{"id":464,"date":"2025-09-25T05:37:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T05:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bobingonaboat.com\/staging\/2534\/?p=464"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:49:08","slug":"from-portsmouth-to-puerto-sherry-my-first-clipper-round-the-world-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobingonaboat.com\/staging\/2534\/from-portsmouth-to-puerto-sherry-my-first-clipper-round-the-world-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 1, Race 1 – From Portsmouth To Puerto Sherry: My First Clipper Round the World Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Departure From Portsmouth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re leaving Portsmouth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well it\u2019s finally arrived departure for the clipper, after nearly 18 months, we\u2019re off to Puerto Sherry, Spain, in the 1st race of clipper around the world yacht race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a very emotional morning, I\u2019ve made my coping plans to say my goodbye\u2019s early as it\u2019s probably the one thing I\u2019ve been dreading the most, since signing on the dotted line.   I leave for the short walk across to Gunwharf with Lynn, where the fleet is assembled. I\u2019ve said my goodbye\u2019s to the rest of my family at the house we had rented, then spent a few emotional moments at the gates of the marina before heading down to CV25, \u201cLondon Business School\u201d.  There is an emotional tension in the air, everyone is feeling it. Then Gavin, our skipper, came over and gave a massive hug, which meant a lot but only heightened my emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next few hours just lengthened the departure process, a necessary part of such a large commercial enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had team photos on the boat, off the boat and photos with our sponsors, then a parade through Gunwharf with all 10 boat teams, finally presentations on stage, before returning to our boats, then finally getting the boats ready to slip lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Team LBS at the Boat Naming<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is a very precise thing, choreographed down to the minute. Each boats, slips lines with three minute intervals, until we all head down into the Portsmouth docks area, raising our main sails, returning back in a line for our parade of sail. As we return past Gunwharf, massive crowds have now lined the shore line for miles, waving and cheering their loved ones as they leave for The Race Of Their Lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then drop all our banners and get ready to race. A standard gun start over a start line. The crew are ready to get going and with a bit of jostling for position to get the best start, the gun goes and we\u2019re off and we get a flyer.  Clipper have set up a short course, \u201ca can race\u201d more for the crowds and spectator boats. So all ten boats are racing the short course in the Solent. All my family are out on the water on one of the chartered ferries to watch the departure and as we come back around the last mark, I can see my family on the ferry, another emotional moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n