IT WAS A RAINY DAY IN LATE October 2020 when Matt Hayes sailed through Sydney Heads to the welcoming ‘yahoos!’ of a ragtag flotilla of friends and family – most of whom hadn’t seen him since the good ship Influencer, a 17-metre yacht, departed Sydney in July 2018.
Having sailed 28,000 nautical miles around the world, Matt and his various crew members were overcome by their adventures. Some destinations delivered expected highs: attending Carnival in Brazil, meeting wildlife on various Galápagos islands, hiking up Table Mountain in Cape Town and cruising along the Panama Canal.
But the also stopped in ports most of the crew knew nothing about prior to leaving home. Here are the destinations that stole Matt’s
