Noted sailing circumnavigator Leo White died Monday at the Roy L. Schneider Hospital where he has been in a coma since a heart attack on June 12. The 76- year- old White had started around the world for the fourth time this spring, when he returned to St. Thomas from the vicinity of Trinidad.
He wishes were to be cremated and his ashes scattered at sea. The date for a St. Thomas memorial service will be announced. Leo White began his sailing dream in 1976, when he sold all his earthly possessions and went to sea. White moved to the Virgin Islands the first time in 1983 and began his first circumnavigation, taking 2-1/2 years and lasting some 27,000 miles on his 12.5-meter Gulfstream yacht "Lucky Leo III." His third circumnavigation took place between 1994 and 1998. After losing "Lucky Leo III" on a reef off Papua, New Guinea, he completed the sail with the 29-foot Cascade "Valkyrie."