Most people look at a nineteen-foot strip of fiberglass and wood and see a weekend hobby. Josh Kali saw the world. On May 12, the quiet coastal waters of Oriental erupted in a chorus of cheers and waving flags. Trailed by a flotilla of local boaters, Josh Kali cruised back into the town docks on the Neuse River.
“It was really heartfelt welcome,” he said. “Beaufort was great as well. Everybody really came out there and was really interested in the project and everything and they were all really kind. But it was the people of Oriental that like gave me something to come home to, you know? It was that homecoming to the town dock here that inspired me to keep going in times when I was a little bit discouraged or whatever. I would always just have that memory of returning back here and they did not disappoint. Everybody came out and it was really, it was a really great day.”
The journey began long before Kali ever tasted salt water. It started in his hometown of Seattle, Washington, where he spent two and a half years meticulously crafting the tiny 19-foot sailboat. In the open ocean, a boat shorter than a standard pickup truck leaves zero margin for error. But his precision paid off. Kali is now the first American to solo-circumnavigate the globe in a vessel under twenty feet, completing the inaugural Mini Globe Race in just over 223 days.
He said the tiny size of the boat was entirely intentional, and, “It's 19 feet long so that it can fit into a 20-foot shipping container because that gives people the option to build them anywhere in the world and then you can just ship them to where the events are taking place. So, that was a big driving force behind making it that specific size, so that it was more portable.”
Kali trailered the boat across the country to launch in Oriental, near family in Arapahoe. But crossing the ocean alone is a test of mental survival. With no crew and no automated shifts, sleep became a luxury measured in minutes. “I would go down for 40 minutes and I would set the alarm and then when it would go off I would get up and check for ships and make sure we were still on course and that we had the right sails up for the wind if it had shifted or gotten stronger or lighter or whatever,” he explained, “I would do that through the night and then for the most part during the day I would be awake though, and you're always having to do something. You're always having to adjust the wind vane or change the sails or change the course, or you're kind of constantly fighting to keep the boat going where you need to go.”
While travel through dangerous archipelagos and shallow reefs turned out better than expected, the weather saved its worst for last. Kali said the final leg from Brazil back to the Caribbean was a brutal, exhausting slog. He said, “The most difficult passage was the last one from Brazil back to Antigua. Everybody was ready to be done, we were all tired and we thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be fine.’ We're in the trade winds again and we've got to go through the doldrums, but it's mercifully, you know, skinny at that part of the ocean. And it ended up being, it was hard. It was strong wind and it was forward of the beam so we were kind of bashing into the waves and it was really wet, lots of water coming over the boat and stuff, so you couldn't go outside without getting soaked. It was absolutely exhausting. So, it was really, really satisfying to finish. If you'd had an easy last passage, you would have kind of just cruised in, you know, all smiles and everything. And for the most part we did, but it was, like, even more rewarding.”
Beyond the constant physical toll, living on a nineteen-foot boat meant sacrificing basic everyday comforts. Kali said he spent months craving two things: fresh food and a very specific beverage. “I didn't have a refrigerator or any way to store fresh food, but I could make pasta and I could make rice dishes and stuff like that. And I could make, eggs and potatoes and stuff for breakfast. So, I ate pretty well, but to have somebody else cook the meal and then serve it to you like on an actual plate was like a big deal. For me though, what always motivated me to get into port or to make it to the next stop was a cold Sprite,” he said, “Like I would give anything for a cold Sprite.”
Now back on dry land, Kali hopes his historic, grueling voyage sends a clear message to anyone hesitating to chase their own goals. “One of the things that I hope to achieve by completing this was to inspire people to maybe get out of their comfort zone or try something that they've always been wanting to try but never kind of had the guts, or the drive, the will to go through with it,” Kali said, “Whether it's offshore sailing or remodeling your bathroom, whatever it happens to be, the only one holding you back is you. I learned was that the difference between achieving something and not achieving something is desire. How badly do you want to do it? If you want it badly enough, it'll happen.”
