80-year-old completes solo sailing circumnavigation as 70-year-old rows Atlantic

Octogenarian Jon Sanders has become the oldest person to sail single-handedly around the world.

On 31 January Sanders sailed his old 39-foot yacht, the Perie Banou II, into Western Australia’s Fremantle Harbour. This was his 11th solo navigation around the globe. He was sponsored by the Minderoo Foundation (https://www.minderoo.org).

Sanders battled three huge storm systems on the latest leg of his journey.

The veteran sailor stared down some of the worst conditions he had seen in decades, with winds exceeding 120km/hour battering his boat and causing damage to key navigation equipment.

The ferocity of the storms forced Sanders to sail with a bare mast, dragging a tyre as a sea-anchor, in an attempt to keep the boat facing into the wind and waves. Despite his heroic efforts, Perie Banou II took on so much water that the engine was flooded and couldn’t generate backup power or be used in an emergency.

As a result, Sanders completed his journey using only a paper chart and sextant for navigation.

In his lifetime of sailing Sanders has gathered 12 world records, honours including an OBE from the Queen and an Order of Australia, and a road bearing his name in his hometown of Perth.

In 1982, Sanders became the first person ever to double-circumnavigate the globe alone. He become the first person to sail solo and continuously three times around the world in 1988, travelling more than 71,000 nautical miles.

He has used the same Sparkman and Stephens yacht since 1971.

“Modern boats are built different. They are wider, higher and the bottom is flatter,” says Sanders.

“The modern boats bang every single wave. I wouldn’t be able to do some of the things I’ve done in the past with a modern boat.

“The older boat is like putting a cork in a Coca-Cola bottle, because it has a lead weight on the bottom it comes up quickly if something bad happens.”

For an hour each day during his latest voyage, Sanders filtered 115L of seawater through a specially designed pump using a hole drilled in the hull of his boat.

It allowed him to collect hundreds of water samples, in all weathers, from across the Indian, Atlantic, Pacific and Southern Oceans.

The samples will help researchers compile a database of microplastic concentrations in shallow ocean waters, and track future changes.

Curtin University environmental toxicologist Dr Alan Scarlett has found microplastics, smaller than a grain of sand, in virtually every one of Sanders’ samples he has studied so far.

“This voyage had lots of challenges in the sea conditions [and] the sampling of plastics, but none were bigger than the challenges of managing the quarantine requirements of the covid lockdowns.

“Negotiating immigration authorities in each successive port was torturous, convoluted, and a different challenge each time.”

A succession of covid lockdowns meant his eight-month itinerary turned into a 15-month voyage. But sailing during a global pandemic did offer Sanders one silver lining: no cruise ships.

Six week journey for rower

Meanwhile, a 70-year-old man has raised more than £700,000 for dementia research after rowing 3,000 miles unassisted across the Atlantic.

Frank Rothwell, from Oldham, set off from the Canary Islands on 12 December in a boat nicknamed Never Too Old and reached Antigua on Saturday.

At 70, Rothwell is the oldest person to complete the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. The oldest female is Sara Brewer who completed the race last year aged 64.

“It took six long weeks to row the Atlantic, but the challenge itself has taken over 18 months of training and preparation, so I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved and the unbelievable journey I’ve been on,” says Rothwell.

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