Pascagoula sailor Nelson Walker sets out for solo circumnavigation aboard Persimmon

• Part of what draws him to this voyage is not just the distance, but the depth.

With the warm encouragement of his coastal community, Nelson Walker slipped the lines and set sail on a solo circumnavigation of the globe. The Pascagoula resident and sailing instructor at Singing River Yacht Club departed this week aboard Persimmon, a Cape Dory 28. 

Friends, mentors, and club members gathered at the Singing River Yacht Club for a champagne sendoff and christening ceremony. The club’s commodore offered encouraging remarks, and many in attendance lifted glasses to the young sailor and the stout vessel that will carry him across the world’s oceans. 

Walker was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and spent the first years of his life there before evacuating with his mother, Suzanne Gaulin, during Hurricane Katrina. The two relocated briefly to St. Peter’s Bay, a small village in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, before settling in a small town in northeastern New Mexico. Nelson eventually moved to Pascagoula, where he found not only a sailing community, but also a launching point for his next great adventure. 

Suzanne Gaulin and Nelson’s stepfather, Larry Rose, were in attendance for the departure.

“Full of anxiety, happiness, and at the same time, full of pride,” she said, describing the emotions of the day.

When asked whether Nelson had always been adventurous and independent, she answered without hesitation, “Yes. It has been very difficult to control him at times.” 

She recalled the beginning of his sailing journey: “It was three years ago, when he decided to move to Mississippi. He had a plan to work here at the shipyard, get a sailboat, and learn to sail. He got accustomed to the people and wanted to become a member of the yacht club and be active. That’s how he started. And I said ‘OK.’ I never believed it would come true, but today it has.” 

As for what gives her confidence in his ability to succeed, she pointed to his engineering mind and hands-on skillset. “Nelson is a mechanical engineer. He’s also very practical. Since he was a little boy, I always provided him with a workshop so that he could work with his hands as much as his head. I think he is very skillful and ingenius. He is like his great-grandparents who were farming pioneers in the great north of Quebec and had to get by with very little, and that’s what I tried to teach him.” 

Nelson cites Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum as a major inspiration.

“The dream I had of being a fighter pilot kind of fell away, and I decided to find a new one,” he said. “So, I figured, I’ll do that.” He still holds a pilot’s license and hopes to return to the sky someday, but for now, he has chosen the sea. 

Part of what draws him to this voyage is not just the distance, but the depth.

“One reason for doing this is to develop mental fortitude and push myself to the limits of human experience,” he said. “I also hope to find God in a way I struggled to in the sanitized modern world.”  

He isn’t worried about the solitude. “I spend most of my time alone anyway,” he said. “I have many books to keep me company, and through the magic of the Internet, I’m never fully alone.” 

Walker selected the Cape Dory 28 with a focus on reliability over speed.

“I didn’t want to kid myself about my abilities,” he explained. “I picked the strongest boat I could find, one with the least likelihood of sinking and the fewest things that could go wrong.”

A full keel and keel-hung rudder were essential, as was a high capsize screening ratio.

“What scared me most was rolling the boat and losing the mast,” he admitted. “This boat has been proven. People have done circumnavigations in it before.” 

The name Persimmon had been in mind long before he bought the boat.

“My first boat was a Catalina 25 I painted bright yellow because white boats were overdone,” he said. “I figured my next boat, the one I’d take around the world, would be orange for safety. So, I came up with the name Persimmon.” 

Though the current boat’s white hull convinced him not to repaint, the name remained.

“Persimmon is one of the only large fruits native to Mississippi. The word comes from an Algonquin term for ‘dry fruit,’ and an unripe one dries your mouth out. Hopefully, the boat stays dry too,” he joked.

Asked what excites him most, Walker didn’t hesitate: “Seeing new places and having formative experiences.” It’s the unplanned moments, he said, that often prove the most powerful. But the unknowns still linger. “I’m most nervous about the weather-and the strength of my resolve.” 

Walker’s route begins with a stop at Dauphin Island, then on to Sarasota and Key West. From there, he will head to the Bahamas, take the windward passage between Cuba and Haiti, and continue south to Jamaica. Afterward, he plans to transit the Panama Canal and enter the Pacific. 

From there, the real test begins: roughly 40 days and 4,000 miles of open-ocean sailing across the Pacific. He’s considering stops at either the Marquesas or Easter Island before continuing to Australia. “That’s the cool thing about this trip,” he said. “The decision’s not made until I get there. We’ll have to check in on the blog to know which option I pick.” 

When asked what he hopes to learn about himself along the way, Walker reflected, “I think many people are curious as to how they would behave in an extreme situation. I have an inquisitive mind, so I’m just following this curiosity to its natural conclusion. Who knows what I’ll find out there?” 

And if he could send one message to the version of himself waiting at the end of this voyage? He grinned.

“If you’re reading this, you’re not dead, bonus points if you succeeded.” 

Despite the journey ahead, Walker credits Pascagoula for making it all possible. 

“I’ve visited coastal communities between here and Key West,” he said. “And I don’t think I could’ve done this anywhere else. The people here have been so warm and welcoming. With the cost of everything, I wouldn’t have been able to do this so early in my career without Pascagoula. But more than the financial part, it’s the people I didn’t plan for. The friends I made, the community, all of you. I thought I’d be doing it alone, but now it feels like I’ve got a whole crew rooting for me.” 

Nelson was right. He may be the only one on the boat, but he’s not alone. We’re all right here, rooting for him.