Thirsk sailor set off on next stage of round the world trip
26 year old Jasmine Harrison is leaving Fiji today
A North Yorkshire sailor's setting off on the second half of her round the world journey today.
26 year old Jasmine Harrison from Thirsk is competing in the Mini Globe race.
The novice sailor who set off from Portugal in December has now sailed half-way around the world, an incredible 12,000 miles solo in her handmade 5.8m (19 feet) yacht, Numbatou.
Jasmine is an entrant in the inaugural Mini Globe Race.
Since that first qualifying leg from Portugal to Lanzarote Jasmine says she has learnt so much. On arriving in Fiji Jasmine said:
‘I really wish I could redo that exact passage, everything again, but now with my experience and knowing the boat and knowing what I’m doing slightly more. It was a horrendous passage no matter how experienced you are but is now a world away. There’s two different people in that six months’.
This race is another challenge of a lifetime for the young Yorkshire adventurer, with exciting pitstops since Panama including the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti and Tonga in the footsteps of fellow Yorkshireman Captain James Cook. She is sailing single-handed, racing against 14 other international sailors, and is one of only two female competitors. She is the youngest to take part and celebrated her 26th birthday on the ocean on this leg. The following race legs will be Fiji to Cape Town, Cape Town to Recife and then Recife back to Antigua by March 2026 with pit stops along the way sailing around 24,000 nautical miles in total.
This leg across the Pacific Ocean saw her becalmed and even going backwards through the doldrums, crossing the Equator, sharing her boat with Booby birds near the Galapagos Islands, fierce squalls, high winds and waves, being becalmed before Fiji with dolphins and finally passing the notorious Cloudbreak reef to enter Fiji in the dark to be greeted by a traditional Fijian choir on the dockside.