Fascinated by Captain Cook, Yorkshireman John Paul embarked on an epic journey across the globe. He talks to Ruth Addicott about his extraordinary adventures and the time he took his family with him

SETTING sail on a once in a lifetime adventure is just a dream for most of us, but for Yorkshireman John Paul, it became a reality. John, a grandfather from Kirkbymoorside, not only built his own yacht, but took his family on an 8,000 mile voyage to Singapore, before embarking on a three-year circumnavigation of the globe in the wake of Captain Cook.

Twenty six years later, aged 82, he has written about his adventures in three books which will launch alongside an exhibition in April. His first book, Canvas Canoe to Cruising Yacht, tells the story of his early life in the 1930s, in Dringhouses, in York.

Being dyslexic, John left school with no formal qualifications, but always had a passion for the sea. By 13, he had built a canoe in his father’s greenhouse and spent his childhood splashing about in the local pond. At 18, he joined the RAF – the navy didn’t appeal because he couldn’t get behind a wheel – and was sent to Singapore, where he spent most of his spare time sailing.

After returning to Yorkshire, he got married and ran an art gallery in Pickering. He worked as a florist, potter, teacher and architectural designer – a job he still does today – and renewed his passion for sailing when he acquired a 12ft dinghy.

After capsizing in front of a beach of onlookers and having to be rescued by helicopter and the pleasure boat coming out of Bridlington harbour, John got his ‘skipper’s licence’ with the Royal Yachting Association and had his sights on something bigger. He bought Ambition, a 33ft yacht and sailed his wife, Brenda and three daughters, Belinda, 22, Nicola, 19 and Katie, 16 and a friend’s son, Peter, 18, to Singapore.

Colleagues, friends and family (including his mother) thought he was mad. With just three weeks experience, according to John, they set sail from Scarborough in 1980 – a journey which is chronicled in his second book, A Yorkshire Family Afloat. They sailed through the French canal systems, around the Mediterranean, but had to cut the journey short when a violent Force 11 storm struck and they nearly lost their lives.

“My daughter, Kate, was below bucketing the water out,” says John. “There was diesel fuel all over the deck and Nicola, who was on the wheel called, ‘Look out! Dad! Look out!’ I glanced back and there was this wave that came above the boat, way above our heads and then we were looking through green water.”

The storm lasted 30 hours and there was nothing they could do but batten down the hatches and try and sleep. “There were eight or ten inches of water sloshing about, we were saturated,” says John. “We kept our heads remarkably well given the circumstances

By the time they got to Port Said, there was a mutiny on board as his wife and daughters pointed out there was no way the yacht was up to crossing the Indian Ocean. John had to agree, so hey continued on to the Red Sea and spent two months swimming, diving and snorkelling.

A year later, they arrived back in Yorkshire. John established an outdoor pursuit business and became a fully qualified yachtmaster instructor. Then he came up with a grand plan to build Ambition 11 and follow in the wake of Captain Cook’s ship, Endeavour.

They moved to a smaller house so he could fund it and John built the yacht in the garden. It took him a year and in August 1987, having recruited a young and largely inexperienced crew, he set off from Whitby on a three-year circumnavigation of the globe.

He saw incredible skies and amazing wildlife from albatross to a pod of whales that swam alongside the boat. On one occasion, there was wildlife on board. “I was in my bunk,” recalls John. “When one of the crew thumped on the hatch and said ‘Quick! John! There’s a snake going up the forestay. I said ‘Bloody hell’. We had been at sea 12 hours and had just left Brazil. I had to hook it off and chuck it into the sea. Then, I thought, hang on a minute - that wasn’t a sea snake. It must have come on board in a bunch of bananas given to us by a kind Brazilian. We kept thinking, where has it been for the past 12 hours? In our wellies… our sleeping bags…”

They also encountered extremely rough seas and up to 25m waves which knocked the boat onto its side. Although their books (all 200 of them) stayed intact on the shelf, below deck was a complete mess with spillages and oranges everywhere and a pack of cards which appeared to have dealt itself.

“At one point we were sitting there up to our waists in water,” John recalls. “I have always suffered from seasickness, a bit like Nelson, but got used to spewing over my shoulder and could always continue to work. It is part of what you pay for the pleasure of sailing.” Apart from one crew member falling through the hatch and thinking he had broken his ribs, there were no injuries on board.

John might have been a long way from Whitby, but he never forgot his roots and even managed to obtain a couple of cases of John Smiths from the second officer of a large container ship – a fellow Yorkshireman – in the middle of the Pacific. Elsewhere, they survived off tinned food, fresh fruit and lobsters, apart from one occasion when they caught a shark. “We were just trying to keep away from its jaws,” says John. “The meat was fabulous.”

After his epic journey, John arrived back in Whitby in 1990 and chronicled his trip in his third book ‘Sailing in the wake of Captain Cook’. He went back to teaching and architectural design and had no choice but to sell the yacht. “I would have loved to keep her,” he says. “It was sad to lose an old friend.”

Now a grandfather to ‘half a dozen’ grandchildren, he is hoping his books will inspire other people to pursue their dream adventure. “Nothing is impossible,” he says. “If you want to do something and you are sufficiently determined, you can achieve it.”