Peter Crozier (L) and Alex Whitworth (R) onboard Berrimilla Peter Campbell

Intrepid sailors Alex Whitworth and Peter Crozier sailed out of Hobart today aboard their 10m sloop Berrimilla,  bound for their home port of Sydney and their home clubs,  the Royal Australian Navy Sailing Assocation (RANSA) and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

The 628 nautical miles northwards will mark the end of their second remarkable circumnavigation in Berrimilla – the first was a Sydney – Hobart – Fastnet – Sydney - Hobart combination of cruising and racing, via Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope.

The second was a voyage to England through the daunting North West Passage across the top of Canada to again contest the Fastnet Race,  and a delayed return voyage that took them down to the French-owned Antarctic Kergelen islands before reaching Hobart on 1 March.

After a week to spruce up the Brolga 33 and give her a much-need slipping and anti-fouling,  Berrimilla and her crew set sail from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania about 0900 hours today.  Whitworth and Crozier hope to sail Berrimilla into Sydney Harbour sometime on Sunday 14 March and berth in the CYCA pond.

Berrimilla is the first yacht to circumnavigate the world under sail via the North West Passage and the first to circumnavigate via both Cape Horn and  the North-West Passage – opposite ends of the Americas.

She is also the first Australian yacht to sail through the North-West Passage unassisted and in a single season, extraordinary cruises that must rank Whitworth and Crozier as Australia’s greatest living seamen.

Let’s hope Sydney yachtsmen turn out in force next Sunday to give them a huge welcome back home to Sydney.   A full story of their voyages will be published in the April/May edition of Offshore Yachting magazine.

By Peter Campbell