Spotlight on...Sue Ball

What inspired you to join the Clipper Race?

I was looking for a new challenge. I started my children's day nursery in 1998 and it took me 13 years to build it up to the stage where we had a really good reputation and achieved an Ofsted rating of outstanding. I asked myself 'What next?', I had never had a gap year but thought I was a bit old at 56 to go backpacking round the world. I saw a poster for the Clipper Race on the London Underground about ten years ago, but never thought I would be able to do it. When I sold the nursery, it was either a sports car or the Clipper Race. No contest really - especially when you consider that my nursery had been called Setting Sail.

 What is the route and where are you now?

The race started in London on 31 August this year. We sail anti-clockwise around the world via Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Australia, Vietnam, China, Western North America, the Panama Canal, Eastern North America, Londonderry, the Netherlands and back to London, by the end of July 2016. As I am writing this we are in the Southern Ocean, below South Africa on our way to Australia. The winds and waves are steadily building every day - gusting up to 50 knots with waves breaking over my head on the deck.

How does it compare to running a nursery?

I was given the job of team co-ordinator for my crew, so a lot of the skills I employed at nursery have come in very handy. I have responsibility for sorting duties on watches and co-ordinating tasks and time off on stopovers, much the same as doing staffing rotas at nursery. Other skills have also come in handy - all that creative work with the children helped me to make paper flowers out of old bread mix wrappers for a crew member’s birthday!

We all have to take a turn at the cooking and as the food has to be easy to eat with one hand (you are usually hanging on to the boat with the other!) so a lot of the dishes I used to cook for the children have come in handy - rice crispie cakes are a favourite! I work a lot in the snake pit where most of the Halyards and Sheets (different types of rope) are controlled and keeping that tidy is just like trying to keep a bit of order in the nursery...no sooner do I have it sorted than another sail change is required and so it starts again - a bit like toys coming out and going away.

Of course there are also times when my people management skills have come in handy - an argument over the last piece of chocolate in the middle of the ocean can take on massive significance, just like explaining to a three year old about sharing! So all in all I think my nursery experiences have served me very well. Perhaps a good job, as I had no sailing experience when I started, so had a steep learning curve.

What has been the most challenging moment so far?

Generally, I think the most challenging thing about the race is learning to live in a small space with hardly any facilities with a group of people you have mostly not met before. More specifically for me, my low point came on day two of this leg when I fell from one of the top bunks and bounced off a cool box fridge. At first I thought I had done some real damage (to myself, not the fridge!) and spent a night in pain feeling that I had let everyone down and that they would have to return to Cape Town to put me off the boat. Luckily things seemed brighter in the morning and some significant bruising was the worst I suffered. Needless to say I have now had a lesson in how to tie the pulley on my bunk, so that it doesn't happen again.

What has been the highlight so far?

It is difficult to pick one highlight because there are so many. Seeing the Milky Way and the stars in the middle of the ocean. Seeing whales and dolphins. Getting praised for meals when I have been on Mother Watch (the cooking and cleaning duties). Helming the boat in heavy seas and doing it well. Making new friends I will probably have for life. Sailing into Cape Town Harbour with the backdrop of Table Mountain, my family there to meet me. The first shower, hair wash and flushing toilet after 28 days at sea. There have been so many highlights so far, and I am sure there will be many more to come.

• www.clipperroundtheworld.com for more on the race