Cruising Club of America honors couple who lead others to voyages they might not attempt alone
John Harries had already sailed roughly 60,000 ocean miles — including Atlantic crossings and trips into the far northern latitudes — yet he had never been recognized by the Cruising Club of America until Phyllis Nickel, a former landlubber, climbed aboard Morgan’s Cloud, his 56-foot aluminum cutter.
Today Harries, 57, has logged about 100,000 ocean miles and Nickel, 47, has accumulated roughly 40,000 miles in her own right. The couple recently received the CCA’s Far Horizons Award, presented for their extensive cruising, voyaging and occasional racing. Their work, both afloat and ashore, has inspired many sailors to explore remote and challenging regions without overreaching their skills.
The partners run Attainable Adventure Cruising and explain on their website that their mission is practical, not sensational. They write that the project is “not about feats of derring-do; rather, this site is about gear and techniques that have let us, who are not particularly intrepid, cruise some of the world’s most remote and challenging places without exceeding our capabilities.” Their focus is on enabling ordinary sailors to safely explore extraordinary places.
The Cruising Club of America lists among their accomplishments two full circumnavigations of Newfoundland, a cruise to Labrador, four trips to Iceland, and two Atlantic passages originating in Greenland. They’ve also sailed along England’s east coast and on to Norway, where they spent two consecutive winters above the Arctic Circle. Those voyages reflect a deep commitment to high-latitude cruising and careful, repeatable seamanship.
Harries, a Bermudian, says early inspiration came from other club members, notably Warren Brown, with whom he briefly sailed to Norway aboard Brown’s yacht War Baby. “The first time I ever went north in a yacht, I sailed with Warren just briefly,” Harries recalls. He credits Brown and other mentors for encouraging people to sail to places they might not have attempted on their own.
Harries built his experience gradually. On his site he notes that he “worked up slowly to skippering a boat offshore by logging 10,000 miles of ocean sailing and racing before going to sea in my own boat.” In 1991 he bought Morgan’s Cloud, a McCurdy & Rhodes design launched in 1986 and named after a fair-weather cloud that typically hangs over Bermuda. Harries is the boat’s third owner. He began sailing as a child, raced both locally and offshore, and has won the Newport-Bermuda Race twice in the double-handed class.
Nickel grew up on the Canadian prairies and spent eight years living in Labrador before meeting Harries in 1996. She had essentially no sailing experience prior to joining him. A mutual friend introduced them in Bermuda while Harries was single-handing Morgan’s Cloud on a voyage from the Caribbean to Greenland and hoping to recruit crew. When friends declined — reluctant to face cold seas and spring gales — Nickel accepted the invitation despite minimal experience. What began as a cold, five-day, gale-prone passage to Maine became the start of a lifelong partnership at sea.
Harries jokes about Nickel’s rapid transformation from novice to seasoned sailor: “She had done one-day sailing on a headboat in Australia. So she came with me.” Over the years she has become an experienced ocean sailor, crossing the Atlantic three times and logging tens of thousands of miles. “She’s now sailed probably 40,000 miles and crossed the Atlantic three times, so she’s now getting to the point that she knows the questions to ask,” Harries says.
Rather than heading south, the couple remain drawn to northern waters. Harries explains that Western Greenland, for example, remains sparsely charted: “Imagine navigating the coast of Maine on one chart that extends from Cape Cod to the Canadian border.” Their work often centers on learning local waters in depth, discovering uncharted harbors, hiking and skiing ashore in winter, and meeting the people who live in these remote communities.
Since 2002 they have overseen the Norwegian Cruising Guide and have published an updated edition each year since 2005. That ongoing project consistently draws them back north. Even so, they spend winters in warmer climates occasionally; for example, they spent a recent winter in Green Turtle Cay in the Abacos working on the next guide edition while enjoying a warm place to write and a beach to walk. This coming summer, Morgan’s Cloud was slated to head north again, bound for Labrador.
In addition to the Far Horizons Award presented to Harries and Nickel, the CCA named other honorees for 2008. The Rod Stephens Trophy for Outstanding Seamanship went to Susanne Huber-Curphey, 47, and Tony Curphey, 63 — a married couple who each regularly single-hand their own boats while cruising globally. During a passage from Western Australia to Fiji, when Tony discovered water coming aboard his 1957 heavy-displacement cutter, Susanne turned back in her 1964 41-foot fiberglass Rhodes sloop, towed him and delivered him safely to New Zealand after a 650-mile transit.
The CCA’s Blue Water Medal went to William (Scott) Piper III, 69, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Florida, recognized for “12 years of adventurous cruising and voyaging” during which he logged a total of 180,000 miles. The club notes Piper’s eight Atlantic crossings and multiple high-latitude passages in both the North Pacific and Southern oceans, including roundings of Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Leeuwin.
For further information about the Cruising Club of America, see the CCA website at www.cruisingclub.org.
This piece originally appeared in the April 2009 issue.