Boy with Down syndrome is venturing to the seas to accomplish something few without disabilities would ever consider

When now-9-year-old Ren Osborne was born with Down syndrome in 2015, doctors and specialists told his parents of all the things the tiny boy with jet black hair might never be able to do.

“The doctors and specialists, everyone at the hospital, just immediately start telling you of all the things to expect… and it’s a list of things he may never be able to do. They’re like, ‘He may never walk,’ ‘He may never talk,’ ‘You may have to worry about this or that,’” said Ren’s dad, Paul Osborne, in a recent interview with the Rogue Valley Times.

“The one thing I wish I could have known, in that moment, was that one of the greatest things ever to happen to me and my family had just taken place.”

Bucking the list of cant’s, the family decided to focus on things omitted from the list of unlikely accomplishments, such as becoming a great adventurer or camper or even a world-record-setting sailor.

Letting the basics — walking and talking — work themselves out, the family set out to live life as they’d dreamed from the moment Ren came into the world.

To that end, the former Wimer residents recently sold their home and relocated to British Columbia, from which they’ll set sail later this year on an expedition around the world.

Now a rambunctious blonde with no concept for “can’t,” Ren, along with his mom, dad, brother and sister, will attempt to set at least three world records as they circumnavigate the globe, sailing 37,000 nautical miles in three to five years.
If successful, Ren would set three world records: being the first person with Down syndrome to circumnavigate the world by sailboat; sail to Antarctica; and sail from Antarctica to the Arctic.

The boy, whose name is Norse and means “raven,” is setting out to accomplish something few without disabilities would ever consider.

Sailing was always the plan

Originally from San Diego, Paul Osborne met his wife Val, who grew up in Sams Valley, in 2011. A lifelong recreational sailor since the age of 5 or 6, Osborne and his wife were in the process of buying a 48-foot sailboat a few years into their marriage when they found out they were expecting their firstborn son, Roake, now 11.

“When we found out she was pregnant, we decided to move back to Oregon so she could be close to her family,” said Osborne, noting of sailing, “We shelved all of that.”

Initially trading adventure for childrearing, the couple decided the two should not be mutually exclusive and committed to raising their brood by showing them as much of the world as they could.

“Ever since the kids were born, we’ve camped four to 10 days a month, year-round. We put 90,000 miles a year on our cars, just to go do stuff,” Osborne, 48, said.

Osborne said limitations that presented at Ren’s birth, and again during the pandemic, only fueled a desire for great adventure. Quarantined during the pandemic — Ren was deemed “high risk” — mom Val worked as a nurse and would come home, she said, “to pictures of boat after boat” each day after work.

While sailing in Klamath Falls and other areas around the region has been the norm — all three children can sail, and Roake sails a 22-foot boat independently — heading into a vast ocean took “some convincing,” Val Osborne, 43, admitted.

“When we met, I was like, ‘I would never do that.’ Now it’s, ‘OK, let’s do it!’”

‘Salome’ just made sense

Finally declaring “out loud” that the family would sail “the Seven Seas,” Paul Osborne said the planned expedition suddenly felt incredibly real. For the past two years, the family remodeled and sold their home, sold all their belongings, interviewed families who had sailed for long durations, and earned sailing certifications while charting their course.

Finding a boat became a story all of its own.

Having a list of needs, wants and “unicorn” features for the ideal boat, the family received a call from two family friends — independently but on the same day — about a year ago declaring, “I think I found your boat!”

Both suggested the same 60-foot-boat, moored in British Columbia and posted for sale for more than the family could afford. Sending a list of technical questions evolved, weeks later, to an invite by the boat’s then-owner for the family to visit the boat.

The boat was almost sold to someone else, but the former owner canceled the earlier sale and told the Osbornes they would, in fact, be buying his boat. 

During an initial visit, the man and his wife hosted the parents and Ren.

“Boats, oddly, will feel like they have a soul, and Salome has… a presence,” Osborne said of the vessel’s name.

“We walk onto Salome and we both stand there and we go, ‘Whoa.’ And Ren crawls aboard and smiles and just goes, ‘Home!’”

Paul Osbourne said the former owner was as enthusiastic about the family’s plans as Ren, and he told the couple, “The second we saw your website, we knew Salome was the boat you were taking around the world.’

Full speed ahead to November

Now living in British Columbia — in the second home of their boat-seller-turned-extended-family — Osborne said the goal is to set sail by year’s end. 

Not only will the family embark on an expedition seasoned sailors would not likely take on, partnerships have formed with the National Down Syndrome Society, corporate sponsors, and the conservation nonprofit group International Seakeepers, for which the family will help gather data through the Neuston Net Research Collective.

Osborne said, “So our data that we’re collecting, while we sail around the world, will actually be used for ocean cleanup. This has all become … very legitimate.”

An educational docuseries, “Adventure Without Boundaries,” will be created with help from award-winning filmmaker Matt Knighton for classroom curriculum, Paul Osborne said, to “show other kids with — and without — special needs that they can do amazing things.”

Knighton, a seasoned sailor who was on Team Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing for its winning 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, said he hopes to accompany the family during Salome’s Antarctica passage, Osborne said, to help out and “because what we’re doing is so crazy. It’s like a one–chance-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

In a message to the Times, Knighton said it’s not typical for people to take on circumnavigating the globe for reasons “bigger than themselves.”

“Not only are Paul and family doing this to raise global awareness, they’ve also invested an incredible amount of time and resources to ensure they’re qualified to take this on,” Knighton said.

“While there’s plenty they’ll learn along the way, I can speak from experience that when you’re this passionate about a goal, you’ll never forget the reason why they’re doing it.”

Speaking in an interview from British Columbia this week, Paul Osborne said he marveled at the journey his family embarked on since declaring that limitations would not be part of their son’s world.

“Take out the fact that we’re doing it with children. Take out the fact that we’re doing it with a child with special needs,” he said. “More people climb Mount Everest every year than circumnavigate by sailboat, and there are so few people that have sailed from Antarctica to the Arctic that there’s no record of how many people have done it.

“This started out as us, our family, sailing around the world. And, when we started telling people we were going to do this, the first thing people would say was, ‘Can you do that with Ren?’ Our only thought was, ‘Why couldn’t we do it with Ren?’”

For more information on the upcoming expedition, visit osborneadventure.com or follow the family’s Instagram page. A new podcast episode is posted every Thursday.

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or buffy.pollock@rv-times.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal.