Henk de Velde

Initially he worked for thirteen years in the merchant navy, from able-bodied seaman to captain.

His third voyage, in 1992, with a 60 ft (18 meter) catamaran called Zeeman, was viewed on Dutch TV in the so-called 5 O'clock Show.

With a double skull fracture he was hospitalized on the island of Madeira before returning to the Netherlands.

In 2001 de Velde started again, with a steel monohull yacht called Campina, this time using a totally new route, instead of west to east or east to west he wanted to sail the world north to south by passing the NE passage north of Siberia.

De Velde departed on his 6th circumnavigation in September 2007 with the trimaran Juniper, without planning to return to the Netherlands.

However, in March 2011, while sailing near Vancouver Island in Canada, he suffered an accident with the vessel, in which the propeller shaft broke from its axis, elbowing up and damaging the aft, a fibreglass predicament.

Weeks of repairs ensued, and Henk de Velde counted on many helpful volunteer hands to have the problem fixed up.

Perhaps resigning to the fact that the Juniper's speed was deemed never to match the Campina's resilience and livelihood, he then reported that his plans had changed, and that he would eventually return to the Netherlands, noting in an interview soon after, that the time had come "to slow down", and that he was homesick.