As a crescent moon hung in the night sky, dawn broke on the eastern horizon, giving way to a beautiful sunrise and our last day at sea; we were a mere 35NM from our destination.

Three weeks ago today, we set off on this, our final passage of our circumnavigation, crossing the Atlantic Ocean, with Justine and Paul for company and today, at around 1300 local time, we crossed our wake; we had become circumnavigators, after visiting the following destinations and sailing tens of thousands of nautical miles:

Columbia

San Blas Islands

Panama

Las Perlas Islands

Galapagos Islands of Isla de San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz and Isla Isabella

Marquesas Islands of Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, Tahuata, Ua-Pou and Nuku Hiva

Tuamotos Atoll of Rangiroa

Society Islands of Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Taha’a, Raiatea and Bora Bora

Cook Island of Surwarrow

American Samoa

Samoa

Tongan Island of Niuatoputapu and the Vava’u Group

Fijian Islands of Vanua Levu, Viti Levu, which included Roy’s “Happy Place” of Denarau, the Viti Levu Island Group, the Mamanuca Islands, which included Elaine’s “Happy Place”, Malolo Lailai, and the Yasawa Islands

North Island of New Zealand

Vanuatu Islands of Efate, Erromango, Tanna, Aneityum and Mystery

New Caledonian Islands of Grande-Terre, Îlot Maítre, Ste-Marie, Ile Ouen, Ile de Pins and the Loyalty Islands of Lifou and Ouvéa

Australian coasts of New South Wales and Queensland, including Thursday Island

Indonesia, including the Kai Islands, the Banda Islands, Wakatobi, the Islands of the Komodo National Park, including Rinca and Padar, Sumbawa, Lombok, including Gili Air and Gili Gede, Penida Island, Nusa Lembongan, Bali, Bawean Island, Belitung, Banka, Singkep, Lingga, Benan, Rempang and Batam, to mention a few.

Singapore

Malaysia Peninsula, including the Islands of Kukup, Pisang, Palau Besar, Palau Indah, Pangkor, Penang and the Langkawi archipelago

Thailand Islands of Phuket, Ko Tarutao, Ko Phetra, Ko Lanta, Ko Phi Phi, Ko Racha Noi, Ko Racha Yai, Ko Lon, Koh Tapao Yai, Koh Tapao Noi, Koh Rang Yai, Koh Rang Noi, Koh Naka Yai, Ko Naka Noi, Ko Yao Yai, Ko Yao Noi, the islands of the Phang Na National Park, including Phanak, Hong, Koh Tapu (aka James Bond Island), as well as the islands off Krabi and Raleigh Beach

Maldivian Island of Uligan

Djibouti

Suakin, Sudan

Egypt

Turquoise Coast of Türkiye

Greek islands of Castellorizo, Symi, Tilos, Astipalaia, Analfi, Santorini, Folegrandros, Milos and Elafonisos, then onto mainland Greece, stopping at Methoni, Katakola and Preveza, the latter after continuing through the Ionian Islands of Kafelonia, Maganisi, Lefkada, Paxos and Corfu

Italian south and west coasts, Sicily, the western islands off Napoli, Ischia and Ponza Islands and onto Sardinia

Balearic Islands of Minorca, Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera

Spanish (mainland)

Gibraltar

Canary Islands of Lanzarote and Gran Canaria

and, finally, returning to the Eastern Caribbean island of St Lucia, where we started our circumnavigation with the World ARC on 9th January 2016; only taken us eight years!

We’d indeed had a magnificent adventure, met wonderful people, seen old friends along the way, enjoyed customs and cultures we never imagined, ate food we didn’t recognise, witnessed numerous natural wonders, including the “milky sea”, stood on the edge of an erupting volcano, enjoyed the splendours of numerous underwater paradises, including the “Aquarium” in Rangiroa, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Makassar Reef in Indonesia and the Coral Gardens of New Caledonia. We’ve been surrounded in sparkles on a magnificent dark starry night as Paw Paw disturbed the bioluminescence, we’ve hiked to beautiful waterfalls through gardens of wild flowers, enjoyed majestic mountains and mountain streams set in lush forests, savoured exotic fruits, including guavas picked straight from the trees in Ua-Pou, drank coconut water from fallen jelly coconuts, made our own plates from palm leaves in Samoa, got tattoos in Niku Hiva as a constant reminder of the first ocean we crossed, the Pacific, had a mud bath in Fiji, explored by bicycle and on local buses, visited fascinating museums, castles and countless historical and ancient sites, including Olympia and enjoyed the opera, La Traviata, in the stunning setting of the ancient Roman theatre in Aspendos, Türkiye, encountered the Komodo dragons in Indonesia, saw breaching humpback whales in Tonga, New Caledonia and Australia, had hundreds of dolohins come to play in Paw Paw’s bows, saw the red-footed booby, swam with seahorses, dolphins, turtles and penguins, walked with giant tortoises and stepped around sea lions in Galapagos, swam with sting rays in Moorea and manta rays in Boro Boro, watched the dance of the golden rays in Ua-Pou, listened to a singing goat in Tonga, got up close and personal with the wildlife of Australia, experienced stunning sunrises and sunsets, moonrises and moonsets, unimaginable shades of clear, turquoise waters lapping beaches of every colour imaginable, “surfed” down monstrous sand dunes in New Zealand, paddled through the secret gardens of Thailand, known as “hongs”, spent four days anchored alone off the remote island of Surwarrow, visited the terraced rice paddies and magnificent Hindu temples of Bali, as well as the breathtaking temples of Malaysia and Thailand, stood in awe of the incredible craftmanship seen in the numerous churches we visited along the way, enjoyed some of the world’s finest resorts, as well as the best fish and fresh produce markets, returned to what felt like biblical times in Suakin, Sudan, explored Sofia, Bulgaria, cruised the Amalfi coastline and stopped for breakfast in Amalfi, ate a Napolitano pizza in Napoli, visited the mountain top town of Taormina, as well as the old city of Syracuse and the old town of Antalya.

We were hosted by villagers, met chiefs, warriors, princesses and natural healers, as well as graceful dancers in traditional costumes, who conveyed ancient stories through their hand and body movements, we witnessed traditional craftsman in action, like tattoo artists and woodcarvers, as well as villagers making traditional materials and prints from the bark of trees, we visited wineries and distilleries, we sailed under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, anchored next to the Sydney Opera House and joined the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Sydney Harbour; the list is simply endless, but it would be remiss not to mention the inexpensive, topnotch medical care which Elaine received, all of which helped us continue our adventure after her diagnosis in Australia. A great big thank you to all the wonderful doctors and specialists along the way, who helped us realise our dream against the odds.

A rainbow and land ahoy was spotted at around 0830 by Paul. After crossing our wake, we crossed the ARC 2023 finish line a few minutes later and by 1400 we were berthed in Rodney Bay marina and had received our warm welcome from the ARC yellow shirts, which included rum punch cocktails and a beautiful fruit basket.

This was the start of many celebrations to come, but first we enjoyed our champagne lunch onboard and received the beautiful bouquet of flowers from Keenan, Brooke and the grandchildren, before finalising all the officialdom activities of visiting the Health Authorities, Customs, Immigration and checking in with the marina office, then enjoyed a few more celebratory drinks, which included Elaine’s first mango daiquiri in 8 years! It was well worth the wait! This was swiftly followed by dinner and bed. It’s fair to say we were exhausted, but ecstatic, with a huge dollop of surrealism thrown in. We had actually made it! We were circumnavigators!