“I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away from Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The twelve o’clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she stood to seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photographer on the outer pier of East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing her folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood.” – Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World, 1900.
EDIT 21 March 2018: I have received numerous questions regarding Guy’s boat. A boat was spotted off the coast of Honduras recently, and many believe it to be Guy’s boat. I’m inserting the only image I apparently took of the boat, zoomed in on the aft end of the vessel. The boat is a 40+ foot racing sloop, known to have a 7′ fin keel, and around a 60 foot mast. The image does NOT show the new wind generator that I assisted him in installing a day or so before his departure.
To be CLEAR, his boat was found off the coast of Cape Cod, about 400-700 nm out from the area, in either September or October of 2017. The date it was discovered is unclear. The boat was intact and no one was aboard. Given that he disappeared somewhere off North Carolina right after departure (in July) I venture to guess this is about right giving being set up north bound currents.
There is NO WAY the boat found in the Gulf of Mexico would have been Guy’s “Crazyhorse”. The Gulf Stream doesn’t take boats to the south off the US Coast line, and no way it could have found it’s way into the Gulf of Mexico. The image I saw of that upside down boat had two small keels. Not a fin keel. (End of Edit)
Above image of Crazy Horse, and the stylized “Horse Head” on the back of the boat. I apologize for the quality of the image but I was taking pictures of a departing boat and only caught the back of his boat and slightly out of focus. – RD
On the 16th of September I took a leave of absence from my marina job for six months – until April anyway. Maybe a bit longer. We did a quick (month long) road trip and returned last evening from the road to Colorado and back.
Our whole purpose for being on this boat is to go places. Our boat has sat here for most of a year, December 2016 until now. We had some bad experiences with the water, waves, wind and weather and took a break, but it’s time to go again. For awhile I was of a mind to sell the boat and get back on land. I don’t like JoAnne getting sick, and having experienced sea sickness myself, I don’t want her to be ill ever again. However, we aren’t giving up quite so easily.
But, we need to move, we need to go, we need to see things. Life is short and if we sit here, we waste our chance to see other parts of the world.
Nothing has driven that idea home more accurately than the sad news I received a few days ago.
A few months ago an older man came to the Marina here at South Harbour Village. His name was Guy (pronouced as Ghee) Bernardin. He was in his 70s. He was aboard an older boat by the name of “Crazy Horse”, a racing sloop. The boat was in need of attention, and he’d just purchased the vessel for a non-stop race around the world.
Guy and I quickly became friends. I helped him on several occasions with lines and moving things around for him. He had another friend named Larry Brown who came to visit and stayed with him for a few weeks while working on Crazy Horse. Larry and I spoke often as well, while various parts were refitted on the boat.
Sometime in June I had asked if I could interview him and write an article for the local paper. He refused at first stating that he was leaving soon for France to go back to work on his other boat, a Spray (Slocum) replica. I found out more of his story in that conversation – that in 1998 he had completed a three year, round-the-world tour which duplicated for the most part, Joshua Slocum’s original trip. He explained that the boat was steel, and he was going back for some refit work.
The Interview was never to take place as my wife and I had also gone home in June to do medical appointments and other things. Guy was ready to depart save for last minute things when we returned.
When we returned, I saw Guy infrequently, but I did chat with him on and off. I assisted him in installing his wind generator a couple of days before his departure sometime in late July (I do not recall the date, and didn’t write it down). I know he left and came back in with either engine or steering issues, or perhaps the weather bothered him. I never got the chance to ask, as the following morning he was gone again and I never heard from him again.
Sometime in August (about a week or so after his departure) I wondered how he was doing. Then I heard a rumor about a radio call for help and some people were saying they thought it might have been Guy. I did not hear the call. I don’t know the details of the call, who made it or why. I completely discounted the idea it was Guy. He was, after all a seasoned traveler, sailor and knew what he was doing. I never believed anyone actually heard the call themselves and were guessing (which they likely were).
I forgot all about it. Until this past week.
JoAnne and I had to go back to Colorado for a few days. A message came in from Norm at the South Harbour Village Marina while we were traveling with friends, asking if I had heard the news about a friend who had been in the Marina for awhile this past summer. I received the sad news that he was missing and his boat had been found.
A few minutes later I had an article mentioning him and learned that his fate was not what I would have expected.
I was shocked, and to this day I am still in shock I believe. I’d written off the original rumor of the radio call because I felt it couldn’t have been Guy, it couldn’t have happened to a world cruiser, racer and a man who was very good at what he did.
Guy Bernardin went missing sometime in August we believe, somewhere off the coast of North Carolina, close to us. His life raft was aboard, the boat intact as far as I can tell from the article. I have little information on what might have happened to him but have first hand experience on his boat.
“Crazy Horse” was a typical racing sloop, designed in a minimalist fashion, but there were narrow decks, running rigging all over the place to the cockpit, a scooped stern, easy to have fallen from there, life lines were short to the deck (no more than a foot probably) and little to grab onto. Guy told me he had not had time to install jack lines when I questioned him the last time I spoke to him.
Guy Bernardin
We were raising the wind generator mast and he was putting in bolts and connecting the final wires. I asked him about the jack lines, and he said that it was something he had not bought and probably wouldn’t require them for this part of the trip. I didn’t question his wisdom on this for I knew he was experienced. The image below was taken just a couple of days prior to installation of the wind generator. I was shooting images of boats going through the fairway and happened to catch the stern of Crazy Horse in this one.
Crazy Horse on RIGHT of Image above
It is now very apparent that Guy, while experienced in around the world cruising, a six-times around the Horn man, and a seasoned racer made a mistake that anyone could make. He didn’t think anything bad would happen.
According to the article (Written in French), the boat was recovered with no one aboard.
For those who know the story of Joshua Slocum (and I hope all Sailors know it, if not, read it) Slocum traveled solo around the world, with an old wreck of a boat he rebuilt from the keel up. A completely “new” boat from the old boat rose of the “ashes” (ok, sand actually) and he proceeded to travel the world, visiting exotic locations and becoming a very famous man in the late 1890s.
Bernardin sailed a steel boat called Spray around the world, following the footsteps of Slocum over a three year circumnavigation.
Like Slocum, Monsieur Bernardin disappeared at sea. Unlike Slocum, Crazy Horse was found without it’s Captain. Spray was never located. Today we can only assume the worst for Guy. He never finished his last voyage. At least I tend to believe he wished to complete it with success, not in the manner it ended.
So, to sailors everywhere…. do your best. Never skimp on safety, know your limits. Know that any little thing can kill you out there. I’m sure you all know this, and I’m preaching to the choir, but seriously, I’m tired of losing friends like this.
Fair Winds, Guy Bernardin, where ever you are now.
Guy aboard the Slocum Spray Replica
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2017/10/05/guy-bernardin-lost-sea/#.WdxRdryap7Y.facebook
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2017/03/08/fifty-year-anniversary-spiritual-journey/
https://www.amazon.com/Sailing-Around-World-Retraces-Slocums/dp/1574091484
Winds of Time 
Do you have a picture of “Crazy Horse”?
Somewhere. However, it’s not a great picture of the boat. Also I have received numerous images of a boat floating upside down somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. It is marked on the side with the letters “Berni….” something.
That is not, and could NOT be Guy’s boat.
Guy apparently made a distress call somewhere off the coast of North Carolina in July time frame last year, within a couple of days of his departure from our marina. I did not personally hear the call, only heard about it. We couldn’t even be sure it was him.
Around September or October, I received the terrible news his boat had been found with no one aboard.
That boat was found, according to a couple of articles I read, off the coast of Cape Cod.
There is not way that the boat could have found it’s way into the Gulf of Mexico from either NC or MA. The Gulf Stream flows in the wrong direction. Furthermore, Guy’s boat was a 40-something foot racing sloop, with a 7 foot fin keel, and a 60′ mast.
The name on the side was in dark letters, with a stylized horse’s head on the side with the name “Crazy Horse” (or it might have been a single word, I’m going from memory and don’t recall precisely).
I’ll try to find one of my pictures of it, but I am doubtful as I lost most of the data on my old phone last year. If I find it, I will post it.
Ok, I am inserting an image into the article.