My dad suddenly died in April this year. He died in his sleep on the morning my mum got the final confirmation that she could have her quadruple heart by-pass operation she so desperately needed to keep looking after my dad and push his wheel chair on walks around the town. It shook the whole family to the core.

I was just in the middle of a lifestyle change, losing 15 kg of weight, eating healthily and committing myself to Crossfit, a regime of high intensity, constantly varied, functional movement exercises and I started to doubt whether I was realy living my life to the full and doing the right thing.

Today, I visited my mum in Den Helder, she had arrived back home earlier in the week after a successful operation and revalidation. In the afternoon we decided to take a stroll along the old Willemsoord navy shipyard which is now home of a thriving centre of anything nautical and a marina with boats old and new. And there they were; 12 beautiful Clipper 70 ocean racing yachts on their final leg of the Clipper Round the World 14-15. Having grown-up in Den Helder I have seen many racing and super yachts on their delivery journeys from the Dutch ship yards in Enkhuizen and Medemblik to their proud owners. And seeing these new, state-of-the-art boats rekindled my passion of sailing and I knew that this would have to be my new challenge. I have not been thinking about anything else since.

In the last couple of years I have been setting myself challenges. I have spent weeks with the San Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert. Twice camped in the middle of the jungle of central Borneo visiting the Penan and Iban tribes, canoed the big lakes on Nova Scotia and dog sled in artic mountains of Norway. This Round the World Trip should be a logical next step up. Or is it? It will be a huge step in terms of setting myself bigger challenges.

All I can think about is; how many legs should I do or should I do the whole circumnavigation?