Stepping onto his yacht with the ease of a seasoned sailor, you’d never know sailing legend Jon Sanders is turning 80 this year.

He knows where everything is on his second home, penned at Royal Perth Yacht Club. In a small area on the left of the boat, his makeshift bed; photos and trinkets from his world travels stuck to the walls.

“If you put a prisoner in a prison cell the size of my cabin there’s be an outrage. But I find it quite pleasant,” the yachtsman laughed.

The 34-foot Perie Banou II has taken him around the world. In fact, he’s circumnavigated the globe solo 10 times.

He holds the record for the longest distance continuously sailed by anyone – crewed or un-crewed and could be considered the greatest sailor in the world.

He told The West Australian on his return from his 10th trip just last year, that would be his last.

But at 79, he’s getting ready for his 11th world sail later this year.

“I told a lie, but I didn’t know I was going to tell a lie. I’m back here, I’m bored, I know I can do it, I know how to do it, I’ve got nothing else to do. What’ll I do, stay home? Just because I said it?” He said.

He said he caught the sailing bug when he joined the Royal Perth Yacht Club at 15 and has dedicated his life to the sport.

His first round-the-world sail in 1979 he said was an accident, sailing to Cape Town to compete in a yacht race to Rio de Janiero in the original Perie Banou.

“I was going to come back to WA, and I thought why don’t I come back through the Panama Canal? And I did that. That was the first circumnavigation. Not planned, like this one, originally not planned.” He said.

The yachtsman got the taste for the open ocean at a young age, completing a double world sail in 1982, then a triple in 1988, for which he holds the world record for the longest distance sailed by any person or vessel. The 71,000 nautical mile journey took him 658 days.

But in the adventure, misadventure also has loomed. He’s faced fierce gales and has been upside down twice.

“I learnt how not to do that, there was a trick to it, way back then when you read a text book about what you should do, it was just wrong,” he said.

This time, he said he’s going to be a lot more cautious than what his younger self would have been, setting up his boat so he doesn’t have to run around or change sails quite as much.

This adventure will also see him help out with keeping our oceans clean.

“I’m going to take water samples for Curtin University on the way, they’ll be quite simple to do, they’ll be filtered and I’ll send the filters back.”

He’ll be helping with a movement called No Plastic Oceans, collecting ocean samples so researchers can determine how much plastic, and plastic microbes are in the most remote waters of the world.

With his manager, Dr Stephen Davis, who is famed with helping rescue girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in a Nigerian village – they’re hoping to find a way to help that cause too while in South Africa.

His trip should take him about 10 months. Starting from Fremantle, he’ll sail north west past Rottnest, then into the open ocean until he reaches Mauritius.

Now in his 80s, the yachtsman will set off in October on his yacht Perie Banou.

“From Mauritius to Capetown, South Africa, that means going under South Africa. That could be the hairiest part because a strong current there runs 3-4 knots and often it’s against the gales and the bottom shelves are the world’s biggest sand banks so to speak, the Agulhas Bank, so it makes for a very turbulent sea there. But thereafter, what I’ve planned is with the trade winds and with the current.”

What does it take to be a world circumnavigator? Mr Sanders said it’s not just for a select few, if you’ve got determination, you too can do it.

Perth couple Jill and Paul Carter are one of those who have made it around the world. With no plans for their retirement and no previous sailing skills, they set off from Fremantle 10 years ago, returning late last year.

“We were talking about what we were going to do for our retirement, and the normal progress for most people here in the west is to spend summer in Rottnest then jump in the caravan and spend winter up in Broome, but we’re not really caravanners, so I said to Jill, ‘I’ve always has this thing in my head since I was a little kid about building a boat and sailing it off around the world’”, Mr Carter said.

“I said, ‘we won’t build it, but how about doing that, just getting in a yacht and sailing off round the world?’ And she had a think about it for a couple of days, and said ‘ok’.”

Being stuck in the middle of the ocean, 800 nautical miles from land, with no rudder and no one around they said was a memorable, albeit scary moment.

“We picked up what we think was a discarded purse seine net, or part of it got caught on the rudder, we slowed down and it just snapped the rudder shaft and broke the rudder off,” Paul Carter said.

“You’re in the middle of absolutely nowhere, but before we left Fremantle I made an emergency tiller system…Put it on and got going again. Steering from daylight to dusk…ten days late we were in Nuku Hiva.”

Despite some scary experiences, they consider themselves among the lucky few who have seen the world by the sea.

“If you’ve got a passion for it, and you’ve got a dream to do it then I would say absolutely go out there and make it happen.” Ms Carter said.

“For a husband and wife team, it’s probably the biggest adventure you can embark on.” Mr Carter said.

“If you’re doing it the way I’m doing it this time, it’s quite easy. Just get a few facts and training in, but it’s simple. It’s not the same as doing a major ocean race in the worst conditions possible. It’s pretty simple. An ordinary person can do it, if they’re game enough. But if you can get to Rottnest, why can’t you go a little bit further? Mauritius.” Mr Sanders said.

Author Kate Ryan; The West Australian