200 non-professional sailors have traded in their traditional Christmas dinner for sailing round the world as part of the Clipper Race.
The event, which departed Portsmouth on 3 September and has so far raced to Spain, Uruguay, South Africa and Australia, and now sees the fleet sail 2,500 nautical miles in an offshore race round Australia, from Fremantle to Newcastle.
Clipper Round The World Race 2023/24 – Leg 4, Race 5 onboard Unicef from Fremantle, Australia to Newcastle, Australia, December/January, 2023/2024. Photo: © Tiger Brisius/16 Degrees South/Clipper Race
The sailors have already spent Christmas on board and will likewise be there for New Year’s Eve.
They are set to arrive into Newcastle, from 1 to 4 January 2024. Crew from 55 nations form the eleven teams, each led by a professional skipper and first mate. Some crew had no sailing experience before signing up for the four stage intensive training programme with participants taking part in one or multiple stages, with over 100 competing in the full eleven month circumnavigation.
Crew have diverse professions amongst them, including tattoo artist, dairy farmer, aerospace engineer and landscape architect – all with the same purpose of crossing an ocean (so far crossing the North and South Atlantic, most recently facing the notorious Roaring Forties, in the South Indian Ocean).
Clipper Round The World Race 2023/24 – Leg 4, Race 5 onboard Unicef from Fremantle, Australia to Newcastle, Australia, December/January, 2023/2024. Photo: © Tiger Brisius/16 Degrees South/Clipper Race
