I'm 46 years old and have spent all that time in Essex where I was born and bred and currently sail from the east coast. Although an avid reader from an early age of anything nautical or adventurous I was a late comer to sailing. When I finally discovered it in my mid twenties I was still playing at being a canoeist and mountaineer until sailing finally won when I got married and decided hanging on to a tiller was more sociable that hanging off a mountain.

From my earliest sailing days I jumped at the chance to go off-shore and competed in local EAORA events and joined a few extended cruises….well they seemed a long way at the time.
My Jaguar 25 is my first proper boat and whilst not necessarily, and in hindsight, my ideal boat she has practically been rebuilt from stem to stern and strengthened in hopefully all the key areas.

Being unaware of the Jester Challenge until last year I had been preparing for a trip to the Azores for some time which culminated in a 5 day single-handed 'practice' in 2005 and my first Azores attempt in June 2007. Unfortunately I had to return due to hitting an extended period of light airs in the first few days which put me so far behind what was an already tight schedule and with the need to still be employed when I got back, I was in Falmouth again after 8 days and 630 miles.

The Jester Challenge is a great opportunity for me to try once again when I'm hoping my attempt last year will only add to my chances of succeeding this year. It will certainly be more sociable.

It’s not the getting there but the journey on the way. Being such a novice I've been delighted by the help and support from the many sources of information I have managed to track down including:
 The author of a small boat single-handed transatlantic passage which appeared in PBO in 2005.
 The author of an article found on the internet of a 1997 Azores passage.
 A local yachtsman who went transatlantic with his family in 2004.
 Someone who did the AZAB in the 1980's with a crew who had only one leg!!!.
 Local sailmakers.
 Local boat builders.
 The Portuguese weather forecaster for Adrian Flannigan's circum-navigation.
 A certain Jester Challenger the very moment his legs hit dry land after the Jester Atlantic Challenge.

God Bless them all.