N.J. Man, Ex-Cop, Will Sail 5,000 Miles To Fight Brain Cancer

WEST ORANGE, NJ — When New Jersey resident Michael Mault sets sail for a 5,000 nautical mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean, it will be in honor of the departed.

In September, Mault - a 53-year-old West Orange resident and former Maplewood police lieutenant - will leave his wife and three children to embark on a life-changing, 44-day voyage aboard a 105-year-old sailing ship.

The journey is the former Marine’s attempt to raise money and awareness to battle a form of brain cancer that has claimed the lives of several family members and friends, according to an online fundraiser.

Mault, the sixth of seven children born and raised on the East Coast, wrote that his love for the sea started with his father, a World War II Marine veteran who spent his summer vacations on Cape Cod teaching his children how to sail.

It was shortly after his father’s passing that Mault and his family began to be rocked by a series of cancer-related deaths.

“In 1999, two years after losing my father, my mother, Loretta Mault was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme,” he wrote. “The diagnosis was devastating to our family after having just lost our father. We did everything we could to educate ourselves about this horrible disease and care for our mother, watching, as it consumed her memory, speech and finally life with her dying on All Saints Day.”

The condition would rear its ugly head again just two years later when it struck his brother, Dennis, who survived two craniotomies but succumbed to the disease at age 53.

And then in 2013, tragedy struck again.

“This time [it was] a dear friend of our family, Angelo Vayas… a successful restauranteur and leader who gave selflessly to his community,” Mault wrote.

Following Vayas’ passing, Mault suddenly found himself at a juncture in his life that his brother and friend “never made it to.”

And that’s when he decided to honor them in the best way that he knew… by setting sail on the open ocean.

“I will be flying to the Canary Islands via Dublin on Sept.27 and boarding a 105-year-old barque in Santa Cruz De Tenerife. We will sail southwest for ten days down the west coast of Africa to Cabo Verde where we will re-provision overnight and then depart for a 34-day crossing of the Atlantic and Equator to Montevideo, Uruguay.”

Mault said that he plans to fly home from South America on Nov. 13.

“I am dedicating this voyage to my mother, brother and friend in an effort to raise awareness and funds to find a cure for this terrible disease,” Mault explained. “I will be traveling 5,000 nautical miles over 44 days at sea and hoping that each mile I sail brings us closer to a cure.”

According to Mault, 100 percent of donations raised as a result of his voyage will go to the American Brain Tumor Association.

Read more about his voyage at the online fundraising page here.

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