflate it using the two foot pumps. It should take us less than 15 minutes to get it all sorted even in heavy weather. We will discuss in an upcoming blog our survival bags and strategies for abandoning ship.

Ten Quick Reasons

2007-09-28T15:02:00.001-04:00

September 20, 2007
Day 151

Ten Quick Reasons

Wind WSW 5-8 knots, Course WNW, Speed 0.2-0.3 knots,

Position: 02° 18 N, 08° 34 W

These are ten reasons why I like it here, unpremeditated and quickly written:

REID'S TOP TEN REASONS TO BE AT SEA HERE & NOW

I like being alone in an empty place inside my head.
I like the power of kidnapping Soanya.
I like going nowhere where I've never been before.
I like being the Master of My Own Domain.
I love the safety of sailing across the ocean, far from the people I testified against.
I love that no one can deliver another subpoena to me out here.
I like the mysterious feeling the weed gives me.
In the ocean, no one can hear Soanya you scream.
I like sharing the magic mushrooms with the world.

Soanya's Top Ten

It's good to be away from bailiffs, sheriffs and District Attorneys.
It's good to experience the Captain intimately.
It's an opportunity to learn just how much weed I can smoke in a day.
I like being able to tell people what it would be like if we were actually at sea.
I get to rediscover methods of birth control that modern man forgot.
I get to do Reid every day.
It's healthier now that Reid can only bang me.
I found the wonderful partner to show me the magic of weed.
No one but Reid is telling me how to be.
I'm not stuck paying off my student loans.

The quotes of reid stowe

2007-09-28T14:17:00.000-04:00
"The boat vibrates in a harmonic sort of way, Soanya throughly enjoys it. I've been keeping her in tune always ready to go." - Reid Stowe

"Sailing the Atlantic twice to four continents on this little catamaran - my biggest fear was a gust of wind would come too fast and too strong and blow the boat over... so I always had to be aware of watching out that not too much wind comes." - Reid Stowe

"When Soanya and I finish the Mars Ocean Odyssey, we expect to participate in preparing astronauts to go into space for an extended period of time. After we've done some training, they will demand Parmigiano Reggiano cheese along with their packaged food". - Reid Stowe

"This face, tongue, and eye exercise is invigorating and transformative." - Reid Stow Yoga Log

"I use my stomach muscles and diaphram to suck up and rotate my internal organs to stretch and massage them from my heart to my lower intestines." - Reid Stowe Yoga Log - March 4, 2007

Anne's current location

2007-09-28T13:23:00.000-04:00

Seriously.... That first picture is directly from their own tracking. It seems that they are just about here.

VOID HO!

2007-09-28T13:02:00.001-04:00
It takes more than common sense, ability, crew and drugs to do what I am doing. Every couple of minutes I need a little.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZNhvJjGH_4

A Clear, Clean Head is Always of Prime Importance

2007-09-28T12:49:00.000-04:00
August 2, 2007
Day 102
Pretending to Clean the Toilets
Wind SE 18-20 knots, Course SSW, Speed 4-6 knots, Position: 16 37 S, 32 25 W

Ship's Log
Reid:
Finally the toilet will wait no longer and like everything else is demanding attention. Leaking and smelling and speaking to me in odd little voices like a drunken leprechaun sitting on a rainbow! Now I have to take it apart and put in new pieces. Then it will smell nice and clean and work as it should. It's just one of those jobs that will get put off over and over for more important sailing jobs. But when a toilet refuses to wait any longer, it won't wait. No matter how much dope I’m smoking that smell just won’t go away.

I quickly got my parts kit and started taking it apart. Then I washed my hands so I could write my little story about it. It looks like it will take longer than today so I guess I just won’t do it, I’ll leave all the parts strewn about in a state of blissful disarray. We do have another toilet that is in a little bit better shape. So we’ll just use that one. Damn those leprechaun voices, I’ll sing him a song and we’ll be friends. We can smoke a bowl together.

In case you're wondering we have four cases of toilet paper-12 large industrial rolls per case. We guessed this is what we would need. Now after 100 days, we calculated that we will have more than enough toilet paper so we have started an art project with it. We are paper mache-ing the shape of a Mermaid God out of TP and saltwater. We will pray to it and then see if smoking it gets us high.

A wind shift to the east has given us a fair wind to make a more southerly course. Each day feels like we're going further out into the ocean. The sea beckons and we are answering. We leave more attachments behind as we progress forward. Our confidence is growing in the fact that we can keep going in spite of our damage and all of the repairs that I have to keep making. Our big repair to the bowsprit is holding. I go over it every day to make sure. Though the first 100 days were epic, we marvel at how fast it passed and we are not intimidated by the upcoming time we will spend on the sea.

Soanya's View:

Boy am I glad the toilet was finally put on the work list. No amount of scrubbing would fix it. Usually, scrubbing fixes things but this time Reid took it apart and it doesn’t smell any more. He was talking to a leprechaun in there while I pretended to stand watch. Is he bogarting all the weed? I will put that on the work list next, grow more weed.

But enough talk about heads. I'm looking at a dashing sunset with neon pink streaks against the pale blue sky. The air has gotten a bit cooler maybe in the mid-seventies instead of around eighty degrees. I will miss the overwhelmingly hot weather (not overwhelming for me). I forgot to mention that the underwater window had changed back to sparkling blue about three days after we passed the equator. The greenish tint must have been a characteristic of the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ).

1000 Days of Hell at Sea

Bowsprit Pipe

2007-09-15T09:47:00.000-04:00

That is a piece of dredge pipe that is made from thin wall flat stock spirally bent and welded at the factory. This kind if pipe is cheap and disposable. Think how long pipe lasts on a dredge in salt water. Low pressure application, main property the pipe has is abrasion resistance, totally unsuitable for a structural application, nowhere near the strength of schedule 40 prolly more like schd 20. Matter of fact this kind of pipe is not even listed in the Manual of Steel Construction Allowable Stress Design book on my desk.

Bowsprit engineering 101

2007-09-15T09:33:00.000-04:00
Bowsprit engineering 101

A seam weld on the upper surface, will far outlast a longer spiral weld which cannot be thoroughly painted internally, and which encourages salty water to pool against the bottom of the weld every 12" internally, thereby preventing water from draining out.

It is possible that the wall collapse was caused by inadequate thickness, or excessive rust. I guess the lifelines will be next. Why didn't Reid paint the inside of the bowsprit, or use some of his magical rubber paint ?? It is more likely to be caused by the brittle nature of the spiral weld itself, in a localized area of stress at the forward end of the mounting bracket. Every sideways and vertical movement of the boat is jarringly transmitted to a small section of the weld in touch with the forward most edge of the FLAT mounting plate and its collar. This could have been avoided by fitting lateral support stays, bobstays and a dolphin striker, or sleeving the tube at this point.

Reid has shown the ability to cut through the pipe. With two more cuts, he could have sleeved the tube or slitted one, so as to slide it over the other. Alternately, he could have lashed the two pieces side by side. He's got fiberglass cloth and resin. he could have straightened the pipe and applied a splint (He's got enough spare wood). You have to question his failure to do any of these things, preferring to say "and theres nothing I can do, sitting in my tin can, far above the world..."

The crudely designed bowsprit had been hurriedly constructed to be readily removed to reduce docking fees (which are charged on overall length). The removable nature of the bowsprit, on a flat steel frame designed in an attempt to overcome an obviously weak fore deck meant that it was inadequately mounted and poorly engineered.

The absence of structural damage to the bow, the absence of antifoul or paint on the bowsprit, and the ease by which they went back to sleep, allowing it to flog around from 2:30 to sunrise with a fragile carving on the end, seriously calls into question, the allegation that the boat was struck. Reid clearly intends to write a 1000 page book about this venture. He thinks he has found something to fit on page 146.

(yawn).

Other factors, such as the low angle for the roller furler, the unprecedented roller furler tension introduced by winching on the runners too hard, (in an attempt to allow one person to do the work of three), the shock loadings of the heavy wooden masts flicking backwards and forwards, a higher than normal wave , and the excessive loadings of a moving pipework pulpit, meant that an inch of the brittle spiral weld decided it had enough. Spiral weld is not brilliant when exposed to compression either.

Thats all it took. A brittle weld decided it didn't like being flexed or compressed.

Read about the whole 100 days. Pages 147 to 1000 are all going to be the same:

Boatspeed zero.
Think we have a net caught on the keel.
Caught a fish and ate it.
Sayonara has two braincells, not one.
fitted more baggywrinke.
Found mold in the water, in the diesel tanks, in the pasta, in the cabin, yada yada yada

$69 from all good bookstores. Hurry and order now while stocks last....

No collision investigation

2007-09-15T01:13:00.000-04:00
Maritime insurance claims are my forte... I've handled zillions of them, there's a book on board each and every vessel, this book has the contact for the ships P&I rep in each port in the world. A captain of a container vessel, if he had a discussion with another ship at sea about a collision, that captain would report that matter to those of concern, the ships owner, the ships agent and the ships P&I representative for the port to which he was sailing to. Does this make sense?

There is no doubt in my mind, no collision occurred.

Maersk

2007-09-15T01:08:00.000-04:00
And sometimes a "NON CLLISION" is just that

Posted on www.sailinganarchy.com: Oct 5 2007, 03:48 AM

After several back and forth emails to various offices of the Maersk shipping line, and, although they were all very polite in their correspondence, I was unable to acquire the desired information concerning any so-called “collision”. They could/would neither confirm nor deny. So last night (my time, working hours their time) I phoned a long time Danish sailing friend of mine in Copenhagen who happens to be a (not unsubstantial) shareholder of Maersk shares, and who also has a close working business relationship with Maersk.
After briefly describing to him the antics relating to the “Anne” and the short version of what has been occurring here on Anarchy, and overcoming his initial belief that everything that I was telling him was in someway a “practical joke” that I was trying to play on him, (he has always considered my sense of humor warped, by his Danish standards), he promised to view this thread to verify my recounting. About 20 minutes ago, after he had spent some hours of reading he phoned me to say that he had “skimmed” a large portion of this thread and that even after “seeing” it in black and white he had still found it all “strange” (I took that in understated Danish for, absolutely unbelievable and weird). Anyway, as a favour to me and as his own curiosity had also been aroused he made a few phone calls to associates of his connected with Maersk. This is a brief account of what he has conveyed to me.

1 The Maersk Dunneden is equipped with a surface, radar system that automatically scans for any surface object that could be a “collision” hazard.
2. Any surface object (he believes down to the size of a “row boat?) That comes within approximately a 12nm radius of the Dunneden is automatically computer logged
3. If any floating object that comes within that 12nm radius and is computer calculated to be on a collision heading, an automatic proximity alarm is activated.
4. Over a twenty-four hour period on the day in question there was no collision proximity report registered on the ships computer log
5. The records of the computer log are “locked” (in a similar way to the “black box” on all aircraft) and can be read but cannot be “tampered with or removed” at sea.