This site best heard with Crescendo!
Dedicated To The Memory of Billy Dunlop
My Brother June 23, 1941 - June 25, 1984
Click on Billy's photo to see his wife Pam & their daughter Kim
Billy was an adventurer, he loved the sea and respected it..In the spring of 1982, Billy set sail from Portland, Maine for England in "Winds Will", a 9 foot boat. The voyage took him 78 days to achieve. The whole town of Falmouth, England welcomed him, Pam (his wife) and Mom were there on the dock waiting to greet him. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the smallest boat ever.
September 25, 1982, was declared Bill Dunlop Day. The small town of Mechanic Falls, Maine honored him with a parade and Governor Brennan made a speech. Our parents rode proudly in the parade.
Parade September 25, 1982
Mom and Dad
July 31, 1983, Billy set sail again, only this time it was to circumnavigate the world in "Winds Will". He met many challenges along the way. In June of 1984, he pulled into Aitutaki, one of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific for repairs. He left the Cook Islands on June 23, 1984 (his birthday) in his 9 foot boat bound for Australia on the final Pacific Ocean leg of his global odyssey. Never to be heard from again. The experts say, he probably drowned in a hurricane force storm two days after leaving the Cook Islands. Before Billy left on his global adventure he said "I'd rather die out there trying than not do it at all."
Billy just before he left on July 31, 1983
Click on Winds Will for a close up view
Billy as he was sailing out of Portland Harbor
|
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of my brother Billy and wonder what really happened. We don't have closure, nothing was ever found, not even a piece of his boat.
Billy, you will always live in our hearts. Love is Eternal......
Go Back To
