 In 1969, the La Borde family set off on a circumnavigation of the globe, when Pierre was just 5 years old.They sailed in their home-built, 40-foot wooden ketch, "Humming Bird II".The voyage took approximately 4 years, and took them to such places as Panama, the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand (where Pierre's brother Andre was born on this trip), Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and South Africa.