{"id":44828,"date":"2018-06-21T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T04:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=44828"},"modified":"2023-05-06T17:52:40","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T21:52:40","slug":"10-times-around-the-world-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/people\/10-times-around-world-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Times Around the World Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Jon <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n It was hard to believe that the spritely 78-year-old Jon Sanders, on a break in Sydney in the midst of his 10th spin around the planet, underwent open heart surgery just two years ago.<\/span>\n Kevin Green<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Walking down the dock at Sydney’s Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, I nervously approached the pale-blue yacht, noting its pronounced tumblehome that harked back to another era. At first glance, Perie Banou II was a fairly ordinary-looking IOR-style \u00addesign, but the logos emblazoned along its topsides and the heft of its deck gear confirmed that it was no ordinary Sparkman & Stephens 39. Its skipper, Jon Sanders, had just called into Sydney on one of the last stops of his remarkable 10th circumnavigation<\/a> before crossing the Australian Bight to his home waters of Perth. As I stepped aboard, he laughed and said, “This will be my 47th crossing of the bight.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Singlehanders have a reputation for awkwardness or downright grumpiness as I remember with the late Tristan Jones and John Ridgeway, but the tall and spritely Sanders immediately disarmed me with his easy charm and friendly manner. His piercing blue eyes, lightly tanned face and thick thatch of hair made it hard to believe he\u2019s 78 years old and a survivor of open heart surgery only two years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never get out of puff on the boat, but when I walked up that hill behind the yacht club I did get a little tired,\u201d he said. The only difference seen in earlier pictures that he sent me \u2014 which he took on a previous voyage by self-timer while becalmed off Cape Horn \u2014 is his dark hair. Sanders has rounded the Horn five times while completing both east and west circumnavigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n

Some singlehanded sailors have a \u00adreputation for grumpiness, but not the tall, charming, friendly Jon Sanders.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n

On this journey, he avoided the Horn, setting off from Perth in October 2016 and later transiting the Panama Canal. His modesty belies a determined appetite for ocean voyaging, which includes several outstanding records, the greatest being his solo, nonstop triple circumnavigation from 1986 to 1987. This remains the longest distance \u2014 71,023 nautical miles \u2014 \u00adever sailed continuously by any sailor unassisted and alone; it took 678 days at sea and earned Sanders an Order of the British Empire (OBE) and the coveted Blue Water Medal from the Cruising Club of America. While working in Perth a few years ago, I visited that record-breaking boat, a 46-foot Curran sloop named Parry Endeavour<\/i>, in the Western Australian Maritime Museum. Along with the 1983 America’s Cup winner, \u00adAustralia II, it’s one of the museum’s prized exhibits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Perie <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Jon Sanders arrived in \u00adSydney on his current circumnavigation aboard his S&S 39, Perie Banou II<\/em>.<\/span>\n Kevin Green<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

“This trip is my swan song,” he said while sitting below aboard Perie Banou II<\/i>. A confirmed bachelor, he’s close to his brother, Colin, whom he stays with when ashore. Like some of the other solo sailors I’ve met, such as \u00adsix-time \u00adcircumnavigator Webb Chiles, I got the impression that shore time for Sanders serves as a rather mundane gap between sea time. Unlike Chiles, who has been married six times, the sea is perhaps a steadier mistress for Sanders, one that takes him to favorite ports such as the British Virgin Islands and, on this voyage, New Caledonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Sanders\u2019 S&S 39 was built in Sydney in 1971. \u201cIt\u2019s the second-stiffest boat in the whole of Western Australia, according to the stats,\u201d he said. \u201cThe lead keel weighs nearly half of the boat.\u201d It\u2019s taken a few tumbles over the years. \u201cShe went right over once, but I held on, sitting on the cabin sole, and she righted herself fairly easily,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Parry <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n He completed his record-setting triple circumnavigation on the 46-foot Parry Endeavour<\/em>.<\/span>\n Courtesy of Jon Sanders<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Walking around the deck, I noticed that most fittings, like the huge hinges on the main skylight, were oversize. “It can open both ways,” he said. Sanders still fondly recalls his first seagoing yacht, a Sparkman & Stephens 34 called Perie Banou<\/i>, the name of a fairy in the book The Arabian Nights<\/i>, which his mother \u2014 the well-known Western Australian writer Dorothy Lucy McClemans \u2014 was fond of (under the pseudonym Lucy Walker, she wrote 42 books). She, along with his father, an academic, encouraged \u00adSanders’ sailing, and by the age of 14, with his brother and \u00adsister, Lucy-Anne, he owned his first sailboat. His late mother’s estate has helped him fulfill his sailing dreams. “She left me a small legacy, which works out like a pension and has given me a bit of money to go on with,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no grog on board when I\u2019m \u00adsailing,\u201d Sanders said with a laugh. \u201cAt my age I might not wake up for my watch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n

Perie Banou II<\/i> has a fairly conventional Bermudan rig with a roller-furling headsail and slab reefing on the mainsail, but the deck-stepped spar also has a tabernacle for raising and lowering. Sanders runs downwind under the main alone, on a preventer, with the headsail furled. When I asked about the twin spinnaker poles lashed to the gunwales, he said, “On other trips I’ve run with twin headsails, but I didn’t use them this time.” At 78, safety and comfort are high priorities: “I’m in no hurry, so I always sail with one reef in the main now, which allows me to sleep for 20 minutes at a time. I don’t need alarms to wake me; my body does it itself.” There are three reefing points in the main. “And the third one is like a trysail \u2014 it’s been up in 50 knots and was fine.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Sanders doesn\u2019t engage dedicated meteorologists and weather routers, unlike younger Aussie circumnavigators Jessica Watson and Jesse Martin. \u201cI watch the barometer!\u201d But his approach is far from old school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have the iPad connected to the Iridium satellite for emails and comms,\u201d he said. One of his major sponsors, Navico, installed most of the navigation gear for this trip, including a B&G chart plotter, VHF\/AIS-radio and a Simrad tillerpilot. \u201cThe tillerpilot is ideal when I\u2019m motorsailing, and the Aries windvane handles the rest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

In the cluttered confines of his saloon, there\u2019s memorabilia from all over the world. One of the plates above the chart table is a certificate from his last transit of the Panama \u00adCanal (his seventh), and another plate commemorates his participation in the Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro race (he\u2019s done two). Sanders usually sleeps on the port saloon bunk, equipped with both a lee cloth and a cup holder for his usual can of Pepsi. His \u00ad\u00adgalley is a two-burner gimbaled stove with a big gap beneath it. \u201cI had an oven there that I used to bake bread in, but took it off for this trip because I\u2019m not eating so much.\u201d Instead, his meals mostly consist of dehydrated fare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Nav <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The Aussie has spent countless hours at his cluttered nav station.<\/span>\n Kevin Green<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

After the tour of the boat, we retired to the bar at the CYCA. \u201cThere\u2019s no grog on board when I\u2019m sailing because at my age I might not wake up for my watch!\u201d he said, laughing. Back home, he\u2019s usually seen puttering around the pontoons of the Royal Perth Yacht Club, another major sponsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cJon is really easy to work with, and he\u2019s just a great man,\u201d said the club\u2019s Kelly Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

As host club for the annual Rolex Sydney Hobart yacht race, the CYCA was a busy place, but a few of the sailors stopped by to say hello, though the majority had no idea about the identity of this tall, innocuous mariner. I sort of felt sorry for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The conversation shifted to motorcycles, and when he noticed my Yamaha dirt bike parked behind the club he confessed that a road in Perth was named after him. So he\u2019s not exactly anonymous back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

After a few pints of beer, Sanders glanced at the acres of shiny fiberglass floating along the pontoons and said, \u201cI\u2019d like that big Beneteau 60 over there. With the thrusters and all the luxury accommodations, it would be perfect for my retirement!\u201d When I asked him if he would ever really retire from ocean sailing, he said, \u201cOh, maybe. Then again, I might just sneak off again one day without letting them know I\u2019m gone. Not until I call them from Malaysia or someplace!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Kevin Green is a writer, sailor and editor based in Sydney, Australia. For more on Jon Sanders, including his history of record-setting voyages, <\/i>visit his website<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will Veteran singlehander Jon Sanders make his final landfall?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Kevin Green","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20180621","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"165","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Australian sailor Jon Sanders triple circumnavigation remains the longest distance ever sailed alone and without stopping.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"10 Times Around the World Alone %%sep%% %%sitename%%","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"J5TRPQPO4HWRSLVJE6W4DYC7NU","arc_website_url":"story\/people\/10-times-around-world-alone\/","custom_permalink":"story\/people\/10-times-around-world-alone\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[355,617,197,675],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}