
The First Apparent Winds Journey
J. Henry…. What an incredible boat. Really, she has become a part of my family and a big part of my life. If you don’t know, J. Henry was a 1971 Hinckley Bermuda 40. With 40ft of length overall and 28.6ft of length on the water, she was not a very big boat. She was, however, built like a tank. She was built extremely well and for what it’s worth, she was/is beautiful.
In 2019, we departed Charleston, SC aboard J. Henry for a two-year circumnavigation of the world. In March of 2020, we finished our first Pacific crossing from Panama to the Marquesas, French Polynesia. It was then that we caught word of the growing global pandemic. That event changed our route and changed the future of Apparent winds. Our course changed and that unwanted (at the time) change provided the inspiration for the much larger expedition we are now undertaking. Not only that, but if we weren’t forced to change course, then our current crew wouldn’t have ever met. I think of that fact often… J. Henry holds a very sweet place in my heart and in the hearts of all who have had the opportunity to sail aboard her.
We hope to see her every now and then. We hope to visit her. She holds a spirit that grew with us through countless adventures; some exciting, some terrifying, some sad and some fantastically blissful.
J. Henry, you were the vessel of our souls as we sailed 25,000 nautical miles of ocean. We are forever thankful. Fair winds.