Man Credits 'Love' in Record 3-Year Trip at Sea

(June 18) -- The first thing Reid Stowe did after spending more than three years at sea -- apparently breaking the record for the longest sea voyage -- was kiss his girlfriend and the 2-year-old son he'd never met.

The New York man has spent the past 1,152 days on the water, without setting foot on land to restock supplies or fuel. He's lived on dried fish and sprouts, and he had tears streaming down his face when his 70-foot double-mast schooner, which set off from New Jersey in April 2007, docked in Manhattan on Thursday.

"Every time it got hard, every time I got afraid, every time I needed strength, I just called on love. And I got strength to go on," Stowe, 58, told reporters after kissing his girlfriend, Soanya Ahmad, and meeting his son Darshen, whom they conceived at sea.

Originally Stowe and Ahmad intended to sail around the world together for 1,000 days, but Ahmad was forced to seek dry land just a third of their way along, suffering from what she thought was seasickness but turned out to be morning sickness. Darshen was born 23 months ago, and Thursday was the first time he met his father.

"He's a little shy to meet a big guy like me," Stowe said of his son, who avoided reporters' questions by sleeping in his mother's arms. The three now plan to live together aboard the schooner.

Before meeting Ahmad, Stowe had already sailed to every continent over the previous four decades. But his girlfriend had never sailed beyond New York's Hudson River.

"Before we left, we had an agreement that if I had to get off for any reason, he would go on," Ahmad said. "I knew if he came back and didn't finish the voyage, he would just go back again. There was no way he wasn't going to finish it."

The couple spoke by satellite phone every week, and Stowe was able to maintain a website and send e-mails. He kept himself busy at sea by repairing torn sails, painting, practicing yoga and writing a book he hopes to get published.

Stowe's voyage is the latest in a series of attempts to break records at sea, some of which have proved dangerous. A 16-year-old California girl, Abby Sunderland, had to be rescued from the middle of the Indian Ocean last weekend after the mast of her sailboat snapped while she was trying to become the youngest person ever to sail solo around the world.

Even for 58-year-old Stowe, it wasn't always smooth sailing. He had two accidents, one in which he collided with a freighter, and another when he capsized but managed to right his boat in February 2009.

Stowe believes he's broken a record set in the 1890s by a Norwegian ship that spent 1,067 days at sea. Guinness World Records says it's looking into his claim. He hadn't registered with the company beforehand because he couldn't afford the entrance fee.

But other experts also believe Stowe's voyage is a new record. Charles Doane, editor-at-large of Sail magazine, told The Associated Press that Stowe's GPS record proves his boat never touched land over his entire trip.

Stowe's arrival in New York on Thursday also marked his first meeting with his 3-year-old granddaughter Lucy, the child of his daughter from a previous relationship.

The sailor said that aside from missing his family, he wanted for nothing during his more than three years at sea. "I lived in a state of grace on the sea, and it was because of family love," Stowe said.

Afterward he joked that he might even cook his family a dinner of the remaining tuna he'd caught.