2008 Far Horizons Award Press Release

The Cruising Club of America has selected John H. Harries and Phyllis Nickel to receive its prestigious 2008 Far Horizons Award for their extensive cruising and voyaging, and some racing in Morgan's Cloud, a custom 56' McCurdy Rhodes cutter. Since purchasing the boat in 1991, they lived aboard since 1996 and have sailed about 100,000 miles. The award will be presented at the club's annual Awards Dinner in New York on January 13, 2009 by CCA Commodore Ross Sherbrooke, of Boston, Mass.

Morgan's Cloud has twice circumnavigated Newfoundland, and cruised to Labrador. She has been to Greenland four times and twice departed Greenland to cross the Atlantic via Iceland.

In 2001, after wintering aboard in London, Harries and Nickel cruised the East coast of England and then passaged to Norway to spend the winter aboard in Tromso, 300 miles above the Arctic Circle. In 2002 they cruised the North coast of Norway gathering information for their online Norwegian Cruising Guide. At the Russian border they departed for Svalbard and spent six weeks exploring. That fall they returned to Tromso to winter over for a second time.

In 2003, they passaged from Norway to Greenland via the Shetlands and the North coast of Iceland. In 2005, they circumnavigated Newfoundland and returned to Maine to complete a major refit of Morgan's Cloud. Late this fall they left Stonington, Maine bound for the Bahamas, and plan to return to Greenland in 2009.

For more information on their voyages, visit their web site www.morganscloud.com.