on Tuesday, becoming the first black man to circumnavigate the globe alone via the southern oceans.

"I'd do it again tomorrow if I could,'' he said as he docked his 47-foot cutter Commitment a week after leaving Bermuda -- his first and last stop on the trip.

He was greeted by hundreds of cheering and singing schoolchildren who had tracked his journey by computer as part of lessons.

"There they are, all up there,'' said Mr. Pinkney, 56, a grey-bearded grandfather, pointing to the children on the Charlestown Navy Yard wharf as he leapt ashore and embraced his wife, Ina. "That's what kept me going.'' The licensed captain set sail from Boston on August 5, 1990, calling at Bermuda before sailing south past the coast of South America, then across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Town, South Africa and on to the Australian island of Tasmania.

On the second leg of his journey he sailed around Cape Horn and back up the coast of South America, stopping off at Bermuda last month to see close friends who have been monitoring his progress.

Only 25 people have made such a circumnavigation of the world's southern oceans, said Ms Sarah Benet of Boston Voyages in Learning, an educational group that teaches children about the sea. More than 100 mariners had circumnavigated the globe by cutting across the Panama and Suez canals, but the southern route "separates the wimps from the sailors'', she said. "You go through the fearsome southern oceans.'' Mr. Pinkney said the worst moment of the trip came when the boat rolled and a bottle of maple syrup spilled all over the cabin. "It took me about a week to get it all out of everything,'' he said. "It was dripping through the light fixtures.'' Disaster also struck during his last visit to Bermuda, when the cable for his gear shift broke in St George's Harbour and he was unable to stop his boat smashing into a Police launch.

Mr. Pinkney hinted at the fears and joys of sailing 27,000 miles alone -- his cutter was knocked over three times in huge storms and he asked his wife to pray for him as he rounded Cape Horn -- but dwelled on his hope to inspire kids.

"The whole idea of this was to tell you one thing,'' he said. "No matter who you, where you come from, no matter what they tell you, you and your dream are important and do-able.''