Staff Pick: This is one of the news stories our staff is reading this week.
Bill Pinkney's goal was to sail alone around the world to inspire his grandchildren. He never set out to be a pioneer. Then he became one.
Bill Pinkney had a plan, and while it wasn’t exactly simple, it was pretty straightforward. The Chicago-based sailor, who spent his waterborne hours crewing on a Swan 44 race boat or pottering about Lake Michigan on his 28-foot Pearson Triton, was going to ramp up to a 35-footer and trick it out to sail alone around the world. The reason? He wanted to inspire his two grandchildren, to teach them by example what laid over the horizon, and what could be achieved if you put your mind to it.
He never set out to be a pioneer. Then he became one.
This past fall, the 86-year-old mariner was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Sailing Hall of Fame in recognition of his two-year solo circumnavigation aboard his Valiant 47, Commitment, during which he became the first African American sailor to circle the globe via the five great southern capes. But that was only another chapter of his sailing odyssey. Next, he became the sailing master of Mystic Seaport’s replica cargo ship, Amistad—inspired by the movie of the same name—and skippered her on voyages from Halifax to Key West, and on to Cuba in commemoration of a historic slave revolt in Havana on the ship’s predecessor in 1839.