Interview
An inland voyage Stephen Ladd and his wife sailed from Florida to Argentina in a 21’ boat along the way they gained a child and many memories as Sam Jefferson discovers
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anderlust is a force that always pulls but as long as I satisfy that from time to time it’s not overpowering” Stephen Ladd reflects. This is a man who has seen more adventure than most, yet when I chat to him he sounds settled and his life almost mundane. In the background the babble of everyday life goes on. This is a man with two kids and a wife; it is morning with him in Duluth, Minnesota and the sounds of kids being prepared for school and breakfast being served are a comforting burble in the background. It’s hard to equate this scenario with the man who recounts a life less ordinary in his book The Five Year Voyage. “It’s a case of managing your wanderlust and satisfying that need when it grows really strong. At present I head out into the wilderness for a couple of days at a time and that keeps things in check.” Yet when his thirst for adventure JULY 2022 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
comes on, it bites hard. The Five Year Voyage recounts a lengthy trip spent in a 21’ boat which took he and his wife from Florida down to Argentina by way of the Caribbean before heading inland up the river system into Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. Having reached Buenos Aires,
ABOVE
Below the waterfall of Salto Yacy in Argentina
the couple then headed back via a different network of rivers, exiting at Pernambuco, where Stephen opted to go solo as he coast hopped back up to Florida. Sadly the voyage ended abruptly when the boat was wrecked off the Dominican Republic – but we’ll get to that. “To understand this voyage, you need to know a bit about my previous one,” Stephen says: “That first voyage took place some years ago in a 12’ open boat and covered much the same area. That was a five year trip and I was on my own. “This time I had my wife with me so we needed a level of comfort for two but it also needed to be flat bottomed, light and with a decent amount of storage. Sailing a boat of this type takes a bit of getting used to because it’s flat bottomed and has good initial stability that disappears to zero pretty rapidly. Kind of the opposite on most yachts which heel early but won’t flip. It’s like sailing a dinghy essentially, you are always on the mainsail sheet and you tend to reef early.”
