every effort must be made to get youngsters enthused about their education and future.

The Chicago native, who now tours the United States as a motivational speaker, made history last summer when he became the first black yachtsman to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly.

He spent a total of 228 days at sea on his 47-foot yacht Commitment , which has since been sold.

Mr. Pinkney said his return to the Island was a very special one, because of the "incredible support'' he received when he stopped in Bermuda on both legs of his trip.

"I felt that my method of paying (Bermudians) back would be my returning here and doing the same thing in the schools here that I do back in the States,'' he said.

"I speak to the children and get them enthused about education, get them enthused about their future and broaden their horizons to their possibilities because, as we know, they are limitless if they are willing to make -- as the name of my boat implied -- the commitment.'' Mr. Pinkney has visited seven schools since his arrival last Sunday, and will be speaking to students at other institutions for the rest of this week.

"I find the excitement, the enthusiasm and the type of questions that come from the young people here are very much the same as I run into everywhere else, because children are basically the same,'' he said. "They are open vessels into which we pour the proper amounts of enthusiasm, education, hope, desire and a lust for life and the future.'' Explaining why he went on his two-year journey, Mr. Pinkney said at 50 he decided it was time to set out on "the great adventure'' he had been dreaming of for many years: a sailing trip around the world. The historical voyage, which took him around Cape Horn and the notoriously treacherous Cape of Good Hope, was undertaken for his two grandchildren.

"But I wanted it to be more than just an adventure,'' he said. "I wanted it to be a lesson for not only my grandchildren, but the young people around the country and wherever I went, that you can make your dreams come true.'' He said it was unfortunate how youngsters in the US and Bermuda are so highly affected by television.

"They see and take images from TV and assume they are real or as close to real as they're ever going to get,'' he said. "They rarely develop the full imagination that those of us who grew up with radio and reading books have.'' This makes reality vague to children and compounds their inability to see why the subjects they study in school are important, he said.

Using satellite technology, Mr. Pinkney's journey was monitored by some 30,000 school children in Boston, Chicago and other US studies.

Mr. William Pinkney.