Andrew Fagan on Swirly World's last great adventure

In early 2022, renowned solo sailor, writer and singer Andrew Fagan set sail in his tiny 5.1m sloop-rigged plywood yacht Swirly World in Perpetuity.

Swirly World had faithfully carried Fagan on numerous voyages on the high seas; this time the mission was to be the smallest boat to sail solo around the world via the Great Capes.

Things didn't quite go to plan.

Fagan has solo-sailed in Swirly World in Perpetuity around Aotearoa to the sub-Antarctic Auckland islands, to the Kermadecs and across the Tasman and back as well.

This journey would take the small boat into the massive seas of the Southern Ocean, he told RNZ's Sunday Morning.

"Auckland is at latitude 36 degrees south, and Cape Horn is 56 degrees south. So, it's a long way down.

"To catch the basic westerly and southwest wind systems, which will be behind you, it's best to get down there. So, I came out of Auckland and got down to between 40 and 45 south.

"I was trying to stay on the on the northern edge of the Southern Ocean, where I was getting that wind that was required. But I wasn't right down in the killer stuff."

The great capes are Cape Horn, southern South America; Cape of Good Hope, South Africa; and Cape Leeuwin, southwest Australia.

"Then you've also got the bottom of Tasmania and technically, the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand is another cape."

Life on board the yacht is arduous, he said.

"You can't stand up in Swirly World. When you're sitting down in the chair the deck is just where your head is. You don't have to stoop down while you're sitting down, but you can't stand up.

"When you try to put on your wet weather gear that may be damp or still wet from your last outing, you have to sort of be a contortionist to do it."

There were freeze-dried provisions on board, enough to last 14 months. And to get fresh water, Fagan had to work a sweat up - the water maker had to be pumped for 40 minutes at a time to get three litres.

"I did about 30 strokes, and then changed arms."

It works on reverse osmosis, turning seawater into fresh by forcing it through a membrane.

"It really makes you appreciate the value of fresh water."

The rolling motion on board a small boat in big seas is relentless, he said.

"I think a lot of people would be absolutely appalled by the motion, there's so much motion going on, and the boat's always rolling and that's quite fatiguing. But you get used to it."

He noticed Swirly World was taking on water during the voyage, a portent of things to come.

"The skeg glue line had got cracked by these massive breakers that had been coming side onto the boat.

"So, the water started coming up through, it was seeping into the boat through the three silica bronze bolts that attached the skeg to the to the hull."

The skeg provides directional stability, he said.

One morning, 2300 nautical miles from New Zealand, he discovered the skeg had disappeared.

"Without the skeg, the wind vane wouldn't work. The wind vane self-steering was basically 70 percent of the time, steering the boat while I was inside, reading my Kindle or whatever. Without that assistance, I was stuffed."

He decided to go somewhere and make repairs.

"At this stage the boat was leaking, and I was taking about 15-20 litres of water out of the boat a day."

Pitcairn Island was the nearest safe haven, he said, 1000 nautical miles to the north.

As he slogged his way to Pitcairn more misfortune befell him.

"The rudder snapped off. It must have got stressed out while the skeg was wiggling about over the days and weeks, I guess it had got physically damaged as well.

"And the pressure of just hand steering. I started hand steering north. And I did about 45 miles and 11 hours, which was quite good going. And I thought, this is the way it's going to be. It's going to take maybe 25 days to get up to Pitcairn, 1000 miles, but stopping at night or stopping when I need to rest.

"I was going to do that, but then it just snapped off. And then I was then I was really stuck."

There was no option but to send out a mayday.

"I set off my emergency locator beacon and a 300-metre container ship responded, and they came down to get me."

But it was far from plain sailing once the massive ship arrived.

"This container ship was too big to get into Auckland, it only goes into Tauranga and Napier, it was absolutely massive."

Getting close enough to board was perilous too, in vast seas with the massive ship threatening to smash Swirly World to smithereens.

Eventually they managed to get a line to haul Swirly World closer to the ship and a rope ladder for Fagan to climb.

"Meanwhile, the boat was getting absolutely pummelled against the side of this steel wall."

Fagan was safe, but Swirly World was left to fend for itself.

"It would have ended up in some remote rocky shore and got smashed up. But more probably, I would say it sank."