After a record-setting 1,152 days at sea, a New York sailor was welcomed home today by a 22-month old son he was meeting for the first time.
“My son has seen pictures of his father, but he can’t comprehend what a father is,” said Soanya Ahmad, 26, who waited for Reid Stowe at Pier 81.
Stowe’s boat, a 70-foot schooner named Anne, tied up about 1:30 p.m. near the Circle Line boats. Stowe soon stepped onto the pier — the first time he’d walked on a stable surface in more than three years.
“I never missed anything. My state of mind was a state of grace,” the 58-year-old sailor said.
“I loved every wave.”
More than a half-hour his arrival, he still hadn’t held his son — who was asleep most of the time Stowe was meeting people at the dock. “He’s shy to meet a big guy like me,” Stowe said.
Stowe and Ahmad set off from Hoboken in April 2007 for what was supposed to be a 1,000-day, non-stop voyage, aiming not to make landfall anyplace.
Ahmad was picked up by a motor launch 11 miles off Perth, Australia on day 306 after suffering two months of seasickness that turned out to be morning sickness.
That was the only time Stowe got anything close to assistance from other sailors, his supporters say.
He circled the world once, and mostly meandered slowly at sea — following a 5,000-mile route shaped like a giant whale in the Pacific off South America, and a similarly-sized route that looks like a big heart in the South Atlantic.
Stowe’s diet included lots of fish. He avoided scurvy — the old-time sailors’ dietary scourge, caused by a Vitamin C deficiency — with dried fruit, canned vegetables and sprouts grown on board.
His voyage easily beat the previous record of 657 days at sea, set by an Australian sailor.
Stowe is looking forward to a private dinner with his family tonight, at which he’ll serve some of the tuna he caught.