We often think of cruising in terms of the destination, but it is the return to our home port that marks a voyage’s successful completion.

The circularity bestows resolution and achievement, and without it the adventure remains incomplete.

This month we have a slew of solo circumnavigators, global and otherwise.

Tony Curphey has deployed a drogue to survive the worst conditions imaginable no less than 17 times and made it back to tell the tale.

Vendée Globe sailor Pip Hare will soon be taking on the latest multi-million pound flying machines in a 20-year-old boat for whom good seamanship will be a matter of life and death.

We also talk to Timothy Long, the intrepid 15-year-old, has just become the youngest person to have sailed the 1,740 miles around the UK via the Caledonian Canal.

Jason Lawrence has sailed around every island and rock of the British Isles to port, including Rockall, while James Tomlinson has completed a loop from the East Coast to the Canaries and Azores.

They told us what motivated each of them, and their stories are captivating and inspiring in equal measure.

Continues below…

All hail Sam Davies

The folksy star of the Vendee Globe

Our boats, on the other hand, once fated to rot back into the soil from which their timber first grew, are now made almost entirely of non-recyclable composites.

Miraculously easy to maintain, they are nigh on impossible to dispose of.

One yacht manufacturer has set about building the most sustainable yacht possible, with the minimum environmental impact during and at the end of its life – find our boat test on the Spirit 44 Cruising Range Electric in this issue.

While not a mass-market boat, its approach could be game changing.

Who knows – perhaps we’ll come back full circle to ultra-modern wooden boats.