A Yachting Monthly contributor’s daughter is kicking off an unusual charter trip – to St Petersburg in the Baltic. Miranda Delmar-Morgan’s daughter Rachel is co-skippering Hummingbird, a Dave Pederick-designed Clipper 60 which departs from the Solent on 16th April bound for the old Russian imperial capital via Burnham-on-Crouch, Kiel, Rugen, Gdansk, Riga, the Estonian Islands, and Tallinn.

The boat has three circumnavigations behind her and undergone considerable updating over the winter. Rachael’s co-skipper is Bruce Jacobs. Rachael has done two transatlantics and many thousands of miles, skippering and or teaching for Clipper, UKSA, Girls for Sail and Dream or Two. Bruce has sailed many miles offshore on superyachts.  

The intinerary includes 10 UNESCO world heritage sites, and Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, the Shetland Islands, the Orkneys, the Faroe Islands, the Norwegian fjords and the Lofoten Islands. There are berths for eight paying crew on each leg, prices vary according to the length of each leg. Some shorter legs have been incorporated for people who can only take one week off work.  

Full details are at www.rubicon3.co.uk