VIDEO : Sophie Hetherton and Craig Forsyth from York have joined the tiny number of people who can say they have circumnavigated the globe! They're live on Jon Cowap's show on Weds 23rd July. Round the World yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston pays tribute to their achievement

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Mission Performance credits team and aims to use crew lessons to inspire future crew generations

The founders of UK-based Learning and Development consultancy, Mission Performance personally understand the tough mental focus, stamina and team work that is required to compete in such challenging conditions. 

Defined as “practitioners, not professors,” founding partners Rob Lewis and Christiaan McLeod, both ex Royal Marine Officers, lead a consulting team which includes elite mountaineers and sports men and women and decorated soldiers and both men have personally led race winning expeditions to the North Pole.

During the past ten months, the company has acted as support network to the Mission Performance Clipper Race team, led by skipper Matt Mitchell as it strived to achieve its circumnavigation goal. An achievement less people in the world have completed than have climbed Everest. 

As well as being a team sponsor, Mission Performance is the learning and development partner for the Clipper Race. Just like its work with international corporations, the company has worked closely with officials, crew and skippers in ports during every stopover to analyse how individuals and teams learn and develop together and how they can best build and inspire positive team performance. 

Welcoming the team home to London’s St Katharine Docks, Rob Lewis stated proudly: “To sail around the world is an extraordinary accomplishment and one all our crew should feel so incredibly proud of.

“We at Mission Performance have lived and breathed their exciting journey at every step and have all been so impressed at the crew’s ability to overcome adversity and work as a team to achieve their goals. It has been incredibly exciting and rewarding for us to watch these fine individuals grow and develop together and return home as experienced explorers. Congratulations to all the crew on a fantastic team achievement.”

One person who is certainly taking some positive personal lessons from her experience is 19-year-old Sophie Hetherton, Mission Performance crew member, and the youngest ever person to complete the Clipper Race.

Commenting on the race experience, Sophie said: “I still find it hard to believe what we’ve just done. Last year when the race started, I was 18, just out of school and had never really done anything to challenge myself. I made myself an early promise to embrace every aspect of the experience and immerse myself fully.

“Sailing the world and interacting so much with a wide range of ages, backgrounds and personalities on board was an incredible life experience for me. We never had conflict on our boat, our skipper Matt taught us to communicate openly every day which helped us all develop great respect for each other and I always felt equal and valued.

“I would love to inspire more young people like myself to do the Clipper Race. Aside from being a huge adventure, it is an incredible life development experience that I highly recommend. I’ve learnt how to communicate with people of all ages and work with them as a team to cope with very challenging situations. My confidence has grown huge amounts and I know, going forward to University and beyond, that I will take these life lessons with me.”

Delivery back to Gosport

On Monday we readied Mission Performance for the motor sail back to Gosport. Having said more goodbyes we slipped lines at 3 pm out of St Katharine Docks and down the Thames. Ten of us were on board; Myself, Matt, Kate, Derek, Ben, Richard, Mike (leg 5), Ross (1), Jo (1-4) and Karen (who works for Mission Performance). We passed the White Cliffs of Dover and the Clipper training grounds in the Solent where it all began for me a year ago, arriving into Gosport marina to a small, but select band of people who work for Clipper to welcome home CV23  and all the other warriors who had done their jobs so well. One last trip to the pub and one last night on the boat, before the final full day of deep cleaning that was to be done.

On the Wednesday before I headed back to Yorkshire, I went round to say goodbye and thank some of the Clipper Ventures team who work in the offices, without their assistance I would not have been able to achieve any of this adventure! Then more tearful goodbyes, before the drive home. The fields were the same as a year ago with the corn being cut, nothing seemed to have changed, except as I got nearer to home there were lots of yellow bikes parked up along the village roadsides; Have I missed something in Yorkshire?

Our arrival back into Gosport

Justin Taylor, Race Director (far left) with some of the Team who make dreams come true!

Goodbye to the Skipper

Yorkshire

                           

One last ace to play.

We finished our last race in the early hours of Saturday morning at Southend, consistent right to the end in 12th place (at least we are a very reliable boat). The boats then got into a parade with us lying in 4th and proceeded up the Thames back to St Katharine Dock from where the race started nearly a year ago. At the Thames Barrier we were met by The Mission Performance support boat with friends from school and family waving and shouting, it was a great start to the homecoming. 

As the London skyline passed by and Tower Bridge came into view we all knew things on our little boat were never going to be the same again, but with Matt at the helm we had one last ace to play... Just as the parade reached the dock entrance, the leaders continued straight on under the now Raised Tower Bridge, Matt turned the wheel hard to starboard and we were through the lock and into St Katherine Dock 1st; We were the 1st boat home!!! The whole arena was packed out and cheering, an amazing sight to see. The other boats then each came in one by one to the same great welcome. Last in was Henri Lloyd, the overall winner of the whole race, arriving to the biggest cheer. There then followed presentations on stage for all the boats and crew as we were all winners, having sailed round the World. When the presentations were over it was the chance for all crews to meet their friends and families for very emotional reunions. Once I had met up with everyone, done a few interviews and had a celebratory drink or two, I then headed off to a party in the evening for all the crews at The Folly Bar in London. 

On Sunday I went down to the boat to start saying the 1st goodbyes, a part of me thinks this whole thing is just a dream and it never happened. Have I just sailed round the World? I don't want to wake up and find I never did it!

The Contented Dementia Trust

My Round the World sailing adventure is drawing to a close, I hope you have enjoyed reading my blogs and posts over the last year. Please can I tell you of the charity I am hoping to raise some money for. The Contented Dementia Trust is a small charity helping people cope with the effects of dementia and it's easy to donate through the following link:

     www.justgiving.com/seapupsophie .  Thank you.

Bouncing our way back home.

After arriving into Den Helder late at night we spent the next few hours being given a great welcome; we were presented with our own clogs and I tried some local Herring? 

The next day I went with some friends by train to Amsterdam and spent the night there. I visited Dam square, walked along the canals, visited the Rembrandt House museum and went on a canal cruise. It was nice having two days to relax and see the sights of a city which has a lot to do with history of art. We then went back to Den Helder on the train to do some work on the boats the next day. We finished the deep cleaning and other little jobs and had a big clean out of things we didn't need; when we arrive into Gosport there will be a lot of work to do on the boat.

So today it has been back to the race, all the Round the World crew had their photo taken with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and then we set off at lunch time. Initially we were in light winds and it was going to be a kite hoist start; strangely the last time we had one of these was when we left Southend on our first ever race, how times have changed! Unfortunately as the countdown ended we found ourselves pointing the wrong way and unable to turn around as the wind had died on us and everyone else made off at good speed. Eventually we turned round, but were well behind. Over the next hour we slowly crawled our way up the fleet and an embarrassing start had been overcome and we found ourselves in 2nd place! All was going well, the wind was building and we were flying along! But then suddenly there was a bang and the kite ripped all the way from the top to the bottom... it was none other than Bruce, our lightweight kite, we did a record recovery, which a few other boats commented on over VHF! and within minutes Bruce was out of the water and Bwian our medium weight kite was up, we had lost a couple of places but the team did a great job! Now Bwian is back down, the Yankee 2 and Staysail are up and we are bouncing over large waves toward Southend...... Not long now.

Me, 'No Likey' and 'Likey'

Here is a random list of some of the things I will not miss and also the things I will miss when I wave goodbye to my life on the Clipper Race;

Dislikes...

1) Saying goodbye to crew members who have had to leave through injury or because they have finished their race.

2) Slamming upwind; With the boat tilting over, trying to sleep, cook or go to the heads is very difficult!

3) Squalls; they bring wind and rain... And normally too much of it! They are unpredictable and make it hard to prepare a sail plan.

4) Cold weather makes the watches drag on, I really struggled with the cold in the Pacific, I could never get warm unless I was in my sleeping bag!

5) When the weather files sent to us tell us one thing and the actual weather does something else... Normally we find ourselves sailing into large wind holes!

6) Having to put on cold and wet clothing.

7) Corned beef.

8) Having no warm showers... Wet wipes only!

9) Not knowing what's going on back on land, I have emails but I miss out on all the latest news

10) Having other Clipper yachts over taking us!

Likes...

1) Making new friendships

2) Seeing sunrises and sunsets.

3) The hard, physical work is very rewarding.

4) The chance to see some amazing wildlife.

5) Getting into my warm Gauss sleeping bag after a cold and wet watch.

6) Mother days; making bread and cakes and having to whole day to make the crews meals... Then the reward of a full night off from watch duties.

7) Getting into a port and experiencing the different cultures.

8) Being on the helm and surfing down gigantic waves and getting some great speeds!

9) The banter and random conversation we have during our watches.

10) Over taking other Clipper yachts!

'Not all plain sailing'

So there was me thinking it would be 'all plain sailing' round the top of Scotland. However the past few days have been exciting and tough. We've had a few incidents on board, the other day the wind had started to build as a large low pressure system came over us, helming became increasingly difficult and when the other watch came back on, more pressure built up on the starboard wheel, then all of a sudden we heard a bang and saw that the cable that runs from the steering wheel to a drum that turns the rudder had completely snapped, the result... no steerage, but luckily the port helm was still working! The down side is that this wheel was on the low side and pushing on through the bad weather, we have been getting soaked as the low side is in the water a lot of the time! Another incident involved where the propeller shaft comes back inside the boat, this was leaking in a lot of water and consequently the water leaked into all the areas around the accommodation including where crew bags were kept and quite a few items of clothing got wet.  

I have really enjoyed this race, it has been a different experience as a Watch Leader, Claire has been my assistant and I have also had the help of Stephen, Jack, Paddy and Richard on my watch. I know how the boat runs and how to do sail changes, but the new aspects have been; I have to keep checking the boat is performing to its best, that it has the right sail plan up and if circumstances change like the wind direction or speed, I then have to inform Matt. It can be lot of pressure at times but I have enjoyed the challenge.

Now I have six days in Holland, before the last race to London and the finish, so I will have sometime to reflect on the whole race for me so far, I will let you know my thoughts in a day or two!

It really was a LegenDerry Week!

On Saturday we spent most of the day getting the boat ready to sail the following day. Then we went to the crew briefing for the next race to Den Helder and I was also told that I would be be a Watch Leader on this leg with Claire as my assistant. We will be racing with the minimum number of crew, so I thought it would be a good idea  to go and buy lots of chewing gum and mints to bribe my team with to get the best performance out of them! I then went to bed early for once in the week.

Wow! What an amazing send off from Derry-Londonderry. Early on Saturday morning I went down to the docks to stow my bags for sea, all crews then went off for a bacon bap and drink (tea and coffee!) before we set off on our parade of sail along The Foyle. Thousands of people lined the riverside to see us off. It was great weather and a great way to end a great week, but there was still more to come. After motoring towards the mouth of the River Foyle we reached an area close to Greencastle. With all boats lined up and in formation we watched an amazing display by the Red Arrows for about half an hour, let's just say their formations were a lot smarter than ours! Straight after they had finished we started the race. 

The parade of sail along the Foyle

                     In tight formation!                             

For the past 48 hours we have been sailing in light winds, but are now off Pentland Firth between mainland Scotland and the Orkney's which is a 5 mile wide passage. We must make the tidal gate in time otherwise we could be stuck for hours, the tide will help us massively, the first boat through will most likely be the one to arrive into Holland first!