James became the first to circle Earth by air, land, sea

James Ketchell sailed back into Gosport marina on June 13, becoming the first person to circumnavigate the globe by air, land, and sea. The 44-year-old British explorer completed the 34,000-mile final leg aboard a 40-foot boat named Mindset, having already circled the world by bike in 2014 and by gyrocopter in 2019. He set off from the Hampshire town last July, rounding South Africa's Cape of Good Hope and Chile's Cape Horn along the way. The hardest moment came mid-Pacific, when the autopilot failed at the farthest point from land he could possibly reach. He and his one crewmate worked through it by hand. During the voyage, Ketchell deployed a robotic ocean float, collected microplastic samples, and gave talks to more than 10,000 children, often over patchy connections from the open sea. "The novelty of having clean clothes and lovely food certainly has not worn off yet," he said. His next adventure is getting married.