I was totally amazed and surprised what this shallow-draft, inside-ballasted boat was capable of. I’ll never ever look at a little boat the same way again.”

Dennis McGuire, Author of "Ballad of Calypso" with Pat McGuire

When they weren’t battling the brutal waters of the Pacific Ocean or conversing in broken Spanish with soldiers aboard a Cuban gunboat, Dennis and Pat McGuire were having the nautical voyage of a lifetime.

Embarking on a two-year odyssey that started at Portsmouth, Rhode Island in 1979 and finished in Port Townsend in 1981, the McGuires encapsulated their riveting story through poetry, prose, and pictures.

Converting memories into pages of a ballad-style book with poetry and prose integrating into a larger story with accompanying drawings by Pat McGuire, “Ballad of Calypso: Rhyme of the Modern Mariner” was born 40 years later as a unique recollection of the couple’s incredible adventure.

STORY’S START

After a profitable commercial dive harvest of herring roe on kelp in the spring of 1979 in Prince William Sound, the newlyweds were seeking adventure.

“We were in Port Townsend and we’d just gotten married,” Dennis McGuire said as the couple recalled their two-year odyssey.

After saving up a good amount of cash, the two took a train ride to the East Coast in search of a watercraft to take them on a massive voyage.

Attending the Newport Used Boat Show in Rhode Island, the pair eyed a 26-foot wooden sailboat by the name of “Calypso.”

Built by renowned boatbuilder A.A. Bernard Woburn in Massachusetts in 1952, the boat would soon become a dependable friend of the McGuires as they trekked thousands of miles by sea.

Originally available for $5,900, Calypso was out of the newlywed’s budget of a strict $5,000, and they moved along in search of a different vessel.

But Calypso came calling back, beckoning the McGuires with a new price tag.

“They had a red line slashing the $5,900 to $4,900, and I had $5,000 in my pocket, in cash,” McGuire said.

After a long conversation with the sailboat’s owner, the newlyweds purchased Calypso and the rest is history.

“That’s where it all started, we moved onto the boat right away,” he said. “I was totally amazed and surprised what this shallow-draft, inside-ballasted boat was capable of. I’ll never ever look at a little boat the same way again.”

Launching from Rhode Island, the couple trailed southward along the East Coast toward the Caribbean Sea. After traversing around the Gulf of Mexico, they were confronted and sideswiped by a Cuban gunboat whose captain boarded Calypso before eventually expelling the newlyweds from the country’s terroritorial waters.

MEMORIES AND MOMENTS

The couple encountered their fair share of close calls, near misses, heavy storms, and everything in between over the two-year journey, with many unique friends and characters met and befriended along the way.

People treated both of them well throughout the journey, Pat McGuire said.

Whether it was a narrow escape from a barracuda, an argument with a Belizean customs officer over coconuts, or a three-day period of sailing toward Hawaii with a leaking sailboat, the couple’s story is an odyssey of its own.

After changing their plans following the Cuban incident, the newlyweds chose to travel along the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico on their way to Central America.

The journey didn’t get much easier, though, as Calypso snagged a reef during a storm when the couple were on their way to Belize.

“We made an attempt and we stuck Calypso on the top of that damn reef,” Dennis McGuire said. “It was bad; we had breakers just slamming the boat.”

The dependable Calypso made it out and the pair eventually made their way to a nearby marina where they met a truly unique seafarer nicknamed “Cosmic Chris.”

“He was a German fellow,” Pat McGuire said. “He was terrific and so much fun.”

Cosmic Chris made quite the introduction to the McGuires, as Dennis McGuire recalled the memory of when they first crossed paths.

“Here comes this boat, this yellow lifeboat with a yin-yang sign on the sail,” he said, laughing. “This guy comes in through really nasty weather and he’s surfing down these waves toward the harbor, sliding sideways.”

The next thing they heard was, “I hear dinner noises, people,” McGuire said as Cosmic Chris dove into the water from his halfway-ruined lifeboat toward the seafaring couple in hopes of a free meal.

An abundance of exciting, hysterical, and terrifying encounters follow the couple as they continued their trek, hitting spots like the Panama Canal, Honduras, Hawaii, and more.

DEEP REFLECTION

Beyond the absorbing anecdotes of the nautical odyssey are moments of deep thought and connection between the couple and the world surrounding them.

For instance, while they were at sea, the first NASA shuttle mission was launched as astronaut explorers shot into the mostly unknown expanses of outer space, resonating with the pair’s experiences exploring the solitary stretches of the sea.

Dennis McGuire wrote a poem about it, saying: “It goes deep into what was happening at the moment and what was going through our minds. Here’s this space shuttle and we’re in the middle of the ocean; we felt like we’re more in outer space than those guys were out there. For me, it was a real poignant moment.”

Many other experiences brought out similar moments of poetic clarity, like traversing the Panama Canal and sheltering within Calypso during a long storm in the Pacific.

The pair share a deep well of stories and experiences while out at sea in their 433-page book, teeming with photos, poetry, and prose.

To learn more about “Ballad of Calypso,” visit the book’s website at www.balladofcalypso.com.

A copy of the book can be found at Imprint Bookstore as well as on Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers’ websites.