Nestled in the Clipper Yacht Harbor in Sausalito is the heart of SF State senior Antoine "Sonny" Lyles' life.
The smell of cedar from the freshly laid wood paneling fills the cabin. Malcolm X posters, maps, pictures of family and bumper stickers with encouraging sayings camouflage the 30-foot yacht's walls. Books scattered about reflect his love for sailing: "At Any Cost: Love, Life and Death at Sea" and "Heavy Weather Sailing."
The "X-Man" will set sail for a two year around-the-world trip in July. Lyles, 32, is only the third African American to make this solo transoceanic journey. The others were Bill Pikney, who completed his trip in 1992, and Ted Seymour, who completed his in 1987, according to a June 10, 1992, New York Times article.
Lyles, a New York native, was raised in a single parent home in the Bronx. He has never seen his father, and has learned most of his lessons from the streets. He was involved with gangs, which eventually put him behind bars as a teen. The last episode put him in Rikers Island Prison, where he obtained his High School Equivalency Diploma during incarceration.
He purchased a one-way ticket to California in 1982, and has never looked back.
Lyles became a journeyman carpenter, and has put himself through college. He is currently a creative writing senior at SF State, but is taking an indefinite amount of time off from school to complete his journey.
For Lyles, sailing isn't a hobby but a lifestyle. He has lived on his boat for 10 years.
Lyles has organized a program to teach inner-city youth the joys of sailing and the importance of passing along the history of African-American sailing.
He got the idea to start the sailing clinics when his boat was docked in the Richmond marina. "There was a wall surrounding the marina so that people who didn't have boats there couldn't get in," Lyles said. "There was this group of kids that would hang out looking for a good place to fish. I told them that they could come out on my boat."
Lyles began thinking that he could teach inner-city kids, who weren't exposed to life on the water, how to sail. His intention for this, he said, is to break the stereotype that sailing is exclusive to "financially well-to-do white people."
Out of his idea, these sailing clinics, open to kids 11 through 18 years old, were born. The clinics are arranged through different recreation centers in predominantly African-American neighborhoods throughout the Bay area, like the Richmond Recreation Center and the Hunters Point Recreation Center.
Lyles' main goal is to document his journey on videotape to allow these kids to "experience every aspect of the circumnavigation through the eyes of an African-American sailor," he said. Ultimately, he wants to equip these kids with "the armor they need to deal with the obstacles and tremendous problems that are unique to those living under low economic conditions," he said.
"In the beginning we start out with 25 or 30 kids, but we are lucky if we end up with 15," Lyles said, realizing the rigorous tests and extensive reading material weed out those kids who don't take the subject seriously.
Along with lessons of sailing history, the kids learn the various parts of a boat and the purpose and functions those parts serve.
"Since Africans pioneered transoceanic voyages and were trading with indigents of the Americas long before European voyagers, we feel the need to teach this information to the youth because the public primary educational system is not doing this," Lyles said. "Children of all backgrounds today are learning the same lies they learned 70 years ago -- that Africa was a dark continent until Europeans came and gave it light," he said.
Lyles hopes that his journey will "loosen-up the chains" that have restricted the flow of information concerning African sailing history. "Only through pulling the books down from the shelves and placing them in the hands of those that can't reach them will we begin to bring hope to our youth in this area," he said.
"The sailing lifestyle is not necessarily a leisurely one, it involves a tremendous amount of discipline... In essence, learning to turn what appears to be a handicap into an asset that will productively work for them if they apply themselves," he said.
San Francisco's Ella Hill Hutch Community Center's Rites of Passage Program is one of the programs designed to educate youth through lessons of African history. The purpose is to instill a sense of self-awareness, self-respect and personal responsibility in youth "from an Afro-centric perspective," he said.
Lyles' trip will be divided into four parts, covering the four major bodies of water. He plans to travel to Hilo, Hawaii first, then on to Australia and through the Indonesian Isles to Sri Lanka. The last part of his trip will be in the waters around Bermuda. He plans to sail down to the Caribbean and West Indies and then to South America. The last circuit will be through the Panama Canal to Mexico, then back up the California coast to Sausalito.
Lyles was able to do 90 percent of the work on his boat in order to prepare for his trip. Although it has saved him a significant amount of money, he still needs various parts and money to begin his journey -- from a new mast to a freshwater purifier. Anyone interested in helping Lyles in his venture should contact him at (415) 873-1959 or (510) 236-6469.
"It's humbling for the most part. It's not about career and life on the fast track, (sailing) teaches you to not take things for granted," he said.
A bumper sticker on the wall of his yacht sums-up his vision and purpose for this venture: "Not all who wander are lost," J.R. Tolkien.