Sailing in Stitches: An Account of a Two-year Circumnavigation

By Dr. John Cocker

Stitches Explorer is a 74-foot yawl, built in 1966 with an extensive rebuild in 1992, and very well equipped, with two of all the important pieces of equipment. In 2000, with an international crew, she set off on a journey that would include 62 countries, 180 ports, two major pirate areas and one pirate boarding. Starting from Florida, she headed south, down the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific to Australia, Indonesia and Thailand, then across the Indian Ocean, up the Read Sea and through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, then to the Canary Islands and across the Atlantic to Antigua, where the circumnavigation was completed – a total of 64,000km in two years. Three of the crew were on board for the entire voyage, and they were joined by 60 diverse characters for shorter periods along the way. This book is the story of their adventure.