Playing the Long Game - Jon Sanders

Jon Sanders, one of the world’s greatest sailors, has circumnavigated the globe an incredible eleven times. In March 1988 he completed his longest voyage, in Parry Endeavour, the yacht in front of you, and became the first person to single-handedly circumnavigate the world three times without stopping. This journey took 658 days and covered 71,022 nautical miles. Parry Endeavour is displayed here at a critical moment of that epic voyage…

It’s 20 November 1987. Parry Endeavour, in the middle of a raging storm, is approaching Cape Horn for the last time. Jon, tucked away in the cabin, is alerted by an unusual noise. He struggles on deck. The yacht is surfing too fast and threatening to nosedive or even pitchpole. He puts out the sea brake* to try and slow down. As his eyes adjust to the early morning gloom, he sees a huge wave bearing down on him. Jon grabs the mast and hangs on, but it not foaming white water that breaks over him, it’s green water from the depths, with the sort of force that could tear him away from his yacht.

It’s time to change tactics…

Jon knew from past experiences that the best way to survive a storm is to hoist the fully reefed mainsail and turn into the wind. This dramatically slows the yacht down. Effectively you are parking the boat at sea.

As he noted in his logbook:

If I had hove-to under mini main instead of running under storm jib and sea brake at 0310 yesterday most of the knockdowns would not have happened…

*Follow the ropes from the back of the yacht up to the seabrake bolted to the ceiling. This marks the crest of the gigantic wave.

In 1987, during one of his three successive solo circumnavigations of the globe, Jon Sanders approached Fremantle and agreed to pause and receive a consignment of mail which was thrown on to his yacht by an Australia Post officer aboard a Customs vessel. No other form of direct contact was permitted under the rules of his voyage.