Fever pitch...

So the final morning has come around!!!! As I sit here, highly unorganised and with a little still to pack into my bag, I am an hour away from leaving home and heading to join the boats in Hull.

A weird weird feeling, but a really exciting one at the same time.

Jamaica's official naming ceremony is at 2 o'clock this afternoon so am hoping to make it over to that in time. I'll be blogging from each of the stop overs, so the first one will be up here when I arrive in La Rochelle in about a weeks time. I'l stick some photos up of the whole start debarcle then.

Well I better go adn finish packing, have some breakfast and hit the road, not going to happen on its own!

Sorry this has been a short and rather lame attempt at a big send off blog, some what lacking in expressing how exciting it all is. Thanks to all for the various send offs from work/london/home, much appreciated.

Keep in touch and keep your fingers crossed - we have alot to live up to now we've been named after the fastest man on earth...

Pete

Don't forget you can sponsor my barnardos fund raising efforts if you fancy - its a great cause and would be really appreciated. Just follow the links on the left hand side...

So close I can smell it...

So the clock is about to tick down into single figures in terms of days to race start and the emotional roller coaster is coming to a climax.

I’m about to set off on a ten month Round the World Yacht Race, and so naturally 99.9% of my mindset is being super excited about the coming months, to the point where I can’t really fathom the correct words to explain it. I’ve already said goodbye to a few people that I know I may never see again, depressing as that may sound I suppose its just reality when you go away for a long time. That’s the bit that makes up the other 0.1% unfortunately.

That’s not to belittle friendships that I have made by any means, (I will or course genuinely miss people, I am human!!!) but the race has been so long in coming for me, long before I knew some of my friends in London in fact. I first heard about the Clippers race when I was 18 maybe 19, so nearly 7 or 8 years its been lurking in the back of my mind. I’ve been incredibly lucky to do some great adventures in the interim (climbing trips to the Alps, Dolomites, Andes, cycling trips, overland travels aplenty etc.), but the 2920 days since I heard about the race is now about to become just a single digit – 9!!!! (I can tell even as I’m writing this article my excitement is rocketing)

As I write this the 10 68ft stripped out Clippers racing yachts have departed Gosport on the South Coast of the UK, where all of our training has happened and many a good beer shared in the Clarence pub. Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, Jamaica Lightning Bolt, Uniquely Singapore, Cork, Team Finland (the latest and final entry into the race), Qingdao, Cape Bretton Ireland, Hull & Humber, Spirit of Australia and California won’t be returning for just shy of a full year having complete a full circumnavigation in the mean time…

As for me, I’m finishing work this Friday which brings its own set of mixed emotions. Turner and Townsend have been incredibly supportive and I’ve met some great people here. From London I then head home to see family on the Wirral and on from there to the North East, each move signifying a step closer to the 2 o’clock start gun on Sunday 13th.

I’ll be blogging from each port about what we’re up to and of course writing about the events of each leg and posting photos back. On board, I’ll have a GComms account via the Satellite to send very short emails to a select group of family and friends.

I’ll make sure I blog again before I leave to say a final farewell. Thanks for following

Pete

Barnardos Fund Raising...

So its time to get my fundraising efforts off the ground for my charity that I'm racing for. I've decided to go with Barnardos for this adventure, one of the UK's leading Children's charities.

They do some really fantastic work and have over 400 projects in the UK now, helping with situations ranging from
drug misuse to disability, youth crime to mental health, sexual abuse to domestic violence, poverty to homelessness..

I'm really proud to be representing them so please give your support if you can! I've set up a justgiving page, which you can get to by clicking here.

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Pete

Some photos from the last race...

I was looking through the 07-08 race website the other day, and found some great photos from the last race which I thought i'd put up here.

There will be a specific person on each yacht that is responsible for media communications, video footage, still photography etc. This is a hugely important role as it communicates our story with all those back on land, particularly race sponsors and partners.

It is not a role which I myself am keen to pursue, as there are undoubtedly people that will be more skilled at this than me, however I do hope to be able to get some great photos and videos to be able to send back to Turner and Townsend, friends and family whilst I'm away.

It also holds another importance for me. I sincerely hope this is not the last major yacht race I do, so having a documented account, be it video, photography, text etc. will serve as a good reminder to continue pursuing ambitions in the world of ocean racing...

Anyway, there are a whole host of images on the 07-08 site, which you can get to through clipperroundtheworld.com, so go check them out! We've also found out that our PART C courses (both of them) are likely to head as far out as possible into the Atlantic. Will be our first taste of ocean sailing together and obviously a great chance to sail with our new skipper and to start working together as a crew! Only two and half weeks to go - can't wait....

Working with sponsors...

Apart from my Clipper training courses on the South Coast, I am also working with my Corporate Sponsors here in London.

For Leg 3 of the race, I am pleased to welcome Turner & Townsend, a multinational project management and cost management firm, as a corporate sponsor. I was recently able to take them along to visit one of the yachts, Hull and Humber, in St. Katherine's Dock in London. This is the Clipper 68 that I have requested to be on for the race, so it was great to see her with all the new branding finished!

I'll also be doing work with Turner & Townsend by writing articles for Trade publications and doing client events in both South Africa and Australia...