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Old 03-05-2013, 12:19 PM   #75
IslandEagle
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City: Toronto & Nanaimo
Vessel Name: Island Eagle
Vessel Model: DeFever
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 232
Quote:
Originally Posted by psneeld View Post
Blue Water Medal The Cruising Club of America (CCA) has selected David S. Cowper (Newcastle, England) to receive its Blue Water Medal for his completion of six solo circumnavigations of the World and five solo transits of the Northwest Passage.]
Thanks for posting this, it's great to see. It's a bit of a long story, but on his first trip through the North West Passage, his boat grounded and sank on Somerset Island, and my father helped him get it ashore, patched up, and back in the water (a non-trivial task as the boat was 200 miles away from any settlement). For a while, it looked like I might even get to head up there and help work on the twin Gardners, but they both fired right up despite being underwater for a full summer and at -50F for two winters.

His book is a great read, long out of print though:
Northwest Passage Solo: Amazon.co.uk: David Cowper: Books

Germane to this thread is the fact that David circumnavigated on the Mabel E. Holland twice, despite the fact that it was most certainly not designed for passagemaking. No stabilization, minimal fuel capacity, really not much of anything in the way of accommodation. Yes, it was capable of withstanding a rollover, but the stability was abysmal, especially since he had to carry his fuel in several hundred 5 gallon jerry cans tied to the rails.

But he made it.

Scott Welch
Island Eagle
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