MANRY AT SEA ~ In the Wake of a Dream

~ Tagline

"There is no dream so large, that it can't fit into a tiny boat..."

~ Logline

A middle-aged happily married newspaper editor secretly sets off across the Atlantic in a tiny sailboat, to pursue his lifelong dream.

~ Short Synopsis

In 1965, newspaper editor Robert Manry was a happily married family man in Cleveland, Ohio. His colleagues at the Plain Dealer were shocked to learn he had set sail on a solo voyage across the Atlantic in his 13½-foot sloop, Tinkerbelle. By the time his 78-day odyssey ended, Manry had become the target of a wild cat and mouse news media chase, was welcomed by a cheering throng of 50,000 Britons and had become a hero to his countrymen ~ and to dreamers everywhere...

Director and sailor Steve Wystrach’s exhaustive research and inventive storytelling complement Manry's intimate documentation of Tinkerbelle’s voyage, in an adventurous search for this unlikely American hero.

~ Story Summary

1965. Suburban everyman ROBERT MANRY, a quiet, happily married father of two young children, abandons the dull routine of a newspaper copy editor at the Cleveland PLAIN DEALER (PD) and sets sail in TINKERBELLE, his self-built 13½-foot sloop with a red mainsail. He departs in secret from Falmouth, Massachusetts bound for Falmouth, England.

RUSS KANE, the PD Promotions Director is assigned to track the story after receiving a letter Manry mailed on the eve of his departure. A brief Page One article is published, which catches the attention of TOM PISKURA, the wunderkind producer at cross-town news rival WEWS-TV.

Manry spends his first days at sea fearful of crossing the shipping lanes, and after several sleepless nights has the first of several hallucinations, this one featuring the HITCHHIKER, who bedevils him, but also helps steer the boat.

After a good night’s sleep, Manry sails on across an ocean of adventure. Awakened one morning by a horrifying horn blast, he finds himself floating alongside a US submarine that has spotted Tinkerbelle while on NATO war game maneuvers.

As his voyage rolls on, he experiences calms, storms, wondrous wildlife, and after 1,000 miles, meets the freighter STEEL VENDOR, which stops and takes his mail. When his letters reach Cleveland, Kane proposes taking Manry’s wife, VIRGINIA, and their children, ROBIN and DOUGLAS, to England for a joyous reunion at journey’s end.

Far more than a tale about a “man in a boat,” the story shifts to the voracious pursuits of the daily news. Piskura receives word of Kane’s plans from his spy at the PD and soon hatches a covert plot to send his ace journalist, BILL JORGENSEN, to England on a secret mission to intercept Manry at sea, before he reaches British waters.

Unaware of the intrigue, Manry finds transcendent peace and wonder, but is also challenged by loneliness, a broken rudder, more hallucinations, and is swept overboard in a storm.

In England, Kane persuades the ROYAL AIR FORCE (RAF) to run search and rescue drills to locate Tinkerbelle. Jorgensen enlists LLOYDS OF LONDON, and also secretly charters a fishing trawler to remain in port, ready for immediate departure 24 hours a day.

Several hundred miles from the English Channel, Tinkerbelle encounters the tanker BELGULF GLORY, whose captain gives Manry a huge roast chicken feast, and afterward radios his position to shore. Word soon reaches Jorgensen, who puts out to sea within the hour.

The RAF locates Tinkerbelle that evening and drops Manry a message that he is, “Big News!” and that, “Gentlemen of the press will arrive tomorrow.”

After 30 seasick hours, Jorgensen hears a shout that the red sail has been spotted. Excited to meet a familiar face from Cleveland, Manry amiably narrates all of the highlights of his voyage as Jorgensen films the interview. The RAF returns with the PD team aboard, and circles overhead while they happily snap photos of their colleague alongside a trawler, unaware they are being scooped by the competition.

Manry sails into heavy overcast and a gale sweeps Tinkerbelle north toward the rocky Irish coast. No one can find him. For a week the press prints breathless stories. Where is the Yank? Sailor’s Daughter Worried! Lost!

The weather clears, Manry corrects his course and at last spots the lighthouse on Land’s End. In the morning, an armada of small boats arrives to escort Tinkerbelle into port. As he enters the harbor, Manry discovers a throng of 20,000 cheering people crowding the docks and headlands. He is hailed a hero and returns to Cleveland in triumph.

A thrilling, emotionally charged, and visually stunning adventure ends with a tragic coda, reaffirming the urgent need to pursue your precious dreams, before your time runs out...