It’s a seemingly insignificant longitude except for me. Crossing it today, January 20, 2025, at 0928z marks the completion of my solo circumnavigation. I’ve now sailed  around the world, crossing all the meridians and the equator.

Some may wonder why that didn’t happen when I crossed the longitude of Tangiers, my farthest excursion east in 2022. Those of you who have followed my voyage recall I took a break at home after successfully sailing to Antarctica and back.  During the break I had a crew from Puerto Williams in Chile deliver Phywave through the difficult channels of Patagonia to Puerto Montt. When I returned to Chile, I resumed my solo voyage from the Reloncavi Yacht Club marina in Puerto Montt. The longitude of that marina is 78.9875 degrees West Longitude so it marks the beginning of my solo circumnavigation. I’ve now completed the circumnavigation by crossing that longitude again. Even though I didn’t return to my starting point, it’s still considered a circumnavigation.

In my last post I explained that the port side autopilot drive unit on my boat had failed, something I only realized when I disengaged the AP and tried to manually steer the boat upon arriving in Antigua. I was able to find a new replacement drive unit and get it to Antigua but I decided not to install it.  Removing the failed unit and installing the new one would have been a fair amount of work in a tight space in an aft compartment of my boat. In diagnosing the original problem, I also figured out I could make the starboard side AP completely independent of the port side AP so it can successfully steer the boat on its own. There was also a favorable weather window opening on January 15 for sailing north I wanted to hit which didn’t leave me time to install the new drive unit.  I’ll wait to replace the failed unit until I get to Florida. It means I’m now sailing with only one working AP but most boats only have one AP anyway. Having a backup AP was a luxury I wanted when I ordered Phywave back in 2020.  It turns out I needed it. 

I’m now en-route from Antigua to Rock Sound on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. I expect to arrive there on Wednesday.