The World’s First Round-the-World Expedition via the Great Capes and Antarctica with Children Is Complete!

The world’s first round-the-world expedition via the great capes and Antarctica with children is complete! Paradise off the port side. What is that thrill of approaching land? Some atoll you have spent a couple of months sailing towards does not stir up such a whirlwind of emotion as a mountainous tropical island rising out of the ocean. “Paradise off the port side, sir!” — just like in the book. And goosebumps run over your skin. And you remember the coolness of the jungle, the murmur of mountain rivers, and the mist-shrouded feet of cliffs soaring into the sky. The island of Moorea, one of the most beautiful islands in the world, looks at you through the eyes of Polynesian tiki gods. If not the most beautiful. Paradise off the port side, sir. This morning, the 85th since leaving Tasmania, it happened like this: “Land, apparently,” the captain said quietly as I tried in vain to fall asleep after the night watch. Sitting up on the settee in the wheelhouse, I stared at the ocean and saw nothing. Clouds covered the horizon; not a single mountain or hill rose from the ocean. Only later did I realise that those high, fancifully curved clouds were the island. I ran out on deck with the camera, and in the rays of dawn the sails immediately stopped looking lonely, even though the island did not make it into the frame. It is an amazing feeling: you may not see any land at all, but knowing that it is there changes the way you perceive yourself and the yacht in the ocean. After contemplating a flat ocean for three months straight, albeit broken up by a couple of atolls, we had forgotten how beautiful Moorea is—the backdrop to the film Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando. Incidentally, it was Moorea that played the part of paradise in that film. The island of our dreams, which we are flying past. Flying, but not in the right direction. 85 days at sea The previous evening: Our reserves of optimism are running out ). All through the past week, the girls and I have been telling ourselves that there are about three days left. A week has passed, and there are still 2–3 days left. That comforting phrase no longer works; it feels as though you have exhausted your quota for lying to yourself. After a week of calms, they finally switched the wind on—but it is ahead of us, at 20–25 knots. We are being swept south through the Society Islands. How tired we are of fighting first the storms of the Tasman Sea and then the headwinds. Out of 85 days, there have been ten at most with a decent following wind; the rest has been either right in our faces or stormy, plus about a week of calms. To reach Tahiti, we need to make a long tack from southwest to northeast, and just as we turn that way, the wind will start blowing straight on the nose. It is on the nose now, too. It seems even the wind is in league with the pandemic and is trying to spoil our celebration. If not for this blanket ban on going ashore, the crew would not have become so starved of land by the middle of the ocean. Now, though, the desire to set foot on solid ground has become an obsession. But that is not on the cards yet. The circle is complete! Today, 85 days after leaving inhabited land in Australia, on 26 November 2021 at 00:15 Tahiti time, Lady Mary crossed the track she had left 3 years and 13 days earlier on her way between the islands of Tahiti and Huahine . The round-the-world sailing expedition via the great capes and Antarctica has been accomplished! Completed: — All meridians — all oceans except the Arctic Ocean — the equator crossed twice — all 5 southern capes of the planet — 3 capes known as the great capes because of the difficulty of navigation and weather conditions (Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin) — Antarctica , for the first time by a Russian crew with children — the Strait of Magellan and the Drake Passage in opposite directions — the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties and a little of the Screaming Sixties, the subtropics, tropics and equatorial belt. — 4 long, difficult passages of 53, 55, 62 and 85 days, and several more modest ones. — countless storms, the longest of which lasted almost a month: 1. in the Tasman Sea at the beginning of this passage 2. from the Strait of Magellan to Tristan da Cunha (watch the film Storm about it on our YouTube channel) The route of the Travely-Family round-the-world sailing expedition Amazingly, when only a few miles remained to the finish, you still could not tell yourself that you had sailed around the world. What changed? Nothing, seemingly. But two hours passed and there you were: you had circumnavigated the globe. By the most difficult route. What now? Very mixed feelings. We need to digest it. And land is like your elbow: so close, yet impossible to bite. We need to show the girls the land before it disappears into the mist. This morning we will drink children’s champagne. We have a reason ). What next? The last few days brought us three downpours, and in each one we managed to collect a canister of water. So the freshwater situation has become more manageable. We are looking for somewhere to put in before the water runs out. Ahead of us are a couple of quests: where and how to hole up for repairs so that we can then safely reach Vladivostok. In winter. Across the largest ocean on the planet, which, more than anything else, has been locked up tight by the pandemic. The adventures continue! Follow the news on our website and in our VK and Facebook groups. And, of course, subscribe to our Travely-Family YouTube channel; new videos from this Pacific pandemic passage, as long as life itself, will be coming soon. May all your dreams come true, friends! Hugs and congratulations to everyone who sailed around the world with us! You have a reason to drink champagne too, don’t you? 🙂 Our heartfelt thanks to the wonderful people who have kept the team’s spirits up throughout this difficult journey via YooMoney and PayPal . Thank you to the holders of cards ending in 6617 and 4692; you are now part of our shore team too. And for now... paradise off the port side. And it is better than the endless ocean Cook’s Bay on the island of Moorea. Photo from 2018