Robert Suhay broke the Guinness World Record for the longest distance solo sailed unassisted in a dinghy, which he set last year, by a whole lot more than a mile. The existing record stood at 283.5 nautical miles, and the GPS tracker aboard his boat recorded his total distance traveled unassisted as 346.1 nautical miles.
The record count began at 6 a.m. Tuesday when Robert launched from the Sail Carteret Club in Morehead City, NC. It ended at 12:08 a.m. Saturday at the Severn Sailing Association in Annapolis, MD.
While he sailed, I mirrored his efforts on land and occasionally in boats on the ocean and Chesapeake Bay.
It was grueling for him as well as for his extended family of sailors, captains, U.S. Coast Guard members and fans.
We had the easier job by far, since all we had to do was watch that little blue boat on the tracking site as it made its way north.
Just before dawn Friday morning, our son Zoltan, 21, called me from France as I was packing the car to head to Annapolis, where I was expecting to meet Robert around mid-day.
