An overview of our circumnavigation from Feb 1979 to April 1987
Departing Adelaide 10th Feb 1979. Family and friends on Les's boat alongside.
Great Barrier Island NZ. Birds are fishing the water at entrance to Man of War Passage.
4 days west of Fiji is Vanuatu. Here we are at Lollowai anchorage, Aoba Island in the north, where we attended a 100 pig killing grading ceremony for the Chief. One of the nicest anchorages in the world.
After sailing to New Caledonia & Brisbane, we stock up with food for the trip to England. There will be only 3 stops on the way, New Zealand, Cape Horn Islands, & the Falklands.
Roaring 40's rig - goosewinged staysail poled out on our additional shorter pole, preventers on the main to prevent gybing, lashings through reefing cringles to prevent chafe of the reefing lines.
Hard day at the office - a 10 foot crest atop a large wave dumps with ferocity 300 miles from the Horn. This was the last of our 3 bare poles gales and we now have some sail up (out of pic) as the wind slowly eases.
Turn left & we are in the lee of Cape Horn, heading for a good night's sleep.
Very tame wildlife in the Falkland Islands - a night heron.
We sailed through 7 weather patterns up the entire length of the Atlantic - Westerlies, variables, south east trade winds, the doldrums, north east trades, variables & the northern westerlies. Generally a very mild ocean compared to the Southern Ocean.
After 84 days sailing we arrived in the Isles of Scilly. A few days later on we met Gay's family at Salcombe & careened the boat on the beach.
Old water tower at Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
Dorsal fin of a humpback whale breaks the surface as it dives across our bow. A pair of humpbacks played with us for half an hour.
Young girls bop away on the beach at Antigua. We had a 26 day Atlantic crossing from the Canaries.
Anchored in the Virgin Islands - a great sailing destination.
Another hard day at the office - Mike & Cucumber catch up on some ZZZZ's.
We spent a year in the States, & about 9 months travelling around in our campervan, including Canada & Mexican border towns. Expeditus was laid up on the hard at Baltimore while we were away. We left in June 1985.
Milk being delivered on horseback. We saw it also on motorbikes, pushbikes, & trucks.
From Madiera to the Canaries again, and another firework display over our heads in the harbour.
Young boys in Gambia keep their weaver bird attached to it's nest. Juffre village on the Gambia River, where Kunta Kente came from. (Alex Hailey - Roots)
We beat across the south east trade winds towards Fernando de Noronha, off Brazil.
Fernando is famous for it's spinner dolphins which greet every yacht with spinning leaps out of the water.
Doing the washing at a waterfall, Paragasu river, Salvador.
Zulu girls dance whistle & sing up a storm at Cape Town. So energetic.
A bull elephant refused to move away from the track, and our car was very small!!!
The eye of a left over cyclone passes over us in the South Indian Ocean, preceded by intense thunder & lightening.
Back home at the Sugar Wharf Port Adelaide, after 81/2 years away. We entered Australia at Port Lincoln, met by family who sailed back to Adelaide with us.
We sailed with Rod & Julie to Tasmania & New Zealand. A mid Tasman gale became our yardstick for future winds & waves
After a 10 day passage on1 tack from New Zealand we get to Fiji. Some fish caught in the Blue Lagoon, Yassawa Islands.
Yassur Volcano on Tanna Island in the south shoots red hot rocks above our heads.
We enter the Southern Ocean - grey skies, albatross, & small staysail poled out.
Harnessed on & looking nervously over my shoulder, as the Aries windvane does the steering. The homemade compass light taped to the pedestal lasted for years.
Cape Horn to port, 51 days out from New Zealand, rounded on 24th January 1980.
Anchored at Copihuie Bay on Herschel Island. Deceit & Freycinet Islands make an almost landlocked harbour. The Chileno marines keep a lookout for Argentinians as the islands are in dispute. Our non existant Spanish improved rapidly after a week here.
Rockhopper penguins remove downy feathers under the close eye of a supervisor. We helped our by plucking some downy feathers from the hot penguins.
A flying fish destined for the frying pan.
We continued up the English Channel & around to Ipswich on the East Coast. 3 years were then spent in Saudi Arabia to stock up the cruising kitty. Camels walk along our favourite swimming beach.
On the road again - a dorado (mahi mahi, dolphin fish) caught on the way to the Canary Islands, about 1400 miles from Falmouth.
Icelandic yacht Kria took this shot of Expeditus reefed down after some overnight squalls, on way to Canary Islands.
Another dorado at Nevis Island in the Caribbean. Gay's father Ron, & Mary, joined us for 6 weeks of island hopping.
Sun bleached hair and our new crew "cucumber" from the British Virgin Islands.
Another dorado comes alongside crossing the Bermuda Triangle on the way from the Bahamas to Moorhead City, North Carolina.
Another Atlantic stop at the Azores, 19 days out from Baltimore USA.
Walking along a "levada" on the island of Madiera. The open channels weave along the mountainsides to carry water down to the villages.
At anchor on Gomera, Canary Islands. The islands are very dry.
Gambian lads bnng a feast of prawns to join us for lunch.
The Pico at Fernando de Noronha.
Careening Expeditus again at Bahia de Todos Santos, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.
Across the Atlantic for the 5th time from Brazil to Cape Town, South Africa.
A maribou stork at dawn in the Kruger National Park. We hired a car to see South Africa, in lieu of buying a new mainsail for the trip back to Australia.
Into the Southern Ocean again for the trip from South Africa to Australia. The plywood windvane is tied on in case it gets broken by following seas, that way you get 2 for the price of 1.
Feeding Brazilian corned beef to sooty shearwaters on a calm day in the Southern Ocean. The birds liked it far more than we did.