Peter Barnes had two great loves in his life - his wife Valerie and the sea.
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The former Milton resident passed away peacefully on Wednesday August 26 - one month short of his 96th birthday.
Mr Barnes was well known for his pioneering sailing exploits.
He sailed solo from England to Pambula from April 1975 to October 1976 without all the modern aids sailors now have today.
His adventure in a 22 foot Westerly Cyrrus yacht was before the days of computers and a GPS with only the sun, the stars, the moon, a sextant and a compass as a guide was a mammoth task.
While crossing the Atlantic he was hit on the head by the boom, he lost the rudder off the coast of Venezuela and was attacked by sharks in the Pacific.
The trip took eighteen months and Valerie joined him at various ports when her job as a simultaneous conference interpreter with the United Nations allowed.
The Milton Ulladulla Times once got to interview Mr Barnes about his amazing adventure.
Mr Barnes the person was just as impressive as his skill as a sailor.
"He always wanted to help everyone," Mrs Barnes said.
Mrs Barnes and friends will say their final goodbyes to Mr Barnes on Thursday September 3 at 11am at the Milton Ulladulla Funeral Services in Camden Street.
Mrs Barnes affectionately described her late husband, who passed away peacefully at Sarah Claydon House, as being obstinate and wanted things to go his way.
"We will be playing Frank Sinatra's "I did it my way," at the service," Mrs Barnes warmly said.
Mrs Barnes said it was time for her husband to sail away on his next adventure,
"He said to me 'I have no regrets'. He did everything he wanted to do," Mrs Barnes said.
His trip and love for Valerie was just a remarkable story and something you would find on a best seller's list.
Mrs Barnes in 'An Antipodean Affair A Second book of Memoirs' wrote their extraordinary life.
"It is also rather a desperate love story between a middle-aged divorced United Nations simultaneous interpreter (me) and an Australian delegate (Peter) at international telecommunication conferences in Geneva, who had been listening to my voice in his headphones for years," was how aspects of the memoir was described.
Rest in Peace Mr Barnes.
