Round the world in 365 odd days

A Maltese man living in Australia and his friend yesterday completed a round-the-world trip, logging some 37,000 miles at sea on the Berrimilla, a 33-foot yacht.

Alex Whitworth, whose mother Ethel lives in Birguma, and Peter Crozier left Sydney harbour last December, sailed the Sydney-Hobart race and then embarked on the perilous journey that took first them to New Zealand and into the Pacific Ocean.

From there they headed south towards the Horn, crossed over to the Falkland Islands, up into the Atlantic Ocean, past Brazil, across the equator, off the Azores and Portugal, finally making it to Falmouth, in England, where they took part in Fastnet, a 608-mile race, considered one of the world's classics.

While in England, Mr Whitworth took the opportunity to come and see his mother in Malta. Back in England, the two set sail again and hoped to make it in time for this year's Sydney-Hobart race again.

The trip from Sydney to England was a 21,000-mile journey. The voyage back home was slightly shorter, passing by Gibraltar, down to Cape Town and then heading straight for Australia.

The two seasoned sailors kept in touch with the world by posting notes on a website, which often contained just telegraphic thoughts written on a laptop as their boat was being tossed about by high seas.

In spite of being alone in a boat for so long, their sense of humour has not ebbed. In their last entry when they were some 100 miles away from Sydney, Mr Whitworth wrote: "We have a satellite phone radio interview for breakfast radio in an hour or so and I'm about to shave so that I look really good for the listeners".

Just before docking in Sydney, into waiting arms of loved ones and friends and under the gaze of the media, in a few paragraphs Mr Crozier wrote his very touching experience:

"So, how does it feel? Well, there is a certain sense of pride in the completion of what we set out to do. Along with this sense of achievement there is the regret that all this is about to end.

"The thing that keeps you on the edge in a voyage like this is that every day is different, nothing is routine, every day I had an awareness that I was really alive. In the oceans that we sailed nothing remained the same for very long, seas which had previously battered the boat would subside, we would relax and be comforted by a softer, more gentle ocean... until the next storm.

"The one thing I will miss is the amount of time you have to just sit and think. In my mind I have solved all the problems associated with finishing the renovations to our house. The strangest thing was the finding of a protective system I did not know existed in my brain.

"During the long lonely night watches of the two bad storms off South America I would close the eyes and think. One would imagine that under the circumstances various disaster scenarios would flash up.

"Not so. I started to recall wonderful and pleasant memories from the past. What I recalled were vivid memories, some going back 40 to 50 years, all in technicolour and cinemascope. I remembered names and recalled faces I thought I had forgotten.

"I had vivid images of places, I even remembered things which had been said from my distant past. The most pleasant and calming recollections were of early times spent with Jeanne and our four young children. All these things helped me to stay calm during the tough times. I assume these memories are all still filed in some remote part of the brain ready to be accessed when the need next arises.

"So we come to the end of a great adventure. How do I feel? Well, I feel strong both physically and mentally, I feel young and alive, perhaps ready for some other adventure but not till I've crossed most things off the job list I have made for myself. I have lost an amount of weight not sure how much but there are hollows and bones to the body that I don't think have appeared since I lost the schoolboy figure. To all those people who wrote encouraging us in our task saying that we were doing something which they wished they could do, well, you can do it. There is nothing exceptional about either of us.

"We came up with a voyage which we both knew would test us but we did it one day at a time. You may not want to take on Cape Horn but set your own bar and raise it a little each time."

Mr Crozier thanked Mr Whitworth for promoting the voyage: "It took a lot of courage to risk yourself and your boat in this sort of venture. Not everyone thought this little trip was a good idea, I felt that we had a great boat for the job and I knew if we both looked after each other we would make it. It has all come to an end rather suddenly and all I can say is... 'what an experience'".

Mr Whitworth's mother Ethel was overjoyed they had made it home safe and sound. "My son and his friend live for the sea. I never doubted their capabilities, but mothers will always be mothers, at any age. And we do tend to worry. I am really happy for them all went well," she said.