Hats off to intrepid yachtsman Rob Clark, 35, from Liphook, Hampshire, who set off from the Solent last year to sail around the globe singlehanded – with his route dictated by the throw of a dice.

He was inspired by the novel The Dice Man, by Luke Rhinehart, to cast off in his 42ft (13m) Grand Soleit yacht. In Rhinehart’s book, a psychiatrist allows a dice to decide many aspects of his life – from having affairs to what he eats. Rob said that the roll of dice would decide day-to-day things, but voting on his website by the public will decide his next port of call and route round the globe.

Recently he left the island of St Helena in mid Atlantic, bound towards Luderitz, Southern Namibia. In St Helena he met up with Zac Sunderland, the 17 year old American planning to be the youngest person to sail round the world. Both were waiting for spare parts to repair their boats. Zac sailing a 36-foot sloop left California last June heading eastabout.

Rob runs a conference production company based in Bristol, and set up his adventure because he got “restless”.

“It’s not a good time to run a business at the moment and I realised I was never going to be Richard Branson, never going to be a millionaire …. it was a good time to take a sailing trip.

To get the latest on Rob check here: www.w2n.co.uk/

Zac’s blog is at www.zacsunderland.com/blog