Last week, with Pete Mullins (Armstrong 1974) at the helm, the yacht Water Sprite completed her circumnavigation. Pete’s seven-year odyssey took in 35 countries in a journey of over 50 000 nautical miles. With him on this seafaring safari was his wife Elizabeth and Dave Phillips (Upper 2004).
Here Pete tells us of the amazing journey and experiences along the way…
We left Sydney in April 2019 aboard Water Sprite, our Cape Town built Leopard 48 sailing catamaran. We headed up the east coast of Australia, across the Top End to Darwin and then into the wonderfully remote and spectacular Kimberley region – complete with enormous tidal ranges and thousands of saltwater crocodiles!
From Broome, WA, we finally left Australia and crossed the Indian Ocean via Cocos (Keeling) Islands and the Chagos Archipelago. We then stopped in the Seychelles before sailing down the east coast of Africa and visiting Madagascar.
One memorable – although rather expensive – episode occurred at Juan de Nova, where we encountered a very enthusiastic French gendarme and Foreign Legion troops. They fined us €1,200 for not having a visa. Apparently, Emmanuel Macron was on the island at the time, so security was a little heightened!
We spent three months in South Africa catching up with lots of friends and family. One of the highlights was being in Mossel Bay to watch the Boks win the 2019 Rugby World Cup. We then headed north, stopping at Walvis Bay in Namibia before travelling inland to visit Etosha National Park and the Caprivi Strip.
From there we sailed up the Atlantic, calling at St Helena, Ascension Island and eventually the Azores. By the time we reached the Azores in April 2020, Covid was in full swing. We weren’t allowed ashore, which seemed slightly ridiculous after we’d spent six weeks at sea and couldn’t possibly have been contagious!
Our plan had been to sail into the Mediterranean, but one European country after another was closing its ports to visiting yachts. So instead we headed north to the UK, left Water Sprite in Plymouth and flew back to Sydney.
We rather optimistically thought Covid would last about three months. Two years later, we finally got back to Plymouth!
We then spent a delightful three months sailing the south coast of England, including the rather surreal experience of sailing 60 miles up the Thames to St Katharine Docks, right beside Tower Bridge.
From England we crossed the Channel, sailed down through the Bay of Biscay and into the Mediterranean, where we spent a season exploring. By 2023 it was time for another Rugby World Cup, so we spent a couple of months in France. The Wallabies were, unfortunately, atrocious. The Boks, on the other hand, were magnificent yet again!
Late in 2023 we crossed the Atlantic and spent a season sailing around the Caribbean. In 2024 we transited the Panama Canal and headed across to the Galápagos Islands – put them on your bucket list!
From the Galápagos we set off on a 3,500 mile passage to French Polynesia, which is every bit as stunning as you imagine. We spent eight months there and, even then, it didn’t feel like nearly enough time.
Eventually we began island-hopping our way back towards Australia, visiting the Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu. Every one of them was beautiful, and everywhere we went we were struck by how warm and friendly the local people were.
And then, after seven years away, we finally sailed back into Australia – having visited 34 countries and covered more than 50,000 nautical miles.
Remarkably, we didn’t have too many really scary moments. The worst was probably the passage from Chagos to the Seychelles, when we encountered big seas and very strong winds. One pitch-black night we surfed down a wave which I estimated at about seven metres and reached 21 knots – somewhat beyond the design speed of the hulls! Fortunately, Water Sprite survived the experience rather better than my nerves did.
There was, of course, plenty of the good stuff as well. We’ve swum with sharks, stingrays, manta rays and dugongs, and had countless encounters with amazing marine life. Some of the best memories have simply been jumping off the back of Water Sprite into impossibly clear, warm water.
And then there was the less glamorous side of seven years at sea — lots and lots of maintenance! Sails got ripped, things broke, engines needed attention and there was always something that needed fixing. On one occasion we had a very close lightning strike which knocked out one of the engines. It was a useful reminder that, while a boat can be a wonderful home, it is also a surprisingly complicated machine floating around in a rather unforgiving environment.
So the adventure wasn’t all palm-fringed beaches and cocktails – there was a fair amount of splicing, swearing, repairing and improvising along the way!
The OA connection:
We’ve also been fortunate to have quite a few OAs and DSG old girls either sail with us or visit along the way:
Andy Mullins (Espin 1978), Dave Phillips (Upper 2002), Marius Rezelman (not an OA, but went to PJ Olivier!), Jan Rezelman (née Allen, DSG 1979), Nicky Mullins (Mullins 1974), Mike Mullins (Upper 1975, RIP), Brian Mullins (Espin 1975), Michael Mullins (Espin 2005), Andy Pollock (Mullins 1969), Dan Pienaar (Upper 1976), Rick Melvill (Armstrong 1975), Doug Mullins (Graham 1969), Graham Louden-Carter (Graham 1969), Tom Bligh (Armstrong 1958), Joan Mullins (DSG Crewe 1969) and Elizabeth Trace (née Rivett-Carnac, DSG 1955).
An interesting aside is that Dave Phillips sailed with me for more than half the trip. Before joining us, he had delivered a yacht from South Africa to the Philippines. So, when he eventually arrived in Australia with Water Sprite, he had also completed his own circumnavigation!
That means three OAs – plus Greg Were – have completed a circumnavigation in 2026.
Apparently, around 200 yachts complete a circumnavigation each year. Assuming two people on each yacht do the whole trip, that’s roughly 400 people a year. By comparison, somewhere between 650 and 900 people climb Mount Everest each year.
Anyway, that’s the potted version. Seven years, 34 countries, 50,000-plus nautical miles, a few hairy moments, a lot of wonderful people – and an enormous number of great memories.
What’s next? Possibly we will sail around Australia….
Pete Mullins (Armstrong 1974)
