The Five-Year Voyage

Boating Industry Insider Podcast

Imagine spending five years with your wife in a 21-foot boat with an 8'x3' cabin, on a trip through 19 countries, covering some 18,000 miles. That's what Stephen Ladd did - and he - and the marriage - survived, though the boat did not. The author of the solo adventure story Three Years in a 12-Foot Boat is back at it, detailing a new adventure with a new book, The Five-Year Voyage. Teaming up with his now-wife Virginia, they sailed from the Gulf of Mexico to Argentina and back, largely via South American rivers, in a 21-foot Sea Pearl, even having a baby along the way. The pair are among only a handful of living people who have navigated from the Caribbean to the Amazon via the Brazo Casiquiare. Their range and variety of encounters with wildlife, indigenous peoples, gold-dredgers, fishermen, and even robbers make for good reading - and interesting podcasts!