Off Watch For my money, in long-distance voyaging, the rugged, aging, balding master mariner called is sailing’s undeniable Greatest of All Time.

The G.O.A.T. n recent years, in the under 73 days, a world record world of sports, the at the time. But Joyon was Iacronym G.O.A.T. has be- truly just getting started. come a popular tag to identify In 2005, he broke the and laud the utmost in excel- 11-year-old record for a solo lence: Greatest of All Time. crossing of the Atlantic in a In boxing, Muhammad Ali shade over 6 days. In 2008, is definitely the G.O.A.T. In he again circled the globe sin- professional basketball, there glehandedly in record-setting are two passionate, divergent fashion, this time in under 58 schools of thought regarding days, aboard yet another new who deserves G.O.A.T. status: tri called IDEC 2. Five years Michael Jordan or LeBron later, on the same boat, he James. In pro football, at least lowered his solo transatlantic 122 here in New England, the un- record to 5 days, 1 hour. In disputed G.O.A.T. is Patriots 2017, sailing the maxi IDEC quarterback Tom Brady. Of Sport, with a full crew he won course, in reality, there is no the for such thing as a true G.O.A.T.; fastest in it’s all conjecture, and arguing just over 40 days. Forty! Days! the merits of favorite athletes Finally, in 2018, he won the on the grandest stages is part transatlantic of the fun of being a fan. Now 63 and still ripping around the planet under sail, the from France to Guadeloupe All that said, in recent times stoic Frenchman has shown no signs of slowing down. by vanquishing the young su- I’ve come to believe that in perstar François Gabart—the the world of offshore sailing adventure with high rewards. voyages from Singapore to seeming heir to the G.O.A.T.’s an unlikely candidate has risen Let’s put it this way. I still get Shanghai; and will conclude in throne—in most dramatic to supreme, exalted status: a antsy sailing a boat on and off early 2020 with a crewed run fashion, by seven minutes after a stoic Frenchman who, at the a mooring by myself. Joyon at the so-called Clipper Route voyage of 7 ½ days. The word not-so-tender age of 63, seems regularly races a 103-foot tri- from Hong Kong to London. in French for “incredible” is to get better, more ambitious maran. Across oceans. Alone. And to think, I considered my incroyable. and even more audacious Faster than anyone ever has. last charter in the Caribbean a The incroyable, er, amazing with each passing year, while Joyon made news in France pretty cool trip. thing about Joyon is he’s show- continuing to show his literal last spring with the announce- One of the more amazing ing no signs of slowing down. and figurative transom to all ment of his latest record-hunt- things about Joyon is that, His raw strength and endless the Young Turks who are his ing campaign aboard his though he’d spent his life stamina are legendary. He juniors by decades. maxi-tri, IDEC Sport (Group sailing professionally after an remains humble to a fault. In For my money, in long-­ IDEC, a French conglomerate, unlikely childhood far from those rare moments when he’s distance voyaging, the rugged, is Joyon’s corporate sponsor). the sea, he didn’t become a ashore, he appears to be in no aging, balding master mariner His 2019/2020 Asian Tour household name in France small rush to return to where called Francis Joyon is sailing’s will commence in October until 2004, when he was he’s most comfortable. At sea. undeniable G.O.A.T. with a solo run from France almost 50 (by comparison, our There’s nobody else like You are forgiven if you to Mauritius in the Indian football hero Brady is beating Francis Joyon. Is he the great- have no idea who Joyon is. He Ocean (he needs to knock that long odds, but still nearing the est ever? I’m not positive. But plays what has become a very off in less than 26 days); will end of his career, by playing show me someone better. French game that really has no move on to the South China at 42). That year, he sailed a equivalent in the U.S.—a high- Sea with a series of four fully previous IDEC, a 79-footer,

risk contest that mixes high crewed record attempts on around the world alone in just SPORT PIERRICK CONTIN/IDEC Off Watch Don Street always believed that Iolaire’s massive boom, left over from her days as a gaff-rigger, ‘could be a real widow-maker’ in an inadvertent jibe.

navigator while a member of The LAST CHAPTER Dennis Conner’s America’s Cup squad), and a Grenadian or legendary ­sailor opening up the islands to the the venerable Royal Ocean boat boy. And Street counts and cruising-guide throngs of cruising sailors and Racing Club and served as its another half-dozen near F­author Don Street, this charterers that followed. And commodores. Over the years, disasters, “three of which were past July 26 should’ve been a he’s absolutely correct. countless great sailors crewed avoided by the skillful work of ­happy day: his 89th birthday. The 114-year-old Iolaire aboard Iolaire, including crew and skipper, and three by ­Instead, it will be a day Street already had a long legacy when high-latitude explorer Bill her own lucky streak.” remembers for all the wrong Street acquired the ship- Tilman, America’s Cup legend Alas, Iolaire’s luck ran out ­reasons—the day his beloved wrecked boat, for $100, off a C. Sherman Hoyt, and former this past July, reportedly when 46-footer, Iolaire, aboard beach in St. Thomas, USVI, in submarine skipper Bill King, she jibed accidently while sail- which he roamed the Atlantic 1959 after she’d washed ashore who became famous for his ing dead-downwind, and then and the Caribbean with his when an anchor shackle failed. round-the-world voyage on hit the bricks on the rocky family and friends over a “I resurrected her from the Galway Blazer. shores of Ibiza. The crew man- half-century of ownership, was dead,” he said. Iolaire’s second life, with aged to scramble into a life raft lost in heavy weather under Street has often said that Street as captain, was nothing and made it ashore safely. 162 the command of her latest if Iolaire’s gimballed dining less than extraordinary. She Street always believed owner off the coast of the table could talk, “oh, the tales survived three hurricanes: a Iolaire’s massive main boom, Spanish island of Ibiza. it would tell.” Built in 1905, pair in 1961 and Hurricane left over from her days as a The boat’s rich history reads gaff-rigger, “could be a real like a riveting maritime novel. widow-maker in an inadver- What happened off Ibiza was tent jibe.” For that reason, he just the sad, final chapter. spent years rigging, testing and Street sold Iolaire in 2009. perfecting various preventer Before that, for five decades, systems to head off such a the engineless red yawl was possibility. “This was obviously a ubiquitous presence in not rigged on July 26,” he said. both Europe and the Eastern Street, of course, was Caribbean, on both sides devastated by the loss, but has of the Atlantic, which she wonderful memories of “the crossed seven times under long-lived and long-loved” Street’s command. It’s hard to Iolaire. “For 50 years, I lived imagine a sailor and his vessel on Iolaire,” Street said, with an being more intertwined than emphasis on lived. “I camped Street was with Iolaire. Street out when I came ashore!” used the boat as his base to And there is a silver lining cruise, race, charter, explore to this dark cloud, an epilogue and write, and his adventures to the grand story. Perhaps the spawned hundreds of maga- Iolaire in her glory in happier days, powered up with full sail best thing of all about Iolaire: zine articles, the Imray-Iolaire and a full crew racing off Antigua in the early 1990s. Her skipper Don Street—who charts of the Caribbean and loved her more than everybody Atlantic islands, three books, she was immediately commis- Klaus in 1984. There was a else—is not only as feisty as and his series of all-inclusive sioned for racing, as she was dismasting in the Anegada ever, he’s still racing Dragons cruising guides. every year (except from 1940 Passage in 1962, and the time off the coast of Ireland, the Street has long maintained through 1945, during World she lost 10 feet off the top of oldest (and still most capable) that, aboard Iolaire, through War II), right up to 2019. the spar off Dominica in 1984. in the fleet. Yes, Iolaire is gone. his own stories and travels, he Among her distinguished In that instance, Street sailed But Street sails on. demonstrated how accessible owners were Rose Richards the boat home to Grenada the Caribbean was, and that and Bobby Somerset, both with his 4-year-old daughter,

he played a huge role in of whom were founders of Dory (who later sailed as a BEKEN OF COWES Off Watch Once you’ve experienced the Northwest Passage, I’ve discovered, it’s like the Hotel California: You can check out, but you can never leave.

CONFRONTING Terror en years passes quickly. three decades was launched. adventures. By mid-July we’d It’s hard to believe a Bit by bit, as fresh pieces of made it through the surpris- Tdecade has slipped by evidence were uncovered — a ingly placid Bering Strait and since the cold spring in Seattle crewman’s letter left under reached Barrow, Alaska, at in 2009 when we were just a cairn, eyewitness accounts 70° N, having survived our weeks away from setting out by Inuit hunters, abandoned initial harrowing encounter for a west-to-east attempt at campsites — the story with the ice. The Northwest the Northwest Passage aboard emerged. Franklin’s death, the Passage loomed ahead, and the 64-foot steel cutter called ships locked in ice, starving soon enough, we were in it. Ocean Watch. I had never expe- survivors, cannibalism; it The landscape was flat, rienced such a conflicting set wasn’t pretty. Then in 2014 and lunar. Polar bears came and of emotions, in equal measures 2016, the sunken ships were went. On several occasions, we anticipation and anxiety. It discovered, and the mystery were literally stopped cold by all seemed so audacious. And In Pond Inlet, with the was fully solved once and for the pack, our patience tested 110 kind of, you know, dangerous. Northwest Passage behind all. until new leads in the ice My nervousness stemmed us, all I felt was relief. Truth, as always, was strang- opened up. A successful transit from the fact that, as a lapsed er than fiction. was very much a tenuous history major, I’d become ob- the showing in Mystic, it will When we left Seattle in late matter. The pastel twilight sessed with the literature and be on display this summer May of 2009, headed north was so beautiful it rendered annals of the storied Arctic wa- from June through September for the Arctic Circle and the us speechless. The local Inuit, ters, particularly the chronicles at the Anchorage Museum legendary waters beyond, our after years of dealing with the of disaster. Figuratively speak- in Alaska. If you’ve always fate was still unknown. The consequences of warmer win- ing, I was the rubbernecked wanted to visit Alaska but ters, were open and friendly sap on the freeway who can’t needed a little extra incentive, The landscape was but seemed wary of the future. avert his gaze from the terrible head north. It’s that good. The voyage itself took on its car crash. Which meant I The Franklin Expedition flat, lunar. Polar own all-encompassing life. was particularly infatuated by was named after its leader, Sir bears came and There was nowhere else on the the awful tale of the ill-fated John Franklin, who in May of planet, only the present, the Franklin Expedition, perhaps 1845 set sail from Britain with went. The pastel here and the now. the world’s greatest mystery two ships and 129 men to find twilight was so In late August, in a night of the mid-1800s. Thanks and chart a course through the lovely it rendered I’ll never forget, we dodged to a terrific new exhibition then theoretical “Northwest the last icebergs and sailed called “Death in the Ice” at Passage” to Asia. Somehow, us speechless. down a dramatic corridor of Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport the notion of sailing vessels snow-capped peaks lining Navy Museum, all of it — Franklin’s called Terror and Erebus (the Northwest Passage was just Board Inlet and into the small journey, and my own — has dark region of Hades in Greek the first stage of a planned trip village of Pond Inlet at the tip recently come rushing back. mythology) seemed like a swell “around the Americas,” from of Baffin Island. Lo and ehob ld, It’s been a chilly stroll down idea. In any event, after a final Seattle to Seattle, via Cape the Northwest Passage was icy memory lane. Once you’ve sighting of the boats by some Horn, to promote awareness behind us. It was, and remains, experienced the Northwest whalers in Baffin Bay at the of ocean-health issues and difficult to comprehend. Passage, I’ve discovered, it’s passage’s eastern entry point climate change. The most Unlike Franklin and his like the Hotel California: You in late July, 1845, Franklin’s daunting leg was the initial doomed mates, we’d made it. can check out, but you can entire party simply vanished. one. Would the ice permit us We were the lucky ones. never leave. Gone. Poof. to pass? Or would we become The “Death in the Ice” trav- Two years later, the first beset in it, like Franklin? It eling exhibit, created by the of what would become was all yet to unfold. Canadian Museum of History, over three dozen search Nearly every day aboard

is just incredible. Following expeditions spanning some Ocean Watch brought new THORESON DAVID