In a couple of short weeks Ju will be off on the voyage of a lifetime, sailing from Plymouth via Panama to New Zealand, aboard a 40-foot steel-hulled boat called Donata Polo (after Marco Polo's wife, apparently).

This chance came along when someone else dropped out of a three-person crew and professional delivery skipper James got in touch with us to find out if one or both of us might be up for it.

The itinerary is in stages, Plymouth to the Canaries, then across the Atlantic to Martinique, then through the Panama Canal and past the Galapagos islands to Easter Island and Pitcairn Island, through French Polynesia to New Zealand, starting at the beginning of November and arriving in March.

Hopefully she'll be sending me blog entries which I will post here