It’s finally feeling like fall, and football and homecoming games are on the horizon, but this week we are taking a look at a different kind of homecoming.
In 1965, Robert Manry sailed what was at the time the shortest boat to make a non-stop trip across the Atlantic Ocean. His 13.5′ sailboat, Tinkerbelle, spent 78 days at sea, on a voyage from Falmouth, Massachusetts to Falmouth, England. Manry faced many hazards on his adventure, and wrote a book about them, too.
Manry had been working as a copy editor at the Cleveland Plain dealer for many years before this trip, and though not born in Ohio was ingrained in his local community, Willowick. After his successful mission, a homecoming parade was held in his honor in the town, pictured below.
Manry made a few other notable sailing trips, and donated Tinkerbelle to the Western Reserve Historical Society, where you can still see it today.
There’s lots more to read and learn about the interesting life of Robert Manry, you can start at the Cleveland Memory Project and learn even more at the Robert Manry Project.