Landing on the moon and other adventures

When I refer to 'circumnavigating' London, it's with a dose of irony. The word 'circumnavigators' rightly belongs to brave adventurers of old: the the Portuguese crew of Magellan, who, in the 16th century, became the first people to travel around the world (Magellan himself died in battle en route); Joshua Slocum, a retired American tall ship captain who became, in the late 19th century, the first to sail around the world alone; Vito Dumas, the Argentinian who sailed alone around the world south of the three fearsome capes in the early 1940s, and Sir Francis Chichester who, in 166/7, tied the knot solo, at great speed in a custom-built yacht (the 54ft ketch Gipsy Moth IV) at the age of 65, with only one stop, in Australia. The last of this breed was Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who did the same thing - but without stopping at all. I attended a celebratory lunch with Robin two weeks ago, in St Katherine Docks, and had the above photo snapped: two circumnavigators. I only plan a fun jaunt around London's backwaters for a week; but RKJ lived alone in a raging sea for 312 days, battling sharks, leaks, storms and loneliness. Eight others tried to achieve what he did. Five dropped out, two committed suicide, and one diverted his route. He was the only one to finish. Soon after RJK returned from his round-the-world trip, which generated massive publicity, man landed on the moon, ending the romance of exploration forever. After all, what could compare, in the popular imagination, to leaving the planet we live on? RKJ is the last of a long line of explorers among whom you might include Hilary, Amundsen, Scott, Chichester, Slocum and others of the most evocative names in exploration. For those who didn't see RKJ in the recent TV series 'Top Dogs' in which he and Ranulph Fiennes and John Simpson do dangerous things together, it's worth downloading from I-Player. Especially the second in the series of three, in which RKJ takes the other two around Cape Horn, landing on the famous island itself, a rare privilege for a sailor.