A LIFE OF ADVENTURE UNDER SAIL
Australian-born Trevor Robertson is quietly one of the most extraordinary sailors of our times. In his lifetime, he has sailed over 400,000 miles. In 1976, at the age of 27, he sailed from Western Australia to east Africa then round the Cape of Good Hope to the West Indies in a 34ft wooden sloop, then worked in the charter business in the Caribbean and later on oil rigs to earn enough money to buy another boat.
Robertson is perhaps best known for his voyages in the 35ft steel gaff cutter Iron Bark, which he built himself. He spent many years sailing with his wife, the author Annie Hill, whose book ‘Voyaging on a Small Income’ is a study of the economics of continual travel and selfsufficiency.
Trevor Robertson has undertaken many long singlehanded voyages, including overwintering in the Antarctic (Iron Bark is still likely the only vessel to have done so unsupported) and, together with Annie Hill, a winter frozen in the ice in Greenland at 72°N.
In 2009, Robertson’s and Hill’s voyages were recognised by the Cruising Club of America, which awarded them jointly the Blue Water Medal, an honour reserved for the most daring and adventurous exploits under sail.