NEAH BAY, Wash. -- Mark Schrader, nearing the end of a nine-month solo voyage around the world, sailed his 40-foot 'Resourceful' into Neah Bay Thursday to pick up supplies and step foot on his home state.
'It feels just great,' said Schrader, who is about to become the first American to solo circumnavigate the globe on the southern route around the five great capes.
Schrader, who will have traveled 27,300 miles in 204 days at sea when he arrives home at Seattle's Shilshole Bay on Monday, July 4, looked forward to a weekend of smooth sailing on the inland waters of western Washington.
Shouting over the rail of his $200,000 sailboat off the cape a day earlier, Schrader said he needed more adjectives to describe how great he felt upon returning home to the Northwest.
The tanned 36-year-old sailor, who departed Seattle last Sept. 25, said he was sailing for dollars.
He was trying to raise money for the Resource Foundation of Mountlake Terrace, Wash., an agency which provides vocational and residential care for developmentally disabled and emotionally disturbed children and young adults.
As the foundation's executive director in charge of fund-raising, he said he discovered the traditional ways of raising money weren't working.
'It had to be a major adventure to gather people's attention,' he said. 'When I looked into it, I found out from the record books there hadn't been any American going around the five capes.'
So far, Mark's travels have raised $215,000 of a targeted $1.5 million. Schrader and his colleagues hope to make the rest through films, slide shows, t-shirts and other promotional efforts based on the trip.
The fund-raising, he said, was only one incentive. Schrader said he knew from his 12 years of sailing he wanted to go on a long-distance trip alone.
'It was a personal challenge -- I wanted to try it,' he said, filling his brilliant blue and white sail with the driving wind. 'It's gone very well, but in retrospect there were a million things to do.'
Schrader had five planned stops during his journey -- Cape Horn, Dec. 12; Capetown, South Africa, Jan. 25; Hobart, Tasmania, March 29; Christchurch, New Zealand, April 26; and Honolulu, June 9.
There were also two unscheduled stops -- on Oct. 8 in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he had his radio repaired, and on Dec. 26 when he stopped to have his backup engine repaired in the Falkland Islands.
The British Royal Navy helped him in the latter incident. 'You can't do better than that,' he said.
