The voyage will begin crossing by the Atlantic Ocean and will follow the traditional trade routes of the square riggers in the Southern Hemisphere. "Here the prevailing winds and currents afford opportunities for downwind sailing far from sight of land," says Reid.

He will set a course far from land and without the inherent dangers of coastal pirates and commercial shipping lanes. The main elements to deal with in such a long nonstop voyage are Nature and crew health. The 70 ft, 50-ton Schooner was knocked down by a rogue wave in a previous trip to Antarctica, and Stowe is acutely aware of the challenges of skippering such a large vessel non-stop for 1000 days. 

"All the oceans - the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, the South Pacific, and the Indian Ocean - have their own special feel and weather patterns. Each day can be very much like the one before-then be instantaneously transformed by a change in the weather or by any other unpredictable occurrence. At any moment an encounter with whales, dolphins, sea turtles, or sharks can transform the ordinary into the magical. Such are the ways of the sea."

Stowe sees the project as a space analogous expedition because the voyage involves the same length of time as a round trip to Mars and poses similar human psychological endurance issues. He published an article in 1990 entitled "Seafarers of today provide a role model for spacefarers of tomorrow", with the author Al Harrison.

Reid and Soanya Ahmad left April 21, 2007 with three years of food and supplies, and the plan is to not port nor resupply until 2010. The schooner provides its own energy for lights, winches, and satellite communications from solar panels, and water generators. The Anne stopped receiving shore power in September of 2006, 225 days before her departure.

The Schooner Anne, named after Stowe's mother, is based on a nineteenth-century Gloucester fishing schooner.  Built by Stowe with his family in their North Carolina seashore front yard in 1978, the Anne has been Stowe's home and platform for over 27 years of compelling voyages in preparation for the 1000 day challenge. The Anne has proved her seaworthiness throughout the world's oceans: in Antarctica (1987); on the 100-day out-of-sight of land North Atlantic (1994); on the 198-day Odyssey of the Sea Turtle (1996); and on the Voyage of the Argonauts (1998), where she survived a knockdown by a 60-foot rogue wave.