Ten months, 35,000 miles of ocean racing and around 400 people facing the challenge of a lifetime. When the starting gun goes off for the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race on 13 September 2009 the fleet of ten sleek, stripped down 68-foot yachts will embark on a full circumnavigation of the globe. And I am one of these lucky 400!
Setting off from the Humber in the north east of England on 13 September 2009, the route will take the fleet of ten identical 68-foot racing yachts on a breathtaking, ten-month odyssey around the globe.From Europe across the Atlantic Ocean to South America, on to Africa, Australasia, Singapore, China, across the planet's largest expanse of water, the Pacific Ocean, to the USA, through the Panama Canal, one of man's great engineering triumphs, through the Caribbean to the east coast of the North American continent and back across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.
The internationally sponsored yachts will finally cross their outward track to complete the circumnavigation shortly before the triumphant and emotional return to the Humber in July 2010.
Alison and I are putting up the money for me to sail on leg 4, (5,500 miles from Australia to China), starting on the 3rd January 2010 and leg 5 (the longest individual leg, expecting to take 35 days) from China to San Francisco, across the Pacific Ocean. For more details, please go to www.clipperroundtheworld.com) So everything you generously give will go to this great charity, so please donate and help me raise as much as possible, as I take on this challenge of a lifetime. Many, many thanks, Jeff.