After 30 years, John Lebeau is soloing his boat back to Stone Harbor and planning new adventures

A man and his boat, once long-separated but then reunited, are sailing “home” to Stone Harbor after 30 years.

John Lebeau’s Vent d’Ete (“Wind of Summer”) sat for years in Florida in need of repairs to make it seaworthy, but now, partially restored and able to take on the Intracoastal Waterway, the 22-foot vessel is on its way to New Jersey for full renovation.

Lebeau, who has been living in the Palm Beach area for the past 30 years, bought the Vent d’Ete, a New England-built classic, in 1983, and seven years later took a 300-mile solo sail from Stone Harbor to Nantucket.

Three years later, he sailed the boat, which was designed by the Swedish naval architect Carl Alberg and built by Cape Dory Yachts of East Taunton, Massachusetts, to Eleuthera, Bahamas, before relocating to South Florida. Once in Florida, however, he had to sell it, losing track of it for 17 years before finding it in 2011.

He plans to retrace his voyages after rebuilding the vessel and take a “voyage of peace and fulfillment” to celebrate its 40th-plus birthday — and knock off the first item on his bucket list.

“It’s a different experience now versus the time I took her to Florida 30 years ago,” Lebeau said. “I was only 35 years old at the time. Now I’m bringing it back to its home port, using an outboard motor on the Intracoastal, and I am a little rusty on some things because I haven’t sailed in a long time. But this is more than just a boat, it’s been a part of my life.”

He owned the Vent d’Ete when he was first married and sailed all over, but gave it up in the early 1990s when he fought for custody of his two children. After he successfully got custody of his children, his energies were focused on raising them and not sailing. He lost track of the boat during that time, but found it again in 2011.

“I found it in Miami, and it had had two owners after I sold it, but it was totally destroyed,” he said. “It was floating but couldn’t sail. My children were in high school, so we were busy with that, so it sat for about 10 years before I could do anything with it.”

He had to restore the hull and topside before being able to sail again. Now, facing a 1,200-mile trip from Florida to Stone Harbor, he and his dog, a Jack Russell terrier, are taking things day by day as they deal with storms like Debby, steep waves, winds from the north and shallow water.

“Solo sailing is certainly interesting, it can be fun and it’s always challenging, but it’s nice to have a skipper onboard,” he said about his dog, Shelly. “This morning she warned me about the doglegs ahead,” he added, chuckling about the upcoming bends in the waterway.

Lebeau thought he was going to “bite the dust” when crossing from Florida into Georgia at Cumberland Island. “The winds were blowing from the northeast and were really steep, so I figured I would shelter for the night and cross the St. Andrews Sound in the morning,” he said. “There were no markers, and the waves were still really big in the morning. I made a bad judgment call crossing where I did, but I didn’t know any better.”

He said he met shrimpers whom he shared his experience with, and they told him “they didn’t even cross where I did in good weather! They said I was pretty lucky. I was pretty traumatized by that experience. I didn’t cross where I did to be a hot shot; I just did it by mistake,” he said.

Lebeau, who is half-Swedish, describes himself as a “soul-sailor. I sail for the Zen-like experience of a different reality that can take you places on your chart and in your mind that you never imagined. Soul-sailing is not a recreational or sporting experience; it is a spiritual experience.

“Soul-sailing is going to a place at sea where suddenly you realize that you are closer to God than you ever have been, bathing in his glory all around you, giving you the precious gift of peace and fulfillment, unlike anything you have ever experienced, and often doing it alone on long open-ocean voyages in a small sailboat that can be safely navigated and managed, solo.”

With his Swedish roots, he feels a Viking-like attachment to his boat, noting that “Viking men were so attached to their boats, they were buried in them. But please, when this Viking goes off on his greatest voyage, do not bury me in my beloved Vent d’Ete!,” he quickly added. “She will be a gift to my even-more-beloved Danish/Swedish/American twin son and daughter and their little Vikings, I hope, someday, with an amazing provenance to go with her.”

Although Lebeau dreamt of sailing with his children on his boat over the years, so far it’s not happened because, he said, his children didn’t grow up with sailing like he did and, so far, don’t share the love for the sport like their father.

“My family has strong ties to Cape May County,” he said. While he grew up in Washington Township, he spent weekends in the area during the summers as a child, with his parents who were both from the county. He remembers being about 7 years old when he started sailing, first on a small rig called a butterfly.

“I took to it pretty quickly,” he recalled. “I recall sometimes putting my boat in the water in March and sailing. By 15, I was a pretty good sailor and did crewing on some of the local boats. I even taught some of the local kids how to sail.”

Lebeau, who started his career on Wall Street and was an insurance sales representative and financial adviser before retiring in 2008 as a vice president of sales for a bank in Palm Beach, wants to bring the vessel “home” to Stone Harbor for restoration because he knows contractors who can do the work.

He reached out to the current owners of his family’s former home and will visit their boat slip to “fully complete the circle” with his boat.

Now on his way back to Stone Harbor, he’s had a few “adventures” along the way that tested his sailing skills. He left Jupiter, Florida, on May 24, sailing about 20 miles a day. He hopes to be in Stone Harbor by the end of August.

He was stuck in Titusville, Florida, for six days, and then had another interesting experience while waiting to cross St. Simons Sound, between St. Simons and Jekyll islands, Georgia. “I was low on fuel, and there was a tough north wind,” Lebeau said of his attempts to cross the sound, which has treacherous shoals throughout. “I thought I would stay overnight, but ended up anchored for six days. I kept trying to cross the sound, but had to wait it out because of the bad conditions. I had a weather radio, food and water, so I was set there.

“On the third day, I heard what I thought was a motor, and a clammer appeared out of nowhere. He was willing to share gas with me; I thought he was an angel because he just seemed to appear. After that, I knew things would be OK.”

And OK they were, as Lebeau was “entertained” by a pod of dolphins who came around his boat each night to feed. “There was a big flock of white herons as well, roosting each night in a tree nearby, and I thought this was like a National Geographic moment,” he said. “My phone had died, so I wasn’t able to take photos, I just observed them. I was in the moment, forced relaxation so to speak.

“So now I ask people what’s the longest time they’ve been disconnected without their phone,” he said. “I was anxious in the beginning, but then really appreciated being in the moment and experiencing what was around me. It was really soul-sailing.”

Lebeau has been documenting his journey on YouTube as not only a journal of his trip, but as a learning tool for other sailors.

“I’m living my dream, and here’s how I’m doing it,” he explained. “It gives people a chance to check on me, but also I’m offering tips on what to do and what not to do.”

Contact the reporter, Karen Knight, at kknight@cmcherald.com.