Offshore Races
EN

The Long Way: Bernard Moitessier on Joshua (1968-1969)

Bernard Moitessier · Joshua · 1968–1969

On 22 August 1968, Bernard Moitessier sailed from Plymouth aboard Joshua, a 39-foot steel ketch named in tribute to Joshua Slocum. He was one of nine starters in the Sunday Times Golden Globe, the first solo, non-stop race around the world by way of the three great capes.

He rounded the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin, passed Tasmania, spent Christmas south of New Zealand and rounded Cape Horn in February 1969. He could still win, and everything pointed him north up the Atlantic towards England. Instead he turned east. On 18 March, in Table Bay off Cape Town, he fired a message by slingshot onto the deck of a ship: he was carrying on non-stop to the Pacific islands, "because I am happy at sea, and perhaps to save my soul".

He crossed the Indian Ocean again, rounded Cape Leeuwin a second time and reached Tahiti on 21 June 1969, after 303 days at sea and 37,455 miles without a stop. He told the story in The Long Way (La Longue Route, 1971).

The race has been revived since 2018 from Les Sables-d'Olonne as the Golden Globe Race, sailed in long-keel yachts with sextant navigation and no GPS: see its course and next starts on the globe.

Route reconstructed from the documented ports of call and passages. Spin the globe; tap a stop to show its name.
Sailor
Bernard Moitessier
Boat
Joshua, 39 ft (12 m) steel ketch
Start
Plymouth, August 22, 1968
Finish
Papeete, Tahiti, June 21, 1969
Distance
37,455 nautical miles (69,367 km) non-stop
Book
The Long Way (1971)

Ports of call and passages

  1. Plymouth Start: August 22, 1968

    Starts the Sunday Times Golden Globe, the same day as Loïck Fougeron

  2. Cape Town Finish: October 20, 1968 · passed without stopping

    First news handed to a ship, without touching land

  3. Cape Leeuwin passed without stopping
  4. Tasmania Finish: December 1968 · passed without stopping

    Last news before Cape Horn

  5. South of New Zealand Finish: December 1968 · passed without stopping

    Christmas 1968

  6. Cape Horn Finish: February 1969 · passed without stopping

    Ahead of Robin Knox-Johnston's pace, he can still win

  7. Falkland Islands Finish: February 1969 · passed without stopping

    Sighted as he sails past; instead of heading north for England, he turns east

  8. Table Bay, Cape Town Finish: March 18, 1969 · passed without stopping

    Message fired by slingshot onto a ship: “because I am happy at sea, and perhaps to save my soul”

  9. Cape Leeuwin passed without stopping

    Second rounding

  10. Papeete, Tahiti Finish: June 21, 1969

    Arrival after 303 days at sea, nearly one and a half times around the world

Sources

The race today

More legendary voyages