GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. – After four years of building a boat, planning a round-the-world adventure, then spending more than a year living the adventure, Ben Gray was at loose ends when the trip ended Aug. 11.
“I don’t have a job anymore. This retirement hit me,” said Gray from his 11th floor apartment in the northern Alberta city of Grande Prairie two weeks after he docked the Idlewild in Vancouver.
“I’ve never felt that,” said Gray, a former bison rancher and oil worker.
Instead of dodging icebergs in the Arctic, sailing through pirate shipping routes, relaxing on a South Sea island or planning his next port of call, as he has for the past year, Gray returned to the ordinary life. He was unpacking boxes, going to the dentist and settling into his new apartment home.
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“We’re trying to get it slowed down and simplified,” said Gray, who wants to spend time with his wife, Alice, and enjoy the fall weather after a hectic few years ranching and planning the trip.
“The apartment is a nice part of a plan to simplify our life.”
Gray, his sons Brad and Kevin, and a series of other crew members left Dunvegan on the Peace River in northern Alberta May 24, 2005, to sail the 57-foot diesel powered boat 62,000 kilometres around the world, beginning through Canada’s north.
On their journey they saw polar bears on ice floes, walked on the same islands as early explorers and met people from around the world who renewed their faith in humanity.
“While our dreams of travel were filled with exotic and interesting places, we found now that our memories are mostly of the fabulous people we met,” wrote Gray in his diary at the end of the journey.
When the crew docked at ports, they were greeted and welcomed ashore as fellow working sailors.
“They weren’t reserved. To them we weren’t tourists, but working people like them,” said Gray, who wore his trademark cowboy hat and red suspenders throughout the journey.
“They felt comfortable talking to Ben and the boys,” said Alice.
Throughout the journey Gray said they tried to brush off the bureaucratic difficulties and obscure rules that come with entering and leaving foreign countries to concentrate on the good memories and the interesting people.
“We tried to have a positive attitude,” said Ben, who gathered friends at every port.
“Ben has always tended to see the better side of people,” said Alice, who was secure in her husband’s ability to make the journey.
“I have an awful lot of confidence in Ben. I knew that he went well prepared.”
Even the long crossing of the Indian Ocean to Australia wasn’t a concern. With a year’s supply of food, water, extra fuel, generators and a weather navigation system, the crew was prepared for most problems.
“You have to have the experience of meeting challenges that are unexpected. Most problems, if you look at them, are impossible obstacles and then it’s hard to formulate a plan. I’ve had a lot of challenges,” said Gray.
The crew even agreed beforehand to throw the body overboard if one of them died on their journey.
“It wouldn’t be an impossible chore, but a practical step,” said Gray. He is no stranger to adversity and triumph. He went bankrupt in 1982 from high interest rates, experienced the high and low prices of the bison industry and invented and sold a drilling tool to finance the boat building.
Selling the drilling tool rekindled Gray’s longtime dream to travel the Arctic. He expanded it to travel the world.
“I wanted to have a real interesting and challenging trip. I couldn’t climb a mountain. It fit in with my area of expertise and I could still do it. I wanted the most fantastic trip I could possibly do.”
Having his sons join him was a bonus. While there were occasional irritations, a series of ship rules eliminated many troubles.
“When we got to port we’d want to be together. The relationship was good when we started and it was good when it finished.”
After Christmas, Gray will begin sorting through the 30,000 pictures taken of their journey for a book they want to publish of their trip.
“It’ll be fun to remember this stuff. Writing the book will be a good review,” said Gray, who looks at publishing as just one more experience. “It’s another remote area we will explore.”
Before then, Ben and Alice will return to Vancouver to repair the boat’s water stains, scratches and wear after more than a year’s travel. The boat is for sale and Gray is confident the right buyer will want an experienced vessel that will take them on other adventures.
