Well I’ll be…

by John Curnow on 8 Oct 2016 Many may ponder doing one. Some might even undertake it. A few have done a double. Just one was the first to get the triple to his name. He’s also part of the five up club, having got to that milestone first, and is soon set to become the only member of the ten laps brigade. Be keeping the bar warm for a while as he waits for others, I’d say…

At any rate, the highly accomplished 76-year-old West Australian, Jon Sanders, is currently preparing his venerable S&S 39, Perie Banou II, for what he is calling his last lap. Sanders used Perie Banou (S&S 34) for his then record setting double, non-stop circumnavigation before the triple, as well as circumnavigating Antartica. Anyway, Perie Banou II boat has new paint on her sky blue topsides and antifoul on her bum, so she and Sanders are pretty much set for the start of his journey, which begins on October 15, 2016.

He’ll partake in the The Dirk Hartog Island Race to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the landing of Dutch voyagers on Australian shores. Then in January 2017 he will undertake his fourth, 3600nm Cape to Rio race as he progresses towards the big milestone, and a 12-month overall timeframe. When he returns, Sanders will be 77 years of age and closer to 78. A marvellous effort by anyone of any age, let alone someone who underwent open heart surgery last year.

This one is not to be an entirely solo circumnavigation, for he’s already done five of those (non-stop), so for the two events above he will have additional souls join him. Not that he does not know a thing or two about extended time at sea. During his solo, non-stop triple circumnavigation, completed way back in 1988, he was afloat for a total of 658 days straight and amassed 71,000nm in the process. Not all that surprisingly, this is a record that still stands for the longest distance sailed continuously, unassisted and solo!

So it is little wonder that the Order of Australia and the Order of the British Empire have been bestowed upon this iconic individual. Honour has also been given to 14m Phil Curran penned, foam sandwich vessel that performed that task, Parry Endeavour. She sits beside Australia II and the Fremantle Maritime Museum.

At the start of the amazing voyage, the vessel had an incredible three and a half tonnes of food, water and fuel on board. There was also a small blue bear that by default became the first stuffed bear in the world to complete three laps non-stop. One item did not come back with Sanders, and indeed is still AWOL today. After two weeks he finished a jar of biscuits, put a message in it, and then cast it adrift as instructed by the person who had given them to him.

Not surprisingly, Sanders has one hell of a sailing CV, yet it was these particular ones that caught my eye. Four roundings of the five southernmost capes, one circumnavigation using the East to West route, and one rounding of the Horn going East to West. Sanders has also amassed some 45 West to East and East to West trips around the Australian Seaboard. Just those trips alone will have accounted for a lot of time at sea, let alone everything else.

So I’ll be way more than impressed, definitely awestruck and presently, slightly lost for words. This is certainly a truly miraculous thing and one I look forward to following.

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