By Giles Hewitt
New York - When Reid Stowe and Alejandro Molina sail out of New York harbour next month on their schooner, Anne, their next sight of landfall, if everything goes to plan, will be sometime in August - 2008.
For the intervening 1 000 days, the pair intend to sail in large loops through the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans on a course charted to keep them far away from terra firma.
They will not refuel. They will not re-supply. And they will not pull into any harbour.
"I don't see it as an endurance feat, but a pleasure," said Stowe, 53, a veteran of long-distance voyages.
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"Everyone has dreamed of just sailing away and leaving everything behind," Stowe said. "We're actually doing it."
In fact, Stowe and Molina, 32, will be taking a fair bit with them, including 1,3 tons (1 300kg) of food and the same weight in wood and coal.
They intend to survive on a diet of rice, pasta and canned sauces, freshly-caught fish and, most importantly, fresh sprouts - the nutritional benefits of which Stowe champions with evangelical zeal.
"Eating sprouts could cure you of everything," he said, unveiling six small plastic boxes from which he intends to reap a year-round harvest of healthy seedlings.
The 69ft (21m) schooner, which Stowe designed and built 28 years ago, has four water tanks capable of holding 1 000 gallons (4 500 litres), which would last two people around 500 days.
The tanks will be replenished by rainwater caught in a canvas tarpaulin.
"We've calculated almost everything we need except for toilet paper," said Stowe.
"I'm thinking of getting some industrial-sized rolls, but if we run out, there's always a bucket of water or a rag."
Aside from keeping fed, healthy and warm, Stowe and Alejandro's main challenge is coping with isolation in its many forms, including a three-year sabbatical from female company.
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