Ron Daw hopes to be the oldest person to achieve the feat when he returns to Oamaru on January 28 next year - the day after his 80th birthday.
A crowd of well-wishers was at Holmes Wharf, decorated with colourful bunting, to wave goodbye to Mr Daw, as a local brass band member played Now is the Hour.
Mr Daw is sailing the 8.5m sloop Aparima across the South Pacific and around Cape Horn to the Falkland Islands, where he will berth for a few days before sailing on to England.
His partner will join him there for a short stay and to visit family, then Mr Daw will head home via
Africa's Cape of Good Hope and Australia. The trip comes after about a year of planning and almost a lifetime of sailing, going back to the age of 10.
Mr Daw came to New Zealand as a 6-year-old World War 2 refugee in 1940.
He is no stranger to what it takes to sail around the world.
In 1993, he returned to New Zealand after spending about seven years sailing around the world with another sailor.
He has sailed around the Hauraki Gulf and competed in ocean racing, including to Fiji and Vanuatu.
When he brought Aparima from Nelson, he sailed it up the west coast of the North Island to Auckland, then back down, through Cook Strait and on to Oamaru, testing his abilities.
It has been outfitted for the trip with new communications equipment, including a satellite phone that will enable him to keep in contact no matter where he is, and a GPS.
The yacht has also gone through government-approved safety checks.
When he left yesterday, Aparima had enough fresh food on board for six weeks, plus additional stores of dried and canned food and plenty of water.
By Sally Brooker.
