With waves around 9 meters high and wind strength between 50-60 knots SeaPup Sophie Hetherton found herself being thrown overboard into the Pacific ocean!

Sophie’s watch was reaching the end of its shift and she was handing over the helm to another team member. Luckily Sophie was tethered to the boat on the high side of the yacht while her team mate was tethered by his safety line another part of the yacht. All of a sudden the sheet (rope) of one of the sails snapped just as the yacht was hit by a particularly large wave, causing it to lift up; The high side where Sophie was standing then became the low side and became inverted in the water, before she could grab hold of anything the waves washed her over the side and she was hanging from the strop off the back end of the boat.

Sophie says  ‘my first thoughts were how long was I going to be submerged in the water and when the boat returned back to its original side and I was out of the water I tried to climb back inboard before it went back in again. The time from when I went over to the time when Claire and Matt were able to reach me seemed to take for ages but they managed to pull me in within half a minute. Apart from being a bit shocked and cold I was fine.’

A brave young lady indeed, especially when you think that another sailor on one of the other yachts was thrown into the sea not long after and was in the sea for an hour and a half before being found.

Sophie and Team Mission Performance have now arrived in San Francisco and feel proud of having sailed the great Pacific.

Sophie has chosen to raise money for the Contented Dementia Trust. If you would like to make a donation please go to Sophie’s Just Giving page: http://www.justgiving.com/seapupsophie

Follow Sophie’s adventures on her blog: http://www.seapupsophie.co.uk/#!blog/c1s76