How sailing to Bermuda relit John Lennon's creative spark

Images from @johnlennon

Summarizing the origin story of John Lennon’s song ‘Grow Old With Me’ thus far, in early 1980 while in Florida, Lennon saw a sailboat named after his seminal song ‘Imagine.’ He chartered the boat, after which he instructed his assistant to purchase a simple sailboat so that he could learn how to sail. First, however, Lennon went out on Oyster Bay in a dingy. 

Lennon purchased a small, 14-foot, single sail sailboat from nearby Coneys Marine. Tyler Coneys, who piloted the boat to Lennon’s dock, subsequently gave him sailing lessons on Oyster Bay. This led to Lennon chartering the Megan Jaye to sail from Rhode Island to Bermuda in June of 1980.

While en route, the boat encountered a storm. With the rest of the crew incapacitated, Lennon, the least experienced crew member, was forced to captain the boat.

Lennon’s sailing trip to Bermuda in June of 1980 and the storm that he and the crew encountered had a profound impact on him. Lennon had wanted to sail for a long time. In June of 1980, he was finally doing it.

“I’d always talked about sailing, but my excuse was that I never had lessons,” Lennon said. “Yoko’s attitude was: ‘Put up or shut up.’ So she sent me on this trip, and I went.”[1]

Lennon fully credited Ono with inspiring him to take the trip that reignited his creativity.

“We had talked about making music again, but she knew I would fight creating again, even though I said that I wanted to,” Lennon said. “I had said, ‘Fine, but I just don’t happen to have any songs.’ She sent me specifically to open up my creativity, though she didn’t tell me that. She knew I’d have fought it. There was four of us on this forty-one-foot boat. And it was the most fantastic experience I had ever had. I loved it!”[1]

Hank Halsted, captain of the Megan Jaye, noticed a visible change after Lennon steered the boat by himself through the storm.

“I met a different guy,” Halsted said after he returned above deck. “He was totally washed, exuberant, ecstatic, singing sea shanties at the horizon and at the sea. He was virtually in rapture with being in control of his environment.”[2]

Tyler Coneys, who was a member of the crew on the boat, noticed the change as well.

“Sailing is like being connected with the world,” Coneys said. “John had this major thing happening. He was no longer Mr. Mom staying at home with Sean. He was having this adventure like his own father, who was a seaman, which was part of his curiosity about this. He’d talked to Yoko about sailing and to his dad.

“To me, he looked like he had got taller. He always had great energy. He was trying to be a regular guy, but when he stepped out from his home, he was instantly recognized. Being on this trip, there was no one to recognize him. It was time away from all of that. He was with a bunch of guys. He’d say, ‘You guys are like I was when I was your age. You remind me of the guys I grew up with.’”[3]

Halsted later reflected back on the experience.

“I got to be an observer and watch an amazingly strong guy discover his amazing strength,” he said. “It was a time when he was looking for some healing, and he was able to find that from the ocean.”[4]

When John Lennon’s assistant, Fred Seaman, met him in Bermuda. He too noticed the change.

"He had lost the pallor he had acquired over five years at the Dakota," Seaman said. “Now he was tanned and exuded health and vitality.”[5]

Lennon shared stories of his adventure. “You can't imagine what it's like when you look around and all you see is water and sky," he said. “You feel both isolated and in communication with the almighty whatever. It's an overwhelming sensation of freedom.”[5]

The result of the whole experience reinvigorated Lennon’s creative spirit. While in Bermuda, as we’ll detail, Lennon wrote a number of new songs, including ‘Grow Old With Me.’ He also finished fragments of songs that he had previously started.

“I arrived in Bermuda,” Lennon said. “Once I got there, I was so centered after the experience at sea that I was tuned in, or whatever, to the cosmos. And all these songs came!”[6]

Would all this have occurred if Lennon had not sailed to Bermuda and had to steer through the storm? Surely not.

When asked if he would like to do more sailing, Lennon was unequivocal.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I would like to do the whole Atlantic, from America to England.”[6]

[1] Sheff, David. All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Kindle Edition. p.94. St. Martin's Griffin. 2010.

[2] Neil, Scott. Lennon Bermuda. p.28. Freisenbruch Brannon Media. Kindle Edition.

[3] Neil, Scott. Lennon Bermuda. pp.35-36. Freisenbruch Brannon Media. Kindle Edition.

[4] Remembering Lennon in Bermuda. The Royal Gazette. June 11, 2020.

[5] Womack, Kenneth. John Lennon 1980 – The Last Days in the Life. p.121. Omnibus Press. 2020.

[6] Sheff, David. All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Kindle Edition. p.95. St. Martin's Griffin. 2010.