In October 2013 I will be joining the Clipper 13-14 Round the World Yacht Race. Clipper is a bi-annual race for amateurs consisting of 12 identical 70 foot stripped down racing yachts.  The boats set off from London on 1 September and will now be stopping at various locations around the world before returning to the UK in July 2014. 

I will be joining the good ship ‘Mission Performance’ in Cape Town before heading to Albany in Western Australia and then round to Sydney.  We will then join around 100 other boats for the famous Sydney-Hobart race on Boxing Day before sprinting up to Brisbane.

For those who don’t know me that well, my sailing experience has, until recently, been pretty much zero consisting in the main of being shouted at aged 10 stuck on or near a topper in wet and windy North Cornwall.  However with four weeks of Clipper training covering over 500 miles off the south coast of the UK I am now (hopefully) equipped for  over 7,000 miles of sailing across some of the biggest seas on the planet, including 80 ft waves in the 'Roaring Forties' of the Southern Ocean and the treacherous Bass Straits between Australia and Hobart.  There will be no chef, gin and tonics or sunbathing, just full-on racing and very little sleep! 

Whilst undertaking this one in a lifetime adventure I hope to raise money Family Friends, a charity set up in 1993 to support disadvantaged families living in deprived areas of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham.  FF operates a network of trained volunteers providing befriending and mentoring services, ‘helping families to help themselves’ through respect, encouragement and support.  FF was recently awarded the prestigious Queen's Award for Volunteering, one of only seven charities in London to receive the accolade in 2013.

Every penny I raise will go to this fantastic charity so please dig deep and donate now.

 

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