Around the World - A Voyage by Sea

Ellen Massey Leonard and Seth Leonard are sailors, photographers and outdoor adventurers whose marriage began on a sailing trip around the world. Ellen writes and shoots photos while Seth is an economist and programmer who can work from just about anywhere. Together they’ve sailed nearly 50,000 nautical miles taking them ona voyage around the world, and on trips to the Arctic, Alaska, the Aleutian islands and the West Coast and East Coast of the “Lower 48”. They’ve lived in the Swiss Alps, the US and at sea.

You sailed around the world. How did you create the courage to drop everything and pursue this?

Sailing offshore was a life-long dream for me. Ever since I learned to sail as a little girl, I had wanted to go do it. I had grown up sailing on the West Coast in British Columbia, looking across the Pacific, always wondering what it would be like to sail over the horizon, out of sight of land.  I was 20 years old when I met Seth (now my husband) and we started the round-the-world voyage. I was attending Yale and had studied super hard my whole life – I was ready to do something else. Yale lets you take one year off your studies, so I knew that I would be coming back, but that I would also get to pursue my big dream.

Seth had also always wanted to sail around the world and we hit it off right away. He had actually already bought the boat – an older, unique ocean racing design from the 1950s. Unfortunately the boat was pretty dilapidated, in need of a lot of repair, but her fundamentals were seaworthy. So we weren’t totally insane.

Did anyone try to talk you out of doing it?

My Mom was super psyched about it. My dad was more worried about safety and experience levels and all his worries were legit! He came around after we’d made a few passages, though, and was 100% behind us.

There were quite a few naysayers, of course, especially because we were so young and the boat was in such bad shape. The only person who caused me to hesitate was one of the guys at the local boat building business – obviously he knew a lot about boats and he was concerned about the condition of our boat. But Seth and I had a dream – I think we both had the same vision for it and that was really important for seeing it through.

What was the worst thing that happened along the journey?

The worst weather we encountered was off South Africa, as we were rounding Cape Agulhas and the Cape of Good Hope. An unpredicted Force 11 storm blew up (about 70mph winds), which is almost hurricane force. It’s nearly impossible to determine wave heights at sea, but we knew that these waves – which were breaking, so that our 12-ton boat was surfing down them – were 30 feet tall. We knew that because there was tanker going the other way whose bow was 30 feet high and the waves were crashing over it.

I had never experienced anything like that. It was terrifying, because boats the size of ours can easily capsize (turn completely over) in those conditions. But somehow, you stop thinking about fear or about the overall situation. Instead you think about exactly what you can do at each exact moment. That was the only point I was afraid on the trip...and the boat was even in good shape. We were very lucky it happened in year 3 after we’d done a lot of major repairs.

Did you question if you could finish the trip?

Nope, I did not! For many sailors aiming to circumnavigate the planet, the Indian Ocean is where they get stuck, understandably not wanting to round South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. But it actually never occurred to me that we would not finish the trip. Yes, we had many things to overcome, like the boat repairs and bad weather, but I was sustained by what a wonderful and unique experience I was having –  I wasn’t tired of it at all! The places you stop are amazing. With so many sea-faring cultures, the locals understand what it’s taken to get there by sailboat and they often treat you like family. We’d get to a place and be immediately welcomed.

How have Katadyn products come in handy during your voyages?

We didn’t have Katadyn until our voyage to the Arctic. So much of the Arctic is a desert, and we’d heard how difficult it can be for sailors there to obtain water ashore, so we wanted a desalinator. We used the PowerSurvivor 40E- it’s the lightest weight and awesome for the Arctic. The local people often only have enough drinking water for their own communities, so this gave us independence offshore.

WATCH:

When the seas are rough we would eat AlpineAire meals because you just pour boiling water into the pouch and you don’t have to cook or wash any dishes. With the boat pitching and rolling that was great to have. We both really like the Mac n Cheese- it was especially good when we were feeling seasick on the boat - it’s warm, comforting and not too spicy. When we were not as seasick we both really liked the Mountain Chili – it’s vegetarian and has great flavor.

What’s the most life-changing voyage you’ve been on thus far?

The voyage around the world was the start of our marriage – Seth and I got to know each other during it and came to love each other, so in that sense it was definitely the most life-changing. It was also life-changing in another sense, in that it showed us how important sailing oceans is to us for providing the space and challenge to be in touch with nature and with ourselves without distractions. We had left thinking it was a trip similar to a “gap year experience” in that we’d go back to “normal” life afterwards. Once we got back, though, and Seth was in grad school and I was working, we both really missed the ocean, so we started planning our Arctic voyage. Sailing wasn’t a one shot deal– it’s so much of what our relationship is about.

Anything big in the works for 2018?

Our favorite part of the around the world trip was the South Pacific. We still have the same boat from the Arctic and we’ve sailed down to Baja (Mexico) from Alaska this fall/winter. This spring we hope to cross the Pacific to Tahiti.

Seth works on the boat as a private consultant programmer and will be developing a product as we cross the Pacific. Then in September we will go back home - working remotely from a boat is a lot harder than it sounds!