Barry Perrins, a 68-year-old former lifeboatman from Plymouth, UK, has returned home after completing a nine-year solo voyage around the world that spanned around 30,000 miles (48,300km).
He set sail in June 2016 on his 11m steel-hulled yacht, White Shadow of Poole, pursuing a childhood dream with the motto: “I’ll keep going and see where I end up.” What was intended as a seven-year journey became a near-decade-long odyssey after covid extended his time at sea.
Perrins began in Portugal before crossing the north Atlantic to the Caribbean, continuing through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific. His route later took him to Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, and back across the Atlantic via the Caribbean and Azores, before finally returning to Plymouth in August 2025.
At one point, he was declared missing for 71 days in the Pacific, until a French Air Sea Rescue aircraft spotted him and reported back to Falmouth coastguard. He eventually reappeared on the island of Hiva Oa in French Polynesia. He also spent a year and a half in New Zealand during the pandemic, where he says he played music to entertain locals.
The voyage was marked by dangers and close shaves, including storms, pirates, illness and equipment failure. Perrins also suffered a bout of cellulitis, survived several occasions when his engine broke down, and made it through moments of severe weather that left him fearing for his life.
“Regularly, you are facing the fact you might die — I am not exaggerating, and there are times if you don’t do the next thing right that could be it. It is that black and white at sea,” he told MSN. He added: “I seemed to have a lot of sessions of bad weather, and I will admit I was scared. At times it went down to the wire whether I was going to survive. That happened quite a lot. There was one time my engine broke down, and I was drifting away a long way out to sea. That was hairy but I managed to get it fixed.”
Reflecting on near-disasters, he told PlymouthLive: “There were times when I knew that if I didn’t make the right decision within the next few seconds, I would be dead. When on occasion I heard myself say ‘I don’t know what to do’ I knew I was in big trouble!”
He only called for help once during his odyssey, off the coast of northeast Australia, when poor weather and engine problems forced a rescue.
Despite the risks, Perrins says he has found great reward in his experiences. Speaking to ITV News, he said: “The first high point was crossing the Atlantic and seeing Barbados, and the other was seeing New Zealand, it’s a place I’ve always wanted to go. It’s very similar to the west country, except it’s on steroids, so I loved that.” Another particularly meaningful stop was St Helena, which he described as “something special” because his family came from there 350 years ago.
Perrins’ adventures were followed by a global audience through his YouTube channel, Adventures of an Old Seadog, which has more than 129,000 subscribers and over 30 million views, and his Facebook page. “I just thought, ‘I’ll go off and sail as far as I can and then I got a YouTube channel going, and that helped it continue. I just kept going and now I’m back to close the loop,” he told ITV.
On his return to Plymouth on 25 August 2025, Perrins was greeted by relatives, fans and supporters, as well as a guard of honour from an RNLI crew. “I feel remarkably good, actually,” he told ITV shortly after arrival. “The reception of all these people has spurred me on and woken me up because I’ve been awake about four o’clock in the morning, standing in the cockpit, stewing against the weather all the way here. This is just amazing, I didn’t expect this. It’s just awesome.”
Perrins described the homecoming as “overwhelming and incredible”, calling it: “An awesome experience I will never forget.” His sister Tina, who had not seen him for seven years, said to BBC: “It was very emotional when he went off. He was quite green, I think. And he’s come back an amazing person — a different person, an experienced person.”
Supporter Pippa Winkworth, who had followed his YouTube videos, was among those welcoming him home: “I’ve seen him through the ups and the downs, and I think there were downs where maybe he thought of throwing the towel in. So it was lovely to see him coming back in with the RNLI.”
Asked how the voyage had changed him, Perrins told ITV: “It has changed me. It’s taught me to be more tolerant of other people. One thing I did learn was that all people in the world are naturally good people. Just normal people trying to take care of their families and do an honest day’s work, put bread on the table. These are just honest, good people. Anywhere you go in the world, they’re just nice.”
He also spoke of personal growth.
“I never managed to achieve much in life, but I’ve always been interested in a bit of adventure and sailing. When my father passed away, I was given the opportunity to do something with a small inheritance. I realised I had nothing to do and I had a bit of spare money. I thought I could go out and buy a nice car — or I could buy a boat. So that’s what I did.”
Now back in Plymouth, Perrins is adjusting to life ashore. He says: “I did enjoy my first hot shower for many months and getting into clean clothes. That was the start of being back. I’ve got to get used to the idea of not sailing at sea.”
Perrins has said he now intends to rest and carry out maintenance on White Shadow of Poole, but is now thinking about his next journey. As he told BBC: he is already planning a sailing tour around the UK.
The post Former lifeboatman returns after nine-year solo voyage around the world appeared first on Marine Industry News.
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