After two years at sea, sailor Paul Vibert has finally returned home to Cape Breton. His journey ended as he docked his 30-foot sailboat in Louisbourg early Friday.

“Few things compare to actually seeing Canada over the bow, after I’ve been asking for it for so long,” says Vibert.

Vibert’s family travelled from their home of Miscou Island, New Brunswick to greet him at the dock in Louisbourg.

“We were just beside ourselves, just to be able to be here to meet him, to actually physically catch the mooring line when he threw it,” says Vibert’s nephew, Robert.

Vibert started the journey with his nephew Carl, who had undergone a double-lung transplant as he battled cystic fibrosis.

But after about 2,000 miles, Carl’s new lungs started to fail him. He died a short time later.

The last time they spoke, he asked his uncle to finish what they had started.

“When things got bad, I’d touch his picture, ask him to do what he could to see me through,” says Vibert. “Carl was with me every day.”

Battling through rough seas, ocean surf and all kinds of weather, there were times Vibert went more than 50 days without seeing land.

He sailed the southern tip of Africa, saw massive coral reefs off Australia, but says our Atlantic waters were the harshest.

“The last 500 miles to the coast of Nova Scotia were among the worst. That includes the Indian Ocean, where I was dismasted, and the coast of Africa, where it’s dangerous.”

Finishing in Louisbourg nearly two years to the day after he started, Vibert’s family and friends say they couldn’t be prouder.

“A small-town boy from Miscou Island, a little island up in northern New Brunswick, to go this far and to complete these accomplishments and goals he set for himself, it’s amazing,” says Robert Vibert.

When Vibert returns to Miscou Island, he says his first mate Carl will be with him in spirit, as he has every step of the way.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Ryan MacDonald