A week into his 60-day trek down the Mississippi River, Bert Chamberlain was exhausted.
The 64-year-old Moorhead man set out in early July for the solo journey, captaining a 15-foot sailboat, the Box Turtle, that he built himself. Although he'd never made a trip like this one, Chamberlain had spent his life chasing adventure. He'd climbed Devil's Tower, Mount Fuji, Grand Teton and Mount St. Helens. He'd gotten a black belt and a scuba license. He'd completed four marathons.
This trip was different, though. For starters, there was the ever-moving, unpredictable river to contend with. Chamberlain's first days on the water were spent charging batteries for the boat's too-small motor and using a canoe paddle to maneuver — the result of wind on the bow that made it tough to move.
"It was just really exhausting," Chamberlain said. "It pretty much would've ended the trip."
But with a little good luck and help from his son, Chamberlain was able to make a pit stop in Hastings to rest for a few days and in Red Wing to pick up a new motor.
In Hastings, two men — including a retired barge welder — suggested that Chamberlain alter his route: instead of following the Mississippi to New Orleans, take the safer Ohio and Tennessee rivers to Alabama's Mobile Bay.
Chamberlain decided to give it a shot. And from that moment, the trip changed.
"What I thought would be an isolated, I'm-going-by-myself trip ended up being, really, a partnership with the community of the river people," he said.
There was the teacher who drove Chamberlain into town for supplies and offered him a bed for the night. There was the physicist and fellow Vietnam War veteran who helped him spot a box turtle in the sand. There was the tugboat crew that guided him through a massive lock on the Ohio River, promising they'd stay by his side until he and his boat were safely through.
Meanwhile, there were scores of people following trip updates on Facebook. Some, including a friend Chamberlain hadn't seen in 45 years, stopped by to say hello.
There was, of course, the occasional setback — getting the boat stuck in tangles of reeds, or having to wait out a thunderstorm in a marina bathroom — but there were also moments of magic. An approaching hurricane that dissipated. Miserable hot, humid weather that turned cool.
"My Box Turtle had a protective shell around us," Chamberlain said.
At the end of the two-month journey, Chamberlain and his sailboat arrived safe and sound in Fairhope, Ala. There, he was greeted by his wife and son and more helpful strangers who offered a hand loading the boat onto a trailer.
Afterward, Chamberlain wrapped his arms around the pink-and-turquoise boat, then took a swig of rum from a bottle adorned with images of pirates.
"That was it," he said. "I was done."
Emma Nelson • 952-746-3287
