More than 100 yachtsmen have signed up for the eighth bi-annual Blue Water Rally which will set sail from Gibraltar on 25 October.  Over the next two years 21 yachts will sail from Gibraltar to the Caribbean, 32 yachts will cross the Pacific and more will join en route.
 
“These are not headline sportsmen, but ordinary folk with a love of sailing who are grasping the nettle and daring to live out their dreams despite an extraordinary year with unusual weather conditions, another tsunami, and a few earthquakes, not to mention wars and piracy,” said BWR director Richard Bolt.
 
Blue Water Rallies, which started running its world rally in 1997, will support the fleet along 23 legs starting in Gibraltar and stopping off in ports including Antigua, Panama, Galapagos, Tonga, Darwin, Phuket, and Djibouti, before finally returning to the Mediterranean.