STUDENT Sarah Aynesworth is counting the hours until she starts a frantic trip of a lifetime - and hopefully enters the record books.

Sarah, 22, of Hartlington, near Burnsall, battled her way through a series of selection tests to join an all-British team, attempting to sail around the world in under 80 days.

The present circumnavigation record stands at 83 days, and was set by the nuclear submarine, USS Triton.

But Sarah and the crew of the 115ft stabilised monohulled power boat, Cable and Wireless, are hoping to shave seven days off the record.

She said this week: "We are aiming to do the trip in 76 days if nothing goes wrong."

The 14-strong crew, captained by Ian Bosworth, is due to set out from Gibraltar on Sunday, and will pass through 15 ports, as well as through the Suez and Panama Canals, on its 26,000 mile journey.

The boat can reach speeds of up to 30 knots, and is due back in Gibraltar on July 3.

Sarah, a media student in Bristol, has spent the last few months, learning new sea skills, as her previous sailing experience has been limited to a family boating holiday on Loch Ness!

"We have done a lot of sea trials, and I've been okay, but last weekend, on the Channel, I was a bit seasick. I've never known anything like it but about 70 per cent of the crew were ill too so I didn't feel so bad," she said.

Much of her training has been carried out at the naval training school at Southampton, and with the army at Aldershot.

Her new skills include the art of navigation, how to escape from a cockpit underwater, and fighting on-board fires.

"The whole thing has been quite arduous, but I have learnt and done so much," she added.

During the voyage, her duties will include operating the ship's computers, including the navigation charts and radar, updating its website, and communications.

She will also act as the on-board cameraman for a documentary about the record attempt.

Sarah is no stranger to foreign travel - she spent a month in China with the Yorkshire Schools Exploring Society, and worked in a leper colony in Pakistan for eight weeks.

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