The Sailor

Eighty-year-old Paul Earling Johnson is a man most people might walk past, never guessing he was once a seafaring adventurer and famous boat designer. He spent his life driven by an insatiable wanderlust, unable to settle with a family or on land and instead opting to sail the world in total freedom. But he never expected to live this long. With his body as broken as his aging boat, neither are able to sail again and he lives out his life alone, floating on the Harvey Vale Bay in the West Indies. By day he polishes off a litre of vodka and by night he rows his tattered boat to the local beach bar to retell his stories to locals in an attempt to rekindle a lost legacy. Was his ravenous hunger for freedom worth the price of his present loneliness? As the looming threat of hurricane season sets in, residents try in vain to convince him to bring his boat to shore, but for Paul, the docking of his ship signifies the sinking of his independence.
(Heather Haynes)