Two men in their 60s are among four Scots who have completed a once in a lifetime global sailing race.
61-year-old Ross Dunlop from Edinburgh and 64-year-old Michael Almond from Dunfermline were joined by 40-year-old Vickie Leslie and Michael Ferguson from Edinburgh who completed the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and landed back in Portsmouth.
Led by a professional Skipper and First Mate, more 700 crew aged between 18 and 75 and representing more than 50 nationalities have raced 11 identical 70ft yachts in this incredible challenge that took 11 months.
Vickie Leslie, from Shetland, completed all of the 14 stages of the race and was on board the overall winning team yacht called Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam and joins an elite group of people who have circumnavigated the globe.
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She picked Fremantle in Australia as her favourite stop and it was the first stop that they had won an individual part of the race and sparked their overall victory.
On arrival in Portsmouth, Vicki said: "It hasn’t really sunk in yet! It’s been sometimes a long eleven months but also it's flown by and feels like it wasn’t that long ago we were heading out in the other direction. It doesn’t feel real yet!
“Thankfully I’ve had a really nice bunch of people to sail with. On the boat, you become a really tight knit community and you’re always looking after one another.
“My favourite stopover, other than Oban, was Fremantle in Australia. I had lots of family come to that stopover but also it was the first time we won an individual race and thought we can do this. We kept on going from there!
“A circumnavigation is a big deal and a huge achievement for me - I wasn’t sure if I could do it when I set out. To win just doesn't feel real!”
People involved don’t need to have any prior sailing experience and they can choose to take on the full round the world challenge or pick one or multiple of the race legs.
More than 40 percent of the crew have never sailed before signing up to take part.
The race crew take on an intensive compulsory four-stage training programme before going on to take on some of the most challenging conditions that can be served up around the rowlrd from freezing temperatures and 40-foot waves to the blistering heat and flat calms of the tropics.
Michael Ferguson, who is from Edinburgh but lives in Spain, also completed the full eight legs of the race on the Punta del Este team yacht. After reaching the dock in Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, he said: “It's just beginning to sink in - the welcome back here into Portsmouth has been amazing and knowing our friends and family are just up here waiting for us is so great. It hasn’t sunk in just yet! Great feeling, great achievement.
“Circumnavigation means everything to me. It’s superseded all expectations. The sheer power and isolation of the Southern Ocean was amazing. To make it through that, is such a big life achievement.”
A number of other Scots took part in various earlier legs of the race which was founded by Sir Robin-Knox Johnston, who was the first person to sail solo, non-stop around the world.
They set sail from Portsmouth on September 3, 2023 and have sailed to Puerto Sherry, Spain, Punta del Este, Uruguay, Cape Town, South Africa, Fremantle, Newcastle and Airlie Beach, Australia, Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam, Zhuhai and Qingdao, China, Seattle, USA, Panama, Washington DC, USA, and Oban, Scotland before coming full circle back to Portsmouth.
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