St. George's Harbour yesterday, nearly two years after they waved him off at the start of his solo voyage.

Wearing a Bermuda cap and clutching a celebratory bottle of beer, the Chicago grandfather told his small, rain-sodden welcoming committee: "There were times I didn't think I would be here. I was expecting a beautiful day but the only weather I had worse than this was at Cape Horn.'' Mr. Pinkney called at Bermuda in August, 1990, soon after his voyage started, and his return this week marks the final leg of the trip. He will be hailed as the first black yachtsman to circumnavigate the world solo via both capes when he sails back to his starting point, Boston, next month.

He was greeted yesterday by members of a circle of Bermudian friends which has grown since Ms Shirley Perinchief of Southampton met him on a New York skiing trip more than 20 years ago. Monitoring Harbour Radio anxiously, they were surprised when he arrived about two and a half hours early -- 26 days after leaving Brazil. Despite having no sleep for the last three days, he was soon sipping tea in the White Horse Tavern and entertaining them with stories of his trip.

"I had to come back here because otherwise they would have come and got me,'' said Mr. Pinkney, 56.

The trip has taken him from Boston to Bermuda, Brazil, South Africa, Tasmania and Uruguay, then back to Brazil and Bermuda -- a total of 228 days at sea. He said he steered around Cape Horn by hand after his wheel stopped working, battered by 40-foot seas and listening to jazz on his Walkman.

"When I was at sea the thing I missed most was conversation, but I got used to being alone,'' he said. "It's not as bad as people say it is. I wouldn't recommend solo sailing to everyone -- it's the kind of thing you have to be drawn to. You have to know yourself very well and enjoy being by yourself.

"The trip was hours and hours of boredom punctuated by minutes of sheer terror. I planned to do it in a year, but things broke and I found interesting things and interesting people.

"I didn't see a shark the whole trip, but I saw whales. And dolphins popped up out of nowhere and just hung around. I had a school of 30 or 40 of them one day.'' Mr. Pinkney's home comforts on his 47-foot yacht Commitment included 250 music tapes, a VCR, and pre-packed gourmet meals including lasagne, chicken a la king, and Salisbury steak.

His progress has been monitored by up to 30,000 schoolchildren across America in a special education programme aimed at helping them in maths and geography.

He hopes Commitment will become a training vessel.

LAST STOP -- Solo circumnavigator of the world Mr. Bill Pinkney greets well-wishers after sailing into St. George's for the final stage of his two-year voyage.