Gliding through the waves gives a taste of the high seas

THEY lost their first yacht after striking a reef in the Java Sea, they capsized 3,200 kilometres off the American coast, and they have sailed through the teeth of wild Pacific storms.

But yesterday, the crew of the only Irish entry in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race faced a sinister new threat – me.

Cork Clipper skipper, Hannah Jenner, 30, who has completed 10 Atlantic crossings, gave me, a complete sailing novice, the wheel of her 67-foot 30 tonne steel-hulled vessel as she and her 13-strong crew prepared for a parade of sail of the Clipper fleet from Kinsale to Cork city.