Leading Article: Around the world again

Magellan did it through his straits. Francis Drake did it on his Hind. Captain James Cook would have done it - had the natives not been so friendly. It was still relatively interesting when Chay Blyth did it single-handedly on a boat commemorating a nationalised industry.

But a quarter of a century later, it has to be said that, however it is done, whether east to west, back to front, in a canoe or a catamaran, circumnavigation of the globe has become a bit of a ritual.

Two-and-a-half cheers only, then, for Samantha Brewster and her feat of lone sailoring. The tang of the salt off Tierra del Fuego, the threat of typhoons in Celebes; nothing can detract from the drama of this odyssey except that repeat mariners know what to expect.