Jim Case had not spoken English for three days when he hiked into town looking for a store on the island of Isla Grande off the coast of Panama.
Bill Dunlop sails Wind’s Will out of the harbor in Aitutaki in the Cook Islands in June 1984. The photo may be the last photo taken of the Mechanic Falls adventurer who was attempting to sail solo around the world on his 9-foot boat. Dunlop went missing on the 3,000-mile leg between the Cook Islands and Australia.
The date was Dec. 14, 1983.
He spotted someone who looked American or European who seemed out of place.
“He was looking around with big, wide eyes,” Case said. “He came up to me and I said, ‘Do you speak English?’ Not many people there speak English. He said, ‘I’ll be damned if I can speak anything but English. My name is Bill Dunlop and I just sailed in from Kingston, Jamaica.’”
Dunlop, a Navy veteran and former truck driver from Mechanic Falls, was on a quest to sail solo around the world in his 9-foot boat, Wind’s Will.
The roughly 27,000 mile journey started on July 31, 1983, in Portland. Dunlop made it through the Panama Canal and halfway across the Pacific Ocean, but he vanished a year later somewhere along a 3,000-mile stretch between the Cook Islands and Australia.
In Panama, six months before he disappeared, the chance meeting with Case gave Dunlop the opportunity to relax for a few hours and share stories with a stranger.
“He just opened up,” Case said. “It came gushing out. ‘I am on my way across and through the Panama Canal and then across the Pacific Ocean. I’ve got the Guinness Book of World Record for the smallest vessel to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean. I just finished crossing the Caribbean.’”
The two men laughed, establishing an instant bond with each other. They sat on a bench near the docks and drank seven beers each for the next four hours, trading tales of adventure.
Case recorded the encounter in his journal that he kept while working on an eco-tour cruise ship stationed in Panama. He never forgot his meeting with Dunlop.
“The journal entry brings it all back,” Case said. “It’s funny, these real specific memories. It was just a chance encounter.”
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