A local man sailed around the world with just his cat! (pics too)
Also, from my local paper...(www.modbee.com)
Journey of a Lifetime
Joe Fontes and his wife, Lucy, stand with Fiel in front of a world map that's posted on the garage wall of their Hilmar home.
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Fiel (which is Portguese for 'loyal') was Joe Fontes' only sailing partner.
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Fontes sails into the Azores harbor after sailing solo around the worls. Lucy was in the crowd to greet him; it was the first time she had seen him in about 16 months.
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By SUE NOWICKI
BEE STAFF WRITER
Joe Fontes of Hilmar wasn't home at this time last year. In fact, he wasn't even on dry ground. He was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, about six weeks into his nearly yearlong odyssey of circling the globe alone in his 34-foot sailing boat.
His family gave the 54-year-old man the gift of allowing him to follow his dream. But first, his wife, Lucy, took him to see "The Perfect Storm," the tale of a hardy fishing crew that perished at sea.
"I think she was trying to frighten me," Fontes said with a chuckle.
"I was always concerned that he would get sick and there was no one to help him," Lucy Fontes said. "And of course, I was very lonely, not having him here. But my children always were coming over, bringing the grandchildren to cheer me up. And I knew he needed to do this."
"I was going to miss him, of course, but I was all for it," said daughter Mary Ann Roest of Modesto. "It was something he wanted to do all his life -- I had great admiration and respect that he was going to do it. And I knew God would take care of him -- I just felt confident that nothing would happen to him."
Fontes is no stranger to being on water. Years ago, he worked eight years on a tuna fishing boat -- his shortest trip was 44 days at sea and his longest was 89. And he had recently completed a trip from California to the Azores, his native country, going west. But he always had someone with him -- a friend or relative joined him on various legs of that trip.
"I always wanted to do a single-hand navigation," he said. "As human beings, we go through life and we are so hindered by everyone and everything. You can't be completely free unless you are alone -- sleep when you want to. Fix foods when you're hungry. Eat out of the can if that's your wish. It's a simple way of living and surviving and existing.
"I wanted to know what that was, and you can't really do that on land. I also wanted to go back to the Azores, to the village where I was born. And, of course, I wanted to go by boat, because that's what I knew as a child."
So, on Nov. 23, 2002, Fontes left the Azores -- this time traveling east -- on his around-the-world venture. His only companion was a white cat named Fiel, which means "loyal" in Portuguese.
'I thought I would die'
Almost three months later, he made his first stop in Capetown, South Africa, and pulled his boat from the water to make some repairs. He then crossed the Indian Ocean toward Tasmania, and hit one of the worst storms of his year, with high winds and enormous waves.
"I couldn't hold the boat," Fontes said. "If you run, your boat can surf down the 40-foot wave and flip over. So I don't run.
"I was looking at the chart and I could actually hear the crest rolling on top of the boat. ... I had a coffee pot inside the kitchen sink, which is very deep. It flew out of the sink, crossed the boat and landed on top of the binocular box, a foot higher than the top of the sink. Truly, I thought I was going to die.
"I locked myself in, tied the hatches and stuff in case I would do a rollover. The sail ripped. When I got to Tasmania, I was working on the boat the next day and a guy came by and said, 'Where'd you come from?' He was surprised I had survived the storm. Several people died in it."
He left Tasmania on May 23, which is winter in that part of the world. He crossed the Tasmanian Sea and the Pacific Ocean, at one point traveling for more than 50 days without seeing another ship.
He hit another storm in mid-June, when he was "about 1,000 miles west of Easter Island." That was the worst storm of his trip.
"It was vicious," he said. "It did so much damage to the boat."
The storm broke his stanchion and put a 12-foot rip in his stay sail. It took him a week to sew the sail by hand; the red patch is still on the sail, he said, a memory of surviving the tempest.
Because of the bad weather, he had to turn north to go through the Panama Canal instead of sailing around South America, which was his original intention.
Facing hurricanes
After stopping in Panama -- only his third stop of the trip -- to make repairs, he intended to head straight for the Azores. But hurricane season had begun, so he headed for the Dominican Republic. A hurricane forced him to turn south to Curacao instead, where he again repaired his sails.
He sailed to Margarita, another island in the Caribbean, where 18 liters of diesel fuel cost only a dollar. Another dollar bought him "a plate of oysters down by the beach," and the beer also was cheap -- about six bottles for a buck.
"It was not a fancy restaurant, but good enough for me," Fontes said.
He topped up all his gas cans "because I was worried about the hurricanes. In Margarita, they told me I was doing a suicide trip. 'You're going to go across? You're insane,' everyone said. I just kind of crunched my shoulders. I didn't have to, but I wanted to do the trip in less than one year, and I wanted to get to the Azores before the winter."
As it turned out, he sailed clear of all the hurricanes.
He paused in his story to run after a grandson, who was trying to scoot out the back door.
"What a change -- from fighting hurricanes and crossing the world to baby-sitting grandkids," he said. "It's fun. I love it."
Eleven months and a week after he left the Azores, he returned to port there, where a band was playing and local dignitaries were on hand to welcome him. He was told he was the first Portuguese to sail solo east around the world; three others had single-handedly circumvented the world by sailing west.
Although he kept in touch by e-mail and occasional phone calls, he hadn't seen any family members for 16 months, and hadn't seen three of his five children for more than two years.
Three of his seven grandchildren were born and his mother-in-law died while he was on his solo trip.
"When I got to the Azores, I was actually crying," he said. "I was thinking of how hard it had been on my wife and my family. On the day my latest granddaughter was born, my mother-in-law was buried. Knowing this was happening while I was out at sea was very bad. Family is very important to me.
"Can you imagine how happy I would be if I could have four or five of my grandchildren living with me in Cocos Keelings, an atoll in the Indian Ocean? There's a lagoon there, and the water is so crystal clear. It's paradise."
The voyage wasn't always paradise, of course. "It was a rough trip; it was an incredible trip. It was a beautiful trip," Fontes said. "If the trip was smooth waters all the time, it wouldn't have been adventurous. I feel that the trip was to the limit.
"I have spent hours being pretty sure that I was going to die, when things were really, really rough. It has put me in a state of mind that if something takes one hour to do or three days, you just do it.
"I was on the airplane on the way home (from the Azores) and the guy next to me said, 'Jeez, we still have 7 1/2 hours of this flight.' I told him it's a lot shorter than 78 days. What's seven hours or 10 hours? It's nothing. This trip changed me."
One change is that Fontes said he'll always like to travel, but he's not planning any more long trips at sea.
"Life is great. I'm truly more ready to settle down," he said. "I still have to go get the boat (which is in the Azores). If I were to find someone who wanted to buy my boat, I would sell it. I feel quite satisfied with as much traveling as I have done."
This holiday season, he said, "I appreciate being with my wife, the family and the grandchildren."
"The magnitude of the accomplishment is just awesome," daughter Roest said. "On Christmas Eve, we had like 80 people (together) -- all of his brothers and sisters, as well as our immediate family.
"He shared a video of when he got to Tasmania and there was a really bad storm. It just all became real when I saw how difficult it was for him -- hearing my dad on the tape saying he just laid down and prayed because he feared for his life. It wasn't all fun and games and a pleasure trip.
"I'm just glad he's home. I have to admit I'm glad he's not going to go around the world again. I think you can only defy death so many times."
She added, "Our family has become closer and more dear because of this. We have become closer because we've had to rely on each other when my dad was gone. And my dad has become closer because we don't look at him as just a father figure, but as a man outside of that father role. He's just as happy to be home as we are happy to have him home."
