Sailing the worlds oceans has been my dream for a long time, maybe even a tiny bit of an obsession. I remember lying in my bed, I was 5 or 6 years old, with my cuddly toy dog listening to the rain and wind beating on the windows of my bedroom and pretending to be on a sailboat in a howling gale. I'd check on deck whether all was well and then go back below (under the covers) to continue to listen to the sound of wind and rain until I fell asleep. I'd read the book about the Flyer's entry in the Whitbread Around The World Race over and over again and imagined myself doing something similar. Then you grow up and new thoughts, possibilities, priorities, worries and events take over and you end up living the life that you are leading. My life has ended up in a hectic chaos of all sorts, both physically and mentally; a never relenting feeling of restlessness governs my daily routines. I've read book after book about amazing ocean voyages and it wasn't until I read Adrian Flanagan's accounts of his vertical circumnavigation where he describes the exact feeling of restlessness, that I realised I had to do something adventurous at sea, something big. Not as big as his achievement or Ellen MacArthur's or Isabelle Autissier's or Henk de Velde's, or all these other heroes and heroine's of the oceans but my own thing.
After evenings of milking the world wide web for yachts I could afford, countless plans of where to sail to which ocean to cross and how to shape my adventure I got restless and in need of a quick fix: I booked a channel hop sailing weekend in Januari with a sailing school because I needed to go sailing. It turned out the skipper/instructor had skippered the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race the year before and listening to him I decided an event like that could be exactly what I was looking for: a fixed route that would take me to parts of the world that are not easily accessible, a team effort, a purpose built ocean going yacht, affordable AND a short lead time. So... I checked the website, had a few sleepless nights and panic attacks, quit my job, put my earthly belongings in storage and signed up.
In a fortnight I will start in the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race 09-10.
In a fortnight I will start in the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race 09-10.
