The Naora circumnavigation does not have a single boarding point. It has the series of boarding points that the circumnavigation’s progression across five years and four oceans produces, a series that spans five continents and that provides for every member, regardless of where they are based, the boarding point in the region closest to their home that is geographically most natural for them to reach.
The Australian member who wants the Pacific chapter boards in Papeete, five hours east of Sydney, four and a half hours east of Auckland, the Pacific hub that French Polynesia has been developing as the regional aviation centre for the central Pacific for decades.
The flight is direct on Air Tahiti Nui from Sydney and Auckland and is shorter than the flight to Bali that the Australian leisure traveller makes routinely without considering it exceptional.
The Indian member who wants the Indian Ocean chapter boards in Galle, two hours from Mumbai by IndiGo or Air India to Colombo and the short transfer south along the Sri Lankan coast to the Galle Fort marina. The Indian Ocean chapter is the chapter closest to the Indian member, the Maldives two hours from Mumbai by seaplane, Sri Lanka two hours by air, the Indian Ocean that the Indian subcontinent has faced and traded across for the entirety of recorded Indian history.
The Brazilian member who wants the Atlantic chapter boards in Barbados or Martinique, the Eastern Caribbean islands that the Atlantic crossing arrives at and that Brazil’s TAM and LATAM operate connections to through Miami or through Lisbon depending on the routing the member prefers. The Atlantic Ocean is Brazil’s ocean, the eastern coast of the country faces it for seven thousand kilometres — and the Caribbean chapter of the Naora circumnavigation is the chapter closest to the South American Atlantic member.
The Circumnavigation as the Global Programme
The boarding point distribution is the clearest single expression of the Naora programme’s global character. No member boards at the same point as every other member, the programme does not have the single departure port of the European sailing club that the international member is required to reach before the journey can begin. The journey begins at the boarding point closest to the member.
The circumnavigation comes to every member’s region in the five years it takes to complete. The member chooses the chapter that their schedule and their geography make most natural. The programme is designed to make every chapter accessible to every member regardless of where they are based. The global programme does not have a home port. It has the world.
