Circumnavigation Training
If your goal is circumnavigation, you are certainly not alone. Many people decide very early in their sailing education that they eventually want to sail around the world. In many ways, it becomes the ultimate long-term goal for adventurous sailors and cruising families.
It has personally been a quiet goal of mine for many decades as well, so I completely understand where that desire comes from.
Part of sailing has always been about exploration, curiosity, adventure, and testing the limits of your own knowledge and seamanship. The history of sailing itself is deeply connected to the exploration of the world. Entire civilizations and generations of sailors crossed oceans under sail, and much of the world was explored, mapped, and connected by people fearlessly willing to leave sight of land and push into the unknown. These goals were accomplished through the cherished tradition of seamanship. These early sailors realized that solid seamanship skills were often the difference between successfully crossing oceans and making major discoveries, or simply being lost to the sea.
In many ways, modern circumnavigation still carries that same spirit of curiosity and adventure.
Circumnavigation training is much more than simply learning blue water sailing systems and offshore seamanship. It also carries a much higher purpose.
Circumnavigating aboard a blue water sailboat is an incredible experience that absolutely requires skill, preparation, and seamanship. But the higher purpose is really about new landfalls, the cultures you encounter, the people you meet, the places you explore, the experiences you share, and the perspective you gain along the way.
Obviously, in order to fully experience and appreciate something that is larger than yourself, like discovering the world under sail, you first need the seamanship skills required to safely live that lifestyle and accomplish this grand goal. Offshore sailing skills, vessel systems knowledge, navigation, weather interpretation, and passage-making experience are simply the tools that allow you to live a life centered around exploration, adventure, and discovery, much like the great eras of exploration under sail.
For many people, the desire to prepare for circumnavigation begins long before they actually own their perfect boat or finalize a departure plan. Often, it starts with the realization that there is an entirely different lifestyle available to them, one centered around discovery, adventure, seamanship, and the long history of exploration under sail.
Training for offshore world cruising is an all-encompassing process that involves every aspect of seamanship and the operation, maintenance, and management of a true blue water cruising vessel. It includes navigation, weather routing, anchoring, onboard systems, maintenance schedules, provisioning, passage planning, troubleshooting, and learning how to safely and comfortably live aboard for extended periods of time.
It also includes logistical challenges, customs procedures, entering and exiting countries, flying courtesy flags, utilizing cruising guides, communicating through social media networks and cruising communities with other sailors, and countless other aspects of long-distance offshore cruising.
That is one of the reasons we take skills for sailing around the world so seriously at One World Sailing Academy.
There are a small handful of people who skip much of the traditional seamanship progression, purchase a boat, and simply head offshore to sail around the world while learning as they go. While determination is admirable, it is also a very dangerous approach and creates many opportunities for failure, poor decision making, vessel damage, or serious offshore situations that could have been avoided through proper preparation and experience.
In my opinion, that mindset shows a disregard for the long tradition of seamanship and the generations of sailors who understood that offshore capability, preparation, and experience mattered greatly when crossing oceans under sail.
Some of these situations are highlighted and romanticized on YouTube channels and social media, which can sometimes give newer sailors an unrealistic understanding of the preparation that serious offshore sailing actually requires. At the same time, these stories can still be valuable learning opportunities. Sometimes people also learn by watching what not to do.
That is one of the major reasons why circumnavigation training and serious preparation matter so much.
The ocean can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also be unforgiving toward poor preparation, lack of seamanship, weak systems knowledge, or bad decision making. That is why proper offshore training, real experience, and gradual skill building are so important for anyone serious about circumnavigation.
In my opinion, there is a far better approach to circumnavigation than simply buying a boat and immediately heading offshore with very limited experience.
A much smarter approach is to first spend time aboard a properly equipped offshore cruising vessel designed for ocean crossings, onboard living, redundancy, and safety.
That is one of the reasons we conduct our programs aboard a Category A ocean-rated Amel Super Maramu 2000, a true blue water cruising sailboat equipped with the types of systems and offshore capabilities that serious long-distance cruising actually requires.
For people serious about circumnavigation training, the first step should be building a strong foundation of seamanship and offshore experience.
One of the best ways to begin developing those skills for sailing around the world is through immersive liveaboard training. Our three-day, seven-day, and ten-day programs expose students to navigation, anchoring, onboard systems management, watch standing, weather interpretation, passage planning, sail handling, offshore routines, and real-world cruising situations.
From there, many students begin working with us on selecting the right cruising vessel for their long-term goals. We often represent people through the vessel purchasing process, assist with evaluating offshore boat designs, and help buyers avoid many of the mistakes commonly made when purchasing boats for long-distance cruising or circumnavigation.
We are also here to help students with the outfitting process once they purchase a vessel. That may include consulting about electrical systems, charging systems, watermakers, communications equipment, anchoring systems, safety equipment, solar, lithium batteries, storage solutions, or general offshore preparation.
If you become part of the One World Sailing Academy family, that type of consulting and guidance is something we are very happy to continue providing. In many cases, we can even help with system installations or vessel preparation directly if it is logistically practical and the vessel is located within a workable geographic area.
I still regularly communicate with former students and clients who are actively crossing oceans or cruising internationally. I have been doing that for decades, taking phone calls, emails, and messages from sailors all over the world who are troubleshooting systems, making routing decisions, preparing for passages, or simply asking for advice during their cruising journeys. That ongoing mentorship is an important part of serious circumnavigation training and long-term training for offshore world cruising.
Circumnavigation is an admirable goal, and I strongly support anyone who wants to pursue it.
At the same time, not everyone who sails around the world originally planned to do so. Many people simply begin cruising, exploring new destinations, and moving from country to country without placing too much focus on circumnavigation itself. Then years later, they realize they have quietly sailed around the world almost by accident.
In many ways, that is part of what makes blue water sailing for world travel so unique. The lifestyle itself often becomes more important than the destination or the achievement.
Circumnavigation does not necessarily need to be the primary goal. Sometimes the real goal is simply freedom, exploration, adventure, learning, and experiencing life differently.
At One World Sailing Academy, our goal is to help people build the confidence, seamanship, systems knowledge, and offshore experience required to safely pursue long-distance cruising and offshore adventure anywhere in the world.