On the morning of June 5, 1980, John Lennon set sail from Newport, Rhode Island, on a 43-foot Hinckley sloop named Megan Jaye, alongside Captain Hank Halstad, Tyler Coneys, and cousins Ellen and Kevin. The journey from Newport to Hamilton, Bermuda, would become one of the most profound experiences of Lennon’s life—one that restored his confidence, rekindled his creativity, and inspired the songs that became his final masterpiece, Double Fantasy.
The voyage was far from easy. Not long after departing Newport, the Megan Jaye encountered violent seas and stormy weather that would test even the most seasoned sailors. As the waves grew taller and the wind howled stronger, one mby one, the crew fell ill, leaving Lennon—who had never before handled a ship in such conditions—alone at the wheel.
“I was terrified,” Lennon later told Playboy. “But once I accepted the reality of the situation, something greater than me took over. I started to shout out old sea shanties in the face of the storm.” For nearly six hours, Lennon battled the elements, guiding the small yacht through the tempest while rain and seawater streamed down his face and glasses. Somewhere between fear and exhilaration, something changed. Lennon felt alive again.
When the Megan Jaye finally arrived safely in Bermuda on June 11, Lennon inscribed the ship’s log with a simple but poetic line: “Dear Megan, there is no place like nowhere.” He added a sketch of the vessel sailing into the sunset and signed it, “Hank, love John Lennon.”
That voyage—beginning in Newport’s harbor and ending in Bermuda’s calm waters—was more than a passage across the Atlantic. It was a passage back to himself. In Bermuda, Lennon began writing and recording again after years of creative silence, crafting songs that would become Double Fantasy, his celebrated final album with Yoko Ono.
Just six months later, on December 8, 1980, an assassin’s bullet tragically ended John Lennon’s life outside his New York City home.
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