The Clippers arrived in Liverpool and the crowds that came out to see them was fantastic. As members on Liverpool Yacht club we managed to get behind the scenes and talk to some of the crew.

We had managed to get into Liverpool bright and early, so we joined the crowds wanting to talk to the crew who would be going off on the adventure of a lifetime around the world in the Clipper 2017 - 2018 yacht race. While we looked at the clipper yachts which are huge, I managed to talk to Jan who was one of the crew members on Unichef. She was going to do the one leg from Cape Town to Western Australia where her son lives. She had completed just four weeks of training of training before coming on board, but she would be tackling some of the worst waves in the world in the Southern Ocean. She had applied to join the Clipper race after meeting Sir Robin Knox Johnston in Hong Kong Airport, where she had three glasses of Champagne with him, so after chatting to him for a while, she was all fired up to try something completely different. The leg that she has signed herself up for was just one month, but it would be a gruelling trip.

I also managed to talk to Duncan and Art, who were on Garmin. Duncan was going to complete Legs 1 and 2, Leg 1 from Liverpool to Uruguay would take 35 days, while Leg 2 was from Uruguay all the way to Cape Town in South Africa would take 18 to 20 days. So by the end of two months he would of crossed the Atlantic Ocean twice. Prior to this trip Duncan was a dingy sailor, so that gave me some hope, as he had gone from dinghies to a 70ft yacht, while we would be going to a yacht a lot smaller. Again prior to this trip he had just completed the four week orientation course, but he had also done the delivery run which was five days of learning more about the boats and about working as a team. Art which was short for Arthur had been a cruiser before the trip, he had cruised around the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, in 36ft to 40ft boats, Art had enrolled on the full trip around the world. After coastal cruising he thought in for a penny, in for a pound and he would do all the Oceans. So he would be going to Punto del Este in Uruguay, then Cape Town then Fremantle, in Australia. In Australia, they would also be going to Sidney, then Hobart in Tasmania, before going to Airlie Beech in Australia. Then it would be on to Sanya and Quigdao in China, before going on to Seatle in America, then through the Panama canal to New York, before returning to Liverpool in 2018.

We then watched as the yachts moved from Canning dock to Albert dock. The Liverpool yacht which was the last yacht to enter Albert dock got a huge cheer from the crowd. As members of Liverpool Yacht Club we were then able to walk behind the yachts, while the rest of the crowds were much higher up. Of course Prudence wanted to get involved so she sneaked aboard the Liverpool Yacht. I also managed to talk to the skipper of the Liverpool Yacht who is a professional yacht skipper. He too started in Dinghies at 14, before joining the Royal Marines, now he is an instructor in the Solent and he has been doing that for the last three years. I asked why the Liverpool yacht was pink and he said that they just wanted a statement and it certainly is that.