AN AMATEUR sailor has returned home after spending 335 days at sea in one of the biggest yachting races in the world.

Pip O’Sullivan, a marketing manager, from Basingstoke, has completed the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, an epic, 11-month, 40,000 nautical mile

endurance race around the world.

The Clipper Race is considered to be one of the most challenging endurance events on the planet and is the only sailing event which trains everyday people to circumnavigate the globe in 70-foot, purpose-built, ocean racers.

After setting off from Liverpool on August 20 last year, Pip, 30, has spent 335 days at sea racing to Punta del Este, Uruguay; Cape Town, South Africa; Sydney, Hobart and the Whitsundays, Australia; Sanya and Qingdao in China; Seattle and New York, and Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, before returning to Liverpool on Saturday, 28 July aboard the GREAT Britain team yacht.

On arrival into Royal Albert Dock Liverpool, Pip said: “I feel elated, excited, ecstatic, I just can’t believe it!

“I can’t believe we left here eleven months ago. What a journey this has been. I just can’t believe that I can say I’ve not just sailed, but raced around the world!”

Since departing Liverpool last year, Pip has faced hurricane force winds and phenomenal sea states in the North Pacific, raced across some of the most remote and hostile corners of the planet and at times, the nearest other humans to Pip and her teammates would have been astronauts in the International Space Station.

Pip is one of 73 crew members who have been taking part in the full circumnavigation and is joining a unique group of people as more people have climbed Mount Everest than have sailed around the world.

After crossing six oceans and visiting 13 stopover ports on six continents, Pip took part in one final sprint up the River Mersey to Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock on Saturday which drew the Clipper 2017-18 Race to a close.

Summarising the experience, Pip said: “The final sprint was just amazing. There was about 35knots of wind on the nose which made it exciting. I think I need some time for the whole thing to set in, though.”

“When I think about everything we’ve done, everything we can do now without stressing, it’s just amazing!”