Motivation

Why does a 34 year old man, with little sailing experience, married in a great job, decide that it is a good idea to spend 4 weeks on a 70' yacht, racing 11 other yachts across almost 4,000 miles of some of the roughest seas in the world?

I am not really sure what the real answer is - I can trot out the old cliches that are about doing something different, wanting a challenge, because I can, why not? but the reality is that they don't really answer the question and at the moment, I am not 100% sure I can articulate it myself but maybe when I get back in October, I will be able to give it a better stab.

I have never spent more than 24 hours on a yacht or boat of any size and when I have been on a yacht, it has normally been with a glass of something in hand - and I have been watching and not really partaking in anything that required any form of sealegs.

Having done a couple of things that have left people questioning my sanity, such as cycling across Bosnia in 3 days with a friend, it doesn't really come out of the blue that I might do something a little odd but I don't think anyone had me down as someone who might try and be an Ocean Racer.

I wanted to do something beneficial with my sabbatical month - Travel, Charity work, learn a new skill - but there is very little that allows you to do it all in one go and only in 1 month.

Travel - the chance to see a part of the world that 99.9% of the population don't get to see - the middle of the ocean has always fascinated me from afar - David Attenborough has brought it to life so beautifully that sitting on the sofa, I have felt that I have been there and now the chance to see it for real has presented itself.

Learn a new skill - my grandfather was a passionate sailor, some might say it was to get away from home after retirement, but some of my earliest memories are heading out in his yacht Cotehele off the coast of South Cornwall - trailing a mackaral line and being convinced that I had caught a whale - and that was just the sea's power on the line. I have done some sailing but the chance to learn to do it properly, on some of the biggest seas in the world is just too good to miss - a bit like learning to fly in a fighter jet.

Charity - from the outside looking in, it appears more that I am doing this for myself, and that is, to a great degree, true - but I am going to use the experience to raise funds for 2 charities that are close to me - so whilst I will be plunging about in the ocean, getting soaked through and wondering whether the sun will ever appear again, I am hoping that I will be able to do some good for those less fortunate than myself

The Not Forgotten - working with retired, injured and disabled men and women from the British armed forces - http://www.nfassociation.org/

KidsCo - working with disadvantaged children in London and the south of England - http://www.kidsco.org.uk/

So whilst I am potentially suffering, please give generously to help those whose lives are an on-going struggle - details on how to do this and what I am going to do to raise additional funds will appear on this page in the new year

I think that I have given some good rational reasons as to why I am going to do this, but the truth is that the cliches are probably true - thats why they are trotted out so often - it is because I want to challenge myself and it is partially because of the feeling of 'why not?'.

At the same time, I do have to question the readiness of my wife, parents and friends to agree that it was a great idea.

Question Time part 1

About 4 days after I had asked for more information, a brown envelope dropped through the letter box at home with the red Clipper Ventures stamp on the front and a slight heart in the mouth moment - is this a yes or a no to the next stage.

After opening the envelope, I was confronted by a series of questions and choices -

- Which legs to do?
- Can I afford it?
- Is this a good idea?
- What if work won't let me have more than 4 weeks off?
- How can I make my application appear different to everyone elses?

Having completed it all, after much deliberation, reworking of the 'personal statement' and doing the maths, it went in the post to Gosport and then the waiting began - and 'the trying to keep a secret but not being very good at it' was out in force - I broke the embargo first when I made some cryptic reference to some friends at a Hawaiian party - seemed appropriate to talk about yachting in that sort of environment - although our friends were slightly bemused about the fact that it was not Cuba Libres and cruising with a fishing line out.

1 week later - an email asking me to visit Gosport for a chat

The starting point

Having worked for the same company, Omnicom Media Group, for the last 10 years, despite it being a job that I only ever planned to do for about 18 months, the company policy has paid dividends and I have been awarded a 1 month sabbatical as a reward for my 'loyalty'. Questions could be asked as to whether it is enforced loyalty as no one has tried really hard to get me to leave, but that's by the by.

Being told that you can have a month off is great - working out what to do with it, is more tricky as there are so many options

- Charity work
- Travel
- Learn a skill
- Do the gardening

After much very careful consideration, including many late night discussions with Katy, my wife, the decision was taken that I should try and do something that would combine as many of these options as possible, so the next challenge was to identify what they options there are that make combining all of those elements both possible and exciting.

Its not often that the commute into London on the train can be inspiring - there are the odd moments such as when the sunlight hits the Shard but the experience of sharing it without other grumpy commuters on a delayed, cold rattling train somehow removes the romanticism but one morning as I walked through King's Cross, I was confronted by a poster that challenged me to do something different. Something nagged for the rest of that day at work and then the laptop threw up the answer and by the next morning the more information form was completed.