The Voyage of the Heretic documents Seth and Ellen Leonard’s circumnavigation of the globe under sail aboard their sloop Heretic. Ellen Massey Leonard is currently at work on a book about the voyage: a tale of relationships and risk just as much as a story of the voyage itself.
From September 2006 through June 2010, Seth and Ellen Leonard sailed their 38 foot cutter-rigged sloop Heretic westwards around the world. Despite human and physical obstacles along the way, they navigated Heretic from her home port Blue Hill, Maine down the East Coast of the United States, and through the northern Caribbean to the Panama Canal by April 2007. From May 2007 to August 2008, they crossed the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand and Australia. Heretic sailed through the Torres Strait around the northern tip of Australia and from there west across the South Indian Ocean to reach South Africa by December 2009. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, Ellen and Seth continued northwest across the Atlantic to the Lesser Antilles, Bermuda, and back to Maine. The circumnavigation covered a total of 32,000 nautical miles.
This site records the voyage in photographs accompanied by text. Ellen Massey Leonard is currently at work on her book about the journey that the pair’s relationship and growth took over the course of their sea voyage. She has published several sailing articles about the circumnavigation in Ocean Navigator magazine, a publication devoted to voyaging and useful to all boat owners and sailors. Her most recent one, “Striking a Balance” is a feature in the 2012 special edition Ocean Voyager.
Following their circumnavigation, Ellen and Seth moved to Switzerland. Photographs of exploring the Alps on foot are included in Life in Switzerland after Heretic.
All text and photographs © Ellen Massey Leonard and Seton Leonard, 2011, All Rights Reserved.
