Visiting sailor makes history with latest adventure
Apr 19, 2016, 5:31 AM | Updated: 5:35 am
Capt. Huw Fernie says a month-long journey from China to Seattle across the Pacific was the hardest of his life. (Visit Seattle)
(Visit Seattle)
With the 80-degree weather this week, you’ll see plenty of sailboats out on Puget Sound.
None of those sailors, though, will be able to match the accomplishments of one man who stepped off a boat onto Seattle’s Bell Harbor pier and into history over the weekend.
Listen: Visit Seattle crew speaks out after pulling into Seattle
As Martin Frey left the Visit Seattle yacht on Sunday, the 56-year-old admitted the month-long journey from China to Seattle across the Pacific was the hardest of his life.
“It battled us right as soon as we turned the corner south of Japan, we got hit with head-on waves and I got seasick really fast and we were just miserable for a couple of days or weeks, I can’t remember,” Frey said standing on the dock alongside Elliott Bay.
It’s just one more memory to add to the scrapbook of an incredible life of achievements.
The journey across the Pacific was the crowning one of an 11-year-marathon to become the first person to climb the highest peaks on all seven of the continents and sail the seven seas.
It’s a journey collectively spanning more than 35,000 nautical and 14.5 vertical miles, culminating in the China to Seattle leg of the Clipper Round the World Race – a brutal test for even veteran global sailors.
Captain Huw Fernie called it the hardest sailing he’s ever done.
You won’t get any argument from Martin.
“I’ve seen the biggest breaking waves out there and huge winds and it really was a violent series of storms, one after another. And the team held together great and battled right through it,” he said.
The worldwide journey began when the longtime tech entrepreneur decided he wanted to do something special to inspire others – especially young people – and spend some quality time with his wife and young daughter.
They set out on a months-long sailing excursion, and somewhere along the way it hit him – why not add the seven seas to the seven summits.
His family was there for the end, just as they’d been from the beginning.
“I felt like they were there with me on the adventure. My wife has been a great support…so she’s been a big part of it even if she wasn’t on the boat,” Martin said.
As for what comes next, Martin plans to spend some well-earned time with his family back home as he plots his next adventure.
And he’ll continue to travel the world, encouraging others to pursue their own challenges and push themselves to find their own summits and seas.
In the meantime, there are a number of free public events planned during the Clipper Race’s Seattle stopover.
You can meet crew members and tour the yachts down at the Port of Seattle’s Bell Street Mariner from April 22-26, once all the boats complete the race and settle in.
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