Sailing legend dead at 78

Sailing legend and journalist Dodge Morgan, whose face was a familiar sight on the Marblehead waterfront in the 1980s, has died from cancer. He was 78.Morgan made international headlines in 1986 when he became the first American to complete a solo, round-the-world voyage that ended in Bermuda where it began 150 days earlier.The record-breaking sail was made aboard the 60-foot American Promise, built by designer and yachtsman Ted Hood in Marblehead. The cutter-rigged sloop was the last boat built by Hood’s Little Harbor Boat Yard before the company moved its facilities to Portsmouth, R.I.On the day Morgan returned to Bermuda – exhilarated at having beat the record held by Englishman Chay Blyth, he spoke to The Item by phone about the highs and lows of his ordeal.Of the Southern Atlantic, he said, “I wouldn’t recommend going there to anyone. It’s like a long, slate-gray tunnel. The sea is dark gray, darker than the sky. There’s virtually no sun. Limited visibility. It’s a world without light.”Did he ever consider turning back? “There were times when I sure as the devil wished I were somewhere else. But I never considered stopping,” he said.To pass the time, Morgan read books and set up milestones of minutes, hours and occasionally days in his mind. As he explained it, “If I thought any farther ahead than that, say a whole week, I wouldn’t be able to reach it. I had to take things in small increments – one at a time.”Morgan said the boat was stocked with taped music but he didn’t listen to it. “I found that if I listened to music, it saddened me rather than picked up my spirits. Music has too much human emotion in it, and that’s the one thing I didn’t want to think about. People. I came here to get away from all that and I had to keep my thoughts on the job at hand.”While American Promise was under construction, Morgan spent six months “camping out” at the Hood boatyard. Detractors claimed such a high-tech boat with redundant systems could not be built in Marblehead, but Hood’s craftsmen proved them wrong.Morgan was born in Malden and attended the Gov. Dummer Academy. His father, a pharmacist, died when he was barely 3, after which his mother remarried. Rather than embrace college, Morgan enlisted in the U.S. Air Force where he learned to fly fighter planes. Upon discharge, he attended Boston University, earned a journalism degree and moved to Alaska where he found a newspaper job. He also dabbled in public relations and lobbying work, saving money to buy a boat and sail – a goal he soon accomplished.Controlonics, a high-tech company he founded with three employees in a garage and grew to employ over 300, was sold in 1985 as part of a $32 million stock deal. It allowed Morgan to fulfill his dream of solo sailing around the world. In 1986, he went on to set a record for the fastest voyage without stopping – 292 days. Having settled in Portland, Maine, he also bought the Maine Times – an alternative weekly newspaper – only six weeks before embarking on his historic voyage. He ran it until 1997 while also purchasing and publishing a Casco Bay weekly.During that period, he moved to Snow Island off Harpswell, Maine, where he lived for many years, relishing the solitude.In 1989, Morgan wrote a book about his solo sailing experience, “The Voyage of American Promise.” A movie about the adventure, entitled “Around Alone,” was later released, containing footage captured by automated cameras aboard the boat.In 1991, Morgan was inducted into the Single-Handed Sailors’ Hall of Fame. That was the same year “American Promise,” which Morgan had donated to the U.S. Naval Academy as a training vessel, sank to the bottom of Chesapeake Bay after colliding with a coal barge and tug.A savvy businessman, Morgan used the proceeds of his ventures to buy Snow Island in 1998, where he built a small cottage. He was often seen cruising aboard his schooner, Eagle, when not sailing to the West Indies in his sloop, Wings of Time.Morgan once said it takes three