Blue water: Jon Sanders: eleventh circumnavigation completed at the age of 81!

Record - once again: Australian Jon Sanders completed his eleventh circumnavigation of the world in Fremantle on Australia's west coast yesterday, Sunday - at the age of 81.

455 days since setting sail on 3 November 2019 on the "Perie Banou II", an S&S 39 from 1971. Unlike his compatriot Bill Hatfield who even completed a non-stop lap around the globe in 2020, also at the age of 81, Sanders circumnavigated the globe in stages.

After starting in Fremantle near Perth, he sailed westwards across the Indian Ocean, then across the South Atlantic and through the Panama Canal into the Pacific. The long leg across the Pacific Ocean was followed by a stopover in Tahiti. From there, Sanders set off on the final leg back to Australia in autumn 2020, reaching Bundaberg in October. Now the final leg is also in his wake.

Three times non-stop

However, the Australian's logbooks already contained numerous remarkable voyages before this trip, including several firsts. The exceptional skipper had previously sailed around the world ten times, including three non-stop voyages in a row.

Sanders spent almost two years at sea in a row from 1986 to 1988 and travelled around 71,000 nautical miles without interruption - a distance that no one has ever surpassed. At that time, he already had experience of being alone at sea: he had already sailed round the world twice before.

Against the wind

Alongside Wilfried Erdmann and six others, Jon Sanders is also one of the few skippers to have completed a non-stop circumnavigation of the world against the wind in his wake: in 1987, he sailed around the world in 250 days during his triple circumnavigation with the "Perry Endeavour".

At the beginning of 2020, Jon Sanders received the Ocean Cruising Club's "Lifetime Award" for his exceptional achievements.

Fight against marine pollution

Sanders also undertook his most recent trip around the world to set an example against the catastrophic pollution of the oceans. Along the way, he took 214 water samples, which are now being analysed for microplastics.