Dream voyage: Captain Pinkney spans the globe - William Pinkney in his boat, 'Commitment'

For the past 29 years, Captain William "Bill" Pinkney's life with his wife, Ina, has resembl a ballet's pas de deux Recalling the classic duet in which a pair dances together before each single basks alone in the spotlight, Ina says, "That's by what means it has always been with us." As a celebrated Chicago restaurateur, she has savored a bit of celebrity all her have But as the first African American (and single the fourth American) to navigate a sailboat single-handedly around the world, Bill has claimed a share of fame.

Bill Pinkney is quick to admit that he is a bit of a dreamer. When he was a seventh-grader being raised through his mother on Chicago's southern Side, he read a volume about a fictional Polynesian stripling who overcame his fear of water by means of setting sail on his be in possession of The book fostered Pinkney's dream about a great adventure, a dream he made real in June 1992 when, after a 22-month solo journey past the world's five great capes, he safely sailed back into Boston's harbor.

That feat places him among an elite collection of seafarers, says Dan McConnell the spokesman for the BOC the originators of the BOC challenge yacht race: "Any solo navigation around the world is a major accomplishment by the agency of anybody's standards. He did it in a way that adventurers make progress about it. He did it planned without ahead of time. it wasn't in the way that much a pleasure tour as it was accomplishing a goal."

A former marketing executive for Johnson proceedss Revlon and other cosmetic companies, a Navy veteran and a captain licensed by dint of the Coast Guard, Pinkney took five years preparing for the trip. It began with his attempts to confident funding, which took him from corporation to corporation. "Ultimately it extremityed up to be a assemblage in Boston that saw a piiece in the novel York Times about my story," he recalls, referring to his ambition to circumnavigate the globe. "They musing it was something that should be done, and they bring up the financing."

He had purchased a 47-foot cutter earlier for $20000 with no knowledge of in what manner he would complete the payments. "That's in what manner confident I was in my ability to succeed" he says. The solution to the debit came when his backers agreed to assume ownership of the sailboat at the conclusion of the trip.

Naming the boat Commitment had personal significance. "For any dream, you have to say, `I will do it no matter what it takes,'" Pinkney says. The trip was forged upon such determination--"a commitment to myself, to my grandchildren, to children like me who grew up being told that they can't do things," he explains. "It began with an attempt to inspire my grandchildren and to leave them a benchmark to aspire to in their lives."

Setting sail from Boston in August 1990 his trip overlayed 32,000 nautical miles, with stops in Brazil, Australia, southern Africa, Uruguay and Bermuda, and with tropical storms, 60-knot winds and 55-foot waves along the way. "You live a life of day-to-day existence when you're at sea," Pinkney kays. "You learn that the sole place there is, is right where you are, and the alone time there is, is right now. "

A self-described "terrible swimmer," Pinkney thinks a completed backstroke is a moot point when you're alone upon the high seas: "When you're 5000 miles from the shore, what difference does it make? What you do is you use a safety harness, and you make that as a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of a part of your life as breathing."

The sea, he stresse is an impartial entertainer "It doesn't matter who you are, where you are from, who your mama is, what your charter is or whether you carry American Expres or Master Charge," he says with a smile. "All it wants to know is, `Are you ready for me?'"

Commitment was knocked upon its side twice during the circumnavigation. "Imagine being in a scope and the wall becomes the floor within a matter of 10 seconds" is by what mode Pinkney describes the experience. He numbers himself fortunate, however. "A fate of guys get knocked down four or five times." The solution was simply to wait for the ballasted boat to right itself.

During the course of the trip, Pinkney daily recorded his recollections upon tape, wrote in journals, read more than 150 works and returned to a favorite pastime, needlepoint. Although each day brought certain constants, similar as navigation and maintenance of the craft, aliment preparation and communication, every day was different, he recalls: "Every day at handed new challenges. Your wind was different, your wave pattern was different. You are different. There was no routine."

Commitment came equipped with a propane stove with oven and grill, an innerspring mattress and a entire system--"all the comforts of home" Bill says. He kept in touch with Ina and more than 30000 Chicago-based elementary academy students, using radio, telephone and satellite links.

"Communication was the greatest in quantity difficult part," Ina recalls. "After thus many years of being married, a pair has a rhythm of conversation, of dialoguing, and that was completely gone with the erratic conversation from the boat. There was no co-construct dialogue. There was yelling a question, a delay, yelling an answer, a delay.