Back on dry land after solo voyage

8:00am Wednesday 20th August 2008

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A HEREFORDSHIRE sailor has set foot back on dry land after spending four years alone at sea.

Tony Meakin, aged 67, from Ross-on-Wye, took early retirement from his previous job as a bridge engineer for Herefordshire Council to start his solo navigation adventure in July 2004.

Only 170 people had sailed single-handedly around the world, and even though he had only limited sailing experience, he thought there was no time like the present.

Using a 34ft yacht called Cariad, his trip was originally meant to take three years but he decided to extend his stay and experience different countries.

He said: “I wanted to see more of the world, so I decided to go down South Africa.”

However, it was there that his journey nearly came to an unexpected halt.

“I was asleep when the wind started to veer at 90 degrees and I nearly hit a reef”, said Tony.

“If it wasn’t for my natural instinct to wake up in time then the trip would have been over.”

Tony originally wanted to ski in the Andes, but ended up skiing in the Indian mountains instead, which he said was ‘just as exciting’ and he particularly enjoyed his stay in Bali.

However, for a large part of the journey Tony would not see a single boat, including when he embarked on a 42-day sail from Ascension Island to the Azores, but that did not affect him – and he made many friends from the boating community.

Tony said he would definitely like to set sail again and said the Caribbean or Madagascar were the places he would most