I have been sailing since 1985, starting with dinghies and working up through 18 ft trailer sailor then to a Jaguar 27.

In 1990 we decided as a family to take a year out so we rented out the house and bought a Hillyard 18 tonner. Over the course of the next year we did the Atlantic circuit including Madeira, Canaries, Caribbean, Bahamas, Florida, Bermuda and the Azores. We completed the trip covering 10000 miles returning one year and a day after we left.

Sailing then went into limbo for a few years till in 2003 we bought Sprinter, an Achilles 840. We had plans for a few longer distance cruises, which never seemed to work out; instead we spent most of our time in and around the Solent.

We had pretty much decided to sell Sprinter due to lack of use when tragically my wife Jill was diagnosed with advanced cancer of the kidney and she died in Aug 2006.

It was about then that I read about the Jester Challenge to the Azores. Going back to the Azores was one of the things we had both wanted to do; especially we had wanted to climb to the top of Pico, so the motive was there and the opportunity was there all that was required was to put my name down, and tell lots of people I was going – to make it harder to back out.