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I'm taking part in the Clipper Round the World race as part of the crew of the big blue UNICEF boat. We'll be competing with 10 other identical 70ft ocean racing yachts that are fast, functional and spartan. I will join for Legs 5 and 6, leaving Airlie Beach, Australia early January and hoping to arrive in Seattle, USA at the end of April.

I'm very fortunate to take 4 months to do what I have always wanted to do and experience the mental and physical challenge of a full-on ocean race, and the great feeling of achieving something amazing with a team.

What makes it even better is the opportunity to raise awareness and raise funds for UNICEF who do amazing work in some of the toughest places to help children in need - to keep them safe from harm, provide care, health and education and give them a fair chance to achieve their potential.

If you are able then please make a donation of whatever size for this good cause. Donations will go straight to UNICEF. I will match your donations so that together we can make a difference.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

End 2020 Update

It has been a strange year with a global pandemic that has had a profound impact on our lives. I hope you are all in good health and coping with the various restrictions. COVID-19 has put a big dent in our social lives but we have also learned to appreciate things that we perhaps took for granted.

I’m still very grateful for the generous support you have given to UNICEF. To date our boat has raised an amazing 96.000 GBP that will go towards the health, education and wellbeing of children in need.

Some of you will have followed the race on the Clipper Round the World website but I thought I would give you a personal update. I joined the crew in Airlie Beach, Australia on 12 Jan. It was great to see the crew mates I trained with in Portsmouth and meet the fellow sailors on the other 10 race yachts. There was an atmosphere of calm professionalism mixed with raucous fun. For a week we were very busy with stocking food and drink supplies, sail repairs, and turning
the boat inside out for cleaning, inspection and maintenance of every critical item from the winches to the water maker.

The start of the race was well offshore to pick up some of the fickle wind. We knew the first half of the 7500km race to Sanya in China would bring tactical light wind sailing and sweltering heat. The doldrums (or, more scientifically, the intertropical convergence zone) are notorious for periods of zero wind. We had days and days of glassy seas as we tried to pick our way though the New Guinea
archipelago. The heat was exhausting with the sun beating down and a steamy 38C below deck. Fresh water was strictly rationed for drinking and cooking and seawater used for everything else including bucket showers and brushing our teeth. Weeks of salt and moisture brought some, ahem, unattractive sores in certain places. It was not all agony though. The crew got on really well, we had the most spectacular sunsets you can imagine, schools of playful dolphins and
King Neptune who came on board when we crossed the equator to initiate the novices. Having sailed across the equator I can now carry a tattoo of a turtle (am still thinking about it …).

Communication with the outside world was limited to weather and fleet position updates, and crew had 1 MB per month for the occasional email. News started to trickle in about some virus and within 10 days or so we were informed that China had shut its borders and that our destination had been changed to Subic Bay in the Philippines.

In such light winds the race felt a bit like a lottery although some crews managed to make their luck better than others. We made a few tactical errors and reached Subic Bay in last place after 35 days on board. We were welcomed at 3am by a big crowd, film crews and boxes of cold beer that went down with a sizzle. It was quite special.

Denise and our youngest daughters Dorith and Juliette had come over to Subic Bay so we could spend a few days together and celebrate my 60^th birthday. We had a wonderful time enjoying the beach, the local sights and a few good Clipper parties. I was happy that they could meet my crew mates. They then went on to have a two week trip through Vietnam, and I went back to my boat chores.

Our disappointing result in the last race prompted some deep team discussions. I was convinced there was much more we could do to become a truly high performance team. We asked ourselves some important questions. Are we all equally committed to winning and prepared to put in the mental and physical effort? Are we prepared to put egos aside and share and learn from our mistakes so that we can grow as a team? Are we pooling our knowledge and experience? Can
we make our sail changes faster? Are we prepared to check and  adjust sail trim every 15 minutes day and night? Should we be more engaged in tactics and weather routing? We decided to give it our best.

I expected that the sailing would be great, but the people is what  made it very special. Getting on with 18 people on a 70ft race yacht with no comfort, no privacy and no escape is special. Forging a team that can race hard, safe and happy under the most challenging conditions is amazing.

We were supposed to race to Sanya in China but the world was starting to shut down in the face of the pandemic. The organization needed more time to work out alternatives so inserted a 2500km round trip race from Subic Bay to the Japanese island of Ishigaki and back. We came to the start with a focus and winning spirit we had not seen before. We raised our spinnaker on the starting line and pulled away from the rest of the fleet. We then spent the rest of the 8 day race jostling for position with the overall leader Qingdao, sometimes 30 miles apart and then crossing within a few 100m in the middle of the night. We did more sail changes to maintain optimum speed than in all of the previous month. We saw more than 35 knot wind and 6-7 m waves. One of the highlights was helming at night through the Taiwan Straits with Code 3 and full mainsail up, surfing down massive waves and setting a speed record of 27 knots. The boat was
like an untamed monster, and down below the noise of rushing water, the boat slamming into the waves and the winches being worked was deafening and soothing at the same time. We had an outstanding race and crossed the finish line in 2^nd place. The focus and hard work had paid off and the champagne shower was sweet!

The pandemic was now spreading and getting more severe. China and alternative destinations Korea, Japan, Canada or the US were closing down. The organization needed a bit more time so inserted short 4 day race up and down the west coast of the Philippines. We brought the same determination and thanks to a great tactical choice to be on the inside of a moving weather system we were in the top three for most of the race. However within miles of the finish line the wind died and some were luckier (smarter?) than us so we ended in a  respectable 5^th.

Returning on the quayside the mood around the pandemic had hardened. We found ourselves with 11 boats and some 200 sailors locked behind steel gates guarded by soldiers. We could order pizza and beer but not leave the pontoon. There was work to do on the boats but after 3 days most of us were ready for a change of
scenery. The authorities then declared that foreigners had 2 days to leave the country or risk being stuck in the Philippines indefinitely. We rushed to book seats on the few remaining flights out, packed our kitbags and left for the airport with a military escort.

That put an unexpected end to what has been an amazing adventure. Or rather, not an end but a break, as current plans are for the crews to come back to Subic Bay in August 2021 and continue the race to China and then across the North Pacific to Seattle and beyond. I’m committed to join again if circumstances allow so watch this space!

Thanks again for your support and interest. For now I want to wish you and your families all the best, and please stay healthy!