You've probably looked at a globe and traced your finger all the way around the middle. It looks easy. You just keep going, right? Well, honestly, to circumnavigate the globe is one of the most misunderstood feats in human history. Most people think it just means "traveling around," but in the world of official records and maritime law, it’s a lot more complicated than just buying a plane ticket with a few layovers.
Go back to 1519. Ferdinand Magellan sets sail. He didn't even make it back alive—he was killed in the Philippines—but one of his ships, the Victoria, did. That took three years. Today, you can do it in about 45 hours on commercial flights. But does that count? Not if you’re looking for a certificate from the Guinness World Records or the World Sailing Speed Record Council.
What it actually means to circumnavigate the Earth
Basically, to truly circumnavigate, you have to start and end at the same point, crossing all meridians of longitude. But there’s a catch. A big one. If you just fly in a tiny circle around the North Pole, you’ve technically crossed every line of longitude in about five minutes. That’s cheating. To prevent people from just spinning in circles at the poles, official bodies like the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) require you to travel a distance at least as long as the Tropic of Cancer.
That is roughly 36,787 kilometers (about 22,858 miles).
You also have to hit "antipodal points." These are two places on the exact opposite sides of the earth from each other. If you dig a hole straight through the center of the Earth from where you're standing, you’d pop out at your antipodal point. Most people who say they've "done the world" actually just stayed in the Northern Hemisphere. That’s just a long trip. It's not a true circumnavigation.
The Great Circle logic
To understand the math, you have to look at Great Circles. A Great Circle is any circle that circumnavigates the Earth and passes through its center. The Equator is the most famous one. When sailors or pilots plan a route to circumnavigate, they are essentially trying to trace a Great Circle path while avoiding things like, you know, mountains and war zones.
The pioneers who didn't have GPS
Magellan gets the credit, but Juan Sebastián Elcano was the guy who actually finished the job. Out of the five ships and 270 men who started the journey, only one ship and 18 men crawled back into Spain in 1522. They were walking skeletons. They had eaten the leather off the ship’s yards and sawdust just to stay alive.
Then you have Sir Francis Drake. He did it about 50 years later. His motivation was a bit different—he was mostly interested in looting Spanish gold. But his voyage on the Golden Hind proved that the world wasn't just a series of disconnected landmasses.
Fast forward to 1889. Nellie Bly, a journalist, decided to beat the fictional record of Phileas Fogg from Around the World in Eighty Days. She did it in 72 days. She didn't have a crew or a massive galleon. She had a dress, a sturdy overcoat, and a small bag. Her journey was a massive deal because it showed that global travel was becoming a consumer reality, not just a death-defying expedition for soldiers and explorers.
Why sailing around the world is the "Everest" of the ocean
If you want to talk about the real deal, you talk about the Vendée Globe. This is a non-stop, solo, unassisted yacht race around the world. It happens every four years. Sailors leave from France, head down the Atlantic, hang a left around Africa (Cape of Good Hope), pass under Australia, go around South America (Cape Horn), and head back up.
- They cannot pull into a port.
- They cannot have anyone else step on the boat.
- They can't even get weather routing help from the shore in some classes.
Imagine being in the Southern Ocean, thousands of miles from the nearest human. Sometimes, the closest people to these sailors are the astronauts on the International Space Station passing overhead. If something breaks, you fix it with duct tape and prayers. This kind of circumnavigate attempt is pure psychological warfare.
The current record for a wind-powered vessel is held by Francis Joyon and his crew, who did it in just over 40 days back in 2017. Think about that. Forty days to go around the entire planet using nothing but the wind.
Human-powered madness: Biking and rowing
Then there are the people who think boats and planes are too easy.
Take Jason Lewis. He spent 13 years (1994–2007) completing the first human-powered circumnavigation. He used a pedal-powered boat to cross oceans, rollerblades across continents, and a bicycle. He was attacked by a crocodile, broke both his legs in a hit-and-run, and was even arrested on suspicion of being a spy.
His journey shows the messy reality of what it means to circumnavigate under your own steam. You aren't just fighting the ocean; you're fighting bureaucracy, visas, and physical decay.
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There's also Mark Beaumont. He holds the record for cycling around the world. He did it in 78 days, 14 hours, and 40 minutes. To do that, he had to average 240 miles a day. That’s not a vacation. That’s a 16-hour-a-day job of pure pain.
The technicalities: How to tell if you've actually done it
If you’re planning your own attempt, or just want to win a bar argument, remember these specific rules that "official" circumnavigators follow:
- The Start and Finish: Must be the same place.
- The Distance: Must be at least the length of the Tropic of Cancer (roughly 22,858 miles).
- The Equator: You must cross it at least twice.
- Direction: You generally have to keep moving in one direction (East to West or West to East). You can't zig-zag back and forth across the Atlantic and call it a lap.
Most "Round the World" airline tickets don't actually meet these criteria. They often skip the Southern Hemisphere entirely. To a purist, if you haven't seen the Southern Cross and the North Star on the same trip, you haven't truly circumnavigated the globe.
Why we are still obsessed with the "Lap"
In a world where we can see any street corner on Google Earth, why do people still try to circumnavigate?
Honestly, it’s about the scale. We spend our lives in boxes—our houses, our cars, our cubicles. Physically moving your body around the entire circumference of the planet is a way to reclaim the scale of the Earth. It’s the ultimate "I was here" statement.
Also, the technology is getting weird. We now have solar-powered planes like the Solar Impulse 2 that flew around the world without a drop of fuel. We have autonomous sailboats trying to do it without a human on board.
But whether it's a high-tech trimaran or a guy on a bicycle, the core challenge remains the same. The Earth is big. Really big. And it’s full of things that want to stop you from finishing that circle.
Misconceptions about going around
A common mistake is thinking that Joshua Slocum was the first person to sail solo around the world. Actually, he was—but he did it in 1895-1898. People often confuse him with the early explorers. Slocum's book, Sailing Alone Around the World, is basically the Bible for anyone who dreams of leaving their 9-to-5 to live on a boat.
Another misconception? That you have to go through the Panama or Suez Canals. While they make life easier, purists and record-breakers often go "the long way" around the Great Capes because the canals are considered artificial shortcuts. If you’re going for a speed record in a massive sailboat, you wouldn't even fit in the canal anyway.
Actionable steps for the aspiring circumnavigator
If you actually want to circumnavigate the world, stop looking at flights and start looking at the requirements of the governing body that fits your style.
- For Sailors: Look up the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC). They have very strict rules about "orthodromic" tracks.
- For Pilots: Check the FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) guidelines. You’ll need to plan for specific checkpoints and observers.
- For Travelers: If you just want the experience without the record, look for "RTW" (Round The World) tickets from alliances like OneWorld or Star Alliance. Just make sure you include a stop in the Southern Hemisphere—like Sydney or Buenos Aires—to make it a "real" lap in your heart.
- For the Budget Conscious: It is surprisingly possible to "hitchhike" on sailboats. Websites like Crewseekers or 7seas allow you to find captains looking for extra hands to help move a boat across an ocean. You trade your labor for the passage.
The most important thing to do first is define your "why." Are you doing it for the speed, the story, or the spiritual journey? Because once you’re in the middle of the Pacific, three weeks from the nearest land, the "why" is the only thing that’s going to keep you moving toward the horizon.