Petr Bradatsch

"I will circumnavigate the world, when I am 50". A nice imagination, being mid-thirty, the age of fifty still far away. Occupied with business and family, integrated in all the structures, hardly anybody will take these verdicts seriously. I did not believe them fully myself.

Founded a 2-persons software company as a student in 1984, sold it in 1998, co-founded a successful internet business, sold again and finally restructured a midsize software company. Meanwhile 50 years old, divorced, the children nearly grown up.

“If not now, when?“ I asked myself with 49, having the fifty in sight. After nearly one year of planning, on my 50th birthday, I said goodbye to my friends and started the circumnavigation. Still, there are some questions unanswered: What will happen, when I complete my life's dream? Might it not be the worst thing happening to me? Or will there be new dreams? How will I get changed by the journey? Can I be re-integrated into „normal” life (and what is normal, by the way?) afterwards?

Storms, pirates, illness, technical and financial problems and isolation had been predicted to me. I needed to look up “Hybris” in Wikipedia (“…overweening pride, self-confidence, superciliousness, or arrogance, often resulting in fatal retribution…”). Ok. The more objections I heard, the more I was getting sure to do it.

Many have sailed around the world. Single handed, as a pair or with a crew. Where is the challenge, with all the equipment on board, one might ask (sitting on a sofa)? Well, I didn’t, yet.

For me, this is the greatest adventure of my life...