28,000 miles by sea
Published 12:01 am Saturday, May 28, 2011
Mark Schrader has sailed around the world twice.
Alone.
Against all odds, the 64-year-old Stanwood man became the first American to complete a solo circumnavigation of the globe via the five Southern Capes in 1983.
In 1987, he completed the arduous BOC Challenge race, joining the ranks of a select group of accomplished solo sailors.
Schrader’s most recent and, perhaps, his most important, ocean adventure was a team effort.
He couldn’t save the oceans alone, after all, and, from what he had seen on his travels — pollution, acidification, melting polar ice caps, collapsing fisheries and coral reef damage — he knew they needed help.
“I wanted to do at least one more long-distance sailing voyage, but I wanted it to be meaningful in a different way. I want to graduate, to become an ocean steward,” he said.
And so the Around the Americas trip was born, a 28,000-mile nautical circumnavigation of the American continents with Schrader as captain.
With support from the conservation group Sailors for the Sea, the Pacific Science Center in Seattle and other corporate sponsors, Schrader took on an epic journey in 2009 to raise awareness about the fragile state of the world’s oceans.
Wednesday night, Schrader will share his Around the Americas story in Mukilteo as part of a free lecture series by the Washington State University Snohomish County Extension Beach Watchers.
“It’s an adventure story,” Schrader said. “But, embedded in the adventure story, we have our science lessons and our education lessons.”
Schrader and three other full-time crew members, all experienced sailors, left Seattle in May 2009 on a 64-foot steel-hulled refurbished sailboat called Ocean Watch.
They sailed clockwise — a nontraditional route against most of the commonly prevailing winds and currents — up around Alaska, through the extremely tricky Northwest Passage, down the East Coast, around South America and back up to Seattle.
Additional guest crew members, including educators and scientists, came aboard along the way.
Crew members blogged and shared photos and videos from the trip as it unfolded at www.aroundtheamericas.com. Scientists collected important data that has been cited in respected journals, Schrader said.
“In every community we stopped in, we met with someone or made school presentations or talked to scientists and collected their stories,” Schrader said.
While they worked hard at education, they were also challenged by the journey.
They visited more than 50 ports, including stops in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica and Mexico.
They finally returned to Seattle, 13 months later, in June 2010.
Schrader said their mission was to draw a line, literal and symbolic, around the Americas.
“We’re an island surrounded by an ocean that is in trouble,” he said.
Much like the local Beach Watcher volunteers who invited him to speak, Schrader wants to get more people involved in ocean education and activism.
“People tend to protect what they love, and the ocean now needs some serious love,” he said.
Schrader, who lives on a small farm east of Stanwood with his wife, Michele Blockley, discovered his love of sailing in Everett.
Schrader came to Snohomish County in 1972 to work for the Resource Foundation, a residential facility for emotionally disturbed and developmentally disabled youth based in Stanwood.
Over the years Schrader became friends with a group of seasoned local sailors, including his sailing mentor, Everett Clinic doctor Irving Varley.
Schrader started helping out on weekend races and, eventually, longer races to Hawaii.
“That really got me going,” Schrader said. “We sailed every chance we got.”
These days, Schrader, who runs a small local construction company, hopes to increase the amount of ocean education and marine science in local school curriculums.
He’s already talking about doing the entire Around the Americas trip again, this time with more teachers, students and interaction with schools.
“The adventure truly does capture the imagination of kids of all ages.
“Once you’ve captured their attention, it’s a pretty easy to talk about what’s right and what’s wrong with the ocean, and what we can do to make it better,” he said.
Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037; sjackson@heraldnet.com.
The captain’s talk
What: Stanwood resident Mark Schrader recounts his 28,000-mile Around the Americas sailing trip as part of a free lecture series by the Washington State University Snohomish County Extension Beach Watchers.
When and where: 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Rosehill Community Center, 302 Lincoln Ave., Mukilteo.
Final lecture: The “Our Puget Sound, In Depth” lecture series concludes at 7 p.m. Sept. 7 at Mukilteo City Hall, 11930 Cyrus Way with “The Salish Sea,” a talk by Beach Watchers coordinator Chrys Bertolotto.
Information: See www.beachwatchers.wsu.edu/snohomish for updates or call 425-357-6020.
