How It Got Started
In May of 2019 I saw the Clipper Race on BT Sport. It is the only sailing event that supports amateur sailors and those with no previous sailing experience to undertake a record breaking 40,000 nautical mile race around the world on a 70-foot ocean racing yacht. I had been looking for a challenge and this one grabbed my imagination. www.clipperroundtheworld.com/about/about-the-race
Time to leave behind my couch potato life style.
I went to London for a presentation about the event and also an interview to check that I was not too crazy and had the resilience for the challenge.
Having been accepted onto the programme I signed on for 3 out of the 8 legs.
I will sail Leg 4, Australia Coast-To-Coast for 20 days, Leg 5 The Asian-Pacific up to the Philippines and China for 34 days and finally across The Mighty Pacific, Leg 6 to Seattle for 37 days.
So that’s December 2019 - April 2020 accounted for.
I missed the Crew Day but made sure I was in London to take part in the departure ceremony, Parade Of Sail in September.
This is my beautiful yacht named for our Host Port Punta Del Este in Uruguay.
Hobnobbing
That’s me at the centre of the toast for the safe return of the yacht and crew. Next to me in the blazer is Sir Robin Knox-Johnston CBE RD* who in 1969, became the first person to perform a single -handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe. Sir Robin and William Ward OBE founded the Clipper Race and Clipper Ventures who organise the event.
See the Clipper Race flotilla leaving London
https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/news/view-gallery/race-start-departure-ceremony
More hobnobbing with the Uruguayan military attaché and my Skipper Jeronimo Santos Gonzalez. Jeronimo is third generation sailor, his father and grandfather were sea captains, and he is the first Spanish skipper in the clipper race.
I was particularly impressed with his personal values and approach to the team. As we were lining up for the procession, through the crowd Jeronimo saw a couple of crew who did not have access to their official clothing. He straight away borrowed two jackets not being worn by other crew members and pulled the two from the crowd into the procession.
I heard him say, “We leave no one behind”.
The crew were thrilled and saw a true measure of the man.
