After a tough leg of beating round the tip of Cuba and then a pleasurable leg from Jamaica to Panama, Lively Lady successfully transited the Panama Canal. And after a short pause for Christmas, she’ll set out for Guatemala on 28 December. The new crew including Paul Webb (co-skipper) and Young Adults, Sam Turner and Lauren Purser will fly out on Boxing Day, and for this leg project leader Alan Priddy will be back on the helm.

For 17-year-old Sam and 19-year-old Lauren, both from the Portsmouth area, the whole trip will be something new. Sam in particular has only been out of the UK once before, so is looking forward to experiencing the very different cultures in both Panama and Guatemala.

The Raymarine Lively Lady Project, offers young people who, for whatever reason, have not had the best start in life, a chance to turn their lives around. Through the work they do in preparation for the trip they gain valuable life skills, enabling them to set their lives back on track and achieve their potential or their personal goals. Nutrition, budgeting, provisioning, organisation and team work are all vital to preparing the yacht for the voyage. On board they will have to put all of that into practice, as well as learn the essential skills of trust, leadership, anticipation, confidence and responsibility that are so important to life on board.

On each leg, two new Young Adults come on board and the next ones to go will be Jack Loydd and Michael Bennett. Both from Portsmouth, UK, they’ll be staying on board until the crew reach Jamaica.