Welcome to the Home page of my Clipper 2019-2020 Adventure Blog, first published in May 2018 and updated on 22 March 2020 and New Year’s Eve 2021!
“Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.” – Izaak Walton
“”Jobs fill your pockets, but adventure fills your soul.” – Jaime Lyn
Towards the end of 2017 I signed up to complete Leg 2 (across the South Atlantic from South America to South Africa), Leg 3 (across the Southern Ocean from South Africa to Australia), Leg 6 (across the North Pacific from China to the USA), and Leg 8 (across the North Atlantic from the USA to the UK), a total of some 17,395 miles and about 96 days at sea of the 2019-2020 Clipper Round The World Yacht Race. This is MY Everest! I started writing this blog in May 2018.
What follows are my thoughts, preparations, trials, tribulations, plans, doubts, training and finally MY RACE itself. In fact everything “Clipper” from May 2018 until I finish the final leg in my own words with (hopefully!) pictures and videos. So hit the “follow” button and join me on what I already believe will be the most challenging adventure I have yet undertaken.
Oh yes…..before I forget….. I’m funding the adventure and all associated costs myself but I am planning to raise money for two charities close to my heart – The National Autistic Society and Diabetes UK and along with my crewmates and every other yacht, I will also be raising money for the Race Official Charity – UNICEF UK. . I have JustGiving pages set up for The National Autistic Society and Diabetes UK at
https://www.justgiving.com/teams/keithsclipperadventure
and for UNICEF UK at
https://www.justgiving.com/KeithWinstanley-TeamUNICEF
– please take a look.
March 2020 update:
I am part of the team UNICEF crew. By mid March 2020 I had already completed Leg 2 from Punta del Este, Uruguay to Cape Town, South Africa; 4050 nautical miles across the South Atlantic, and Leg 3 from Cape Town to Fremantle. Western Australia (via, in our case, Durban), a race that should have been 4750 nautical miles but, due to our medical emergency, ended up being 6547 nautical miles. That’s a total (so far) of 10,597 nautical miles in every condition from flat calm wind holes to Violent Storm Force 11.
By 22 March this website comprised 113 separate blogs. Blogs 01 to 08 written between 13 May 2018 and 1 July 2018 cover the build up; Blogs 09 to 61 cover the period up to Crew Allocation including my first three training events afloat; Blogs 62 to 84 cover the period from Crew Allocation to Race Start and up to my departure to South America; Blogs 85 to 105 written between 7 October 2019 and 20 January 2020 cover my experiences during Legs 2 and 3 and Blogs 106 onwards bring you right up to date. 2022 will start with Blog 134 and the latest edition of the Race route. It is to be hoped that 2022 will actually see this Race complete.
The Clipper 2019-2020 Race has reached Subic Bay in the Philippines (never on the original Race route) where the yachts have been moth-balled and the Race postponed due to the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. I returned early from the Philippines having suffered a haemorrhage and lost the sight in my left eye! Now fully recovered, there are plans (and we all know what can happen to plans!) for the Race to restart from the Philippines in Feb/Mar 2022. Even Francis Drake went round the world quicker than this.
Want to learn more?????
Then read on ………
Keith
Pretty Much All At Sea 