THE MAN WHO SAILED THE WORLD
Randall Reeves just became the first person to circumnavigate North and South America and Antarctica, alone, in one continuous loop, the Figure 8 Voyage
Through the Northwest Passage, sail past Russia, a stop off in Nome (not Hawaii) and Reeves is practically home free. Got all that?
By Jason Stahl
Randall Reeves grew up dreaming of the sea. On his second date with his now wife Joanna, he confided in her that his childhood dream of going deep blue sea sailing. Serious, around the world alone sailing.
Reeves learned to sail on the rivers of Central California, and has followed his dream. In 2010, he completed a two-year, 12,000-mile solo-loop of the Pacific Ocean (which he’s now crossed seven times) in a 30-foot sailboat – seeing Joanna only every four months. Then in 2014, he sailed through the Northwest Passage, an exhausting 65-day trip through 5,000 mostly frozen miles in the Arctic. Reeves was hooked. Every time he returned home, he soon returned to the sea. He told his (very understanding, it has to be said) wife he couldn’t be a normal person again, and wanted to be on the ocean.
The Figure 8 Voyage passes through the world’s five oceans, approaches the North and South Pole and goes around treacherous Cape Horn twice. The journey is roughly 40,000 miles, which is roughly the equivalent of going around the globe twice. No one has done this before.
Reeves’ first Figure 8 attempt started in September 2017 aboard a 45-foot aluminum boat he named Moli. Storms knocked out his electronics and windows. He stopped in Tasmania for repairs and started wondering if he’d ever complete this. He didn’t.
But you can’t keep a good sailor down. In October 2018, Reeves set out on Moli, again from San Francisco. We interviewed the 57-year-old while he was momentarily in port at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, on his final leg to the finish line, the Golden Gate Bridge back in San Francisco.
