[MUSIC] We are in the middle of to do this amazing thing.

This is a great adventure.

It is truly life changing.

We just passed the largest in the world.

How do you feel?

One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.

A big adventure.

A unique experience.

It's pretty intense what we've done.

And it's nonstop.

The race itself is a 40,000 mile plus circumnavigation.

And of course, it's the only one really, truly crewed by amateur sailors.

DC we're coming for you.

The journey home starts today.

Go, team DC.

Excited?

Yeah.

Ready to go?

Ready to go.

So we’re all Hey!

Dig, dig, dig.

Here we come DC [INTENSE POUNDING MUSIC] Clipper Fleet, Clipper Fleet - start at .Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Start.

So we are now on the way to Washington, DC, our home port.

It's about 1500 miles of racing.

Very excited to finally be on our way to actually go see DC, our home team.

our home port.

II’m super excited to be close to getting to our home ports.

I have been to DC.

Yes.

Chesapeake Bay is actually the first place that I ever stepped on a sailing boat, so it'll be exciting to go back there in a completely different road.

The finish line is just south of this little TSs here.

It's really cool.

You know, we've been all around the world.

We've done South America, we've done South Africa, we've done Australia, we've been to Asia, and we are the Washington DC boat so its a little bit like we have come home like to the to the right country.

We've been repping DC the whole way.

And then to actually get to DC like is probably the best bit of the race for me.

My name is Hannah Brewis.

I am 27 years old and I am the skipper, the race skipper of the Washington, DC boat that's part of the Clipper Round the world race.

Here is Washington up here, and then the Ocean sprint is in this zone here.

The race has never gone to DC.

It's going to be new for everyone.

And it's kind of cool to be the boat that's the got its name on the side.

So the Clipper Race offers an amazing opportunity for normal, everyday people like you and me to take on one of the world's greatest oceans or compete full circumnavigation.

It's a sailing yacht race that is open to anyone.

You don't need to have any previous sailing experience.

Everybody needs to do four weeks of intensive training.

We put teams together and then you race each other around the world.

The fleet is 11 boats, strong - 70ft yachts.

Keeping it bare bones allows the crew to really experience ocean racing as it should be.

The race itself is a 40,000 mile plus circumnavigation, so it's one of the biggest and longest ocean races.

And of course, it's the only one really, truly crewed by amateur sailors.

The Clipper Race fleets will leave Seattle and they head down to Panama.

So they'll go through the canal and then we restart the race.

And then as they get through the Caribbean islands, they start to then peel off to port and head towards Washington, DC and the Chesapeake.

So for the DC team, for Hannah and the team onboard, they'll give it everything they've got up to DC.

This is what this leg is about.

Big waves, big seas, big winds.

This is why you all signed up i believe.

There's 11 skippers.

I am the youngest one.

I don't really know how I ended up here, but I have sailed all my life.

I love it, it's amazing.

As a skipper and a first mate we’re the youngest team, also the first and the only all female pairing.

Ella is 19 years old.

To have that type of responsibility when you're 19 and to be able to take on what she does- She's an incredible sailor, incredible with people.

Is that main hollow Jonno?

Well, you’ve got up to 24 people in a very harsh environment in a very small space being pushed to their limits.

When you're at sea, age doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter who you are, how old you are, what you believe in.

Everyone's the same to the ocean.

Well, my name's Robin Knox-Johnston and I sort of invented this race.

Really, I was looking at a way to let ordinary people do something extraordinary with their lives.

I've loved my sailing, you know.

I've done it all my life.

[NEWSCASTER] The hooters, the horns, the salute.

Day 312.

About 3:25 on April the 22nd and Robin Knox-Johnston and Suhali have sailed nonstop around the world.

I got so much enjoyment out of it that I wanted other people to have the opportunity.

[CHEERING] And you have so many people coming from all different ages, genders, cultures.

It's so unique in that sense.

And once you're in the middle of that ocean, you've got to get to the other side of it.

So you have to commit.

But there is a lot of fun to get out of it.

Hopefully in the next few hours we can untangle the halyards and we can carry on sailing.

It’s so different because you don't really see your competitors, you don't see what's going on with them.

It's all about internal drive and motivation to keep the boat moving, but it's also slow.

It takes us a month to do a race.

[CHATTER ON BOAT} So of course there's downtime and there iss fun.

[CHATTER ON BOAT] Hannah, you are the icon Hannah.

And that's what this is about, right?

It's about building connections, building relationships with people.

Who you have on your boat is one of the best things about this experience.

Building those connections and becoming so close with different people, seeing other people grow in their role, seeing other people kind of take on some of the responsibility.

And it makes you look at life a little bit differently when you're out in the ocean.

It's all just about, you all we need to do is eat, sail and sleep and that's it.

That's all that you need to do.

And there's a lot of things that go into that for sure, but that's it.

There's no other complicated things going on.

You don't talk to the outside world.

We have pancakes .

Very nice.

Followed by pancakes.

Or you could have pancakes.

This is your whole life.

This is your family.

This is what Iakes care of you.

Okay, so code one is going up.

So we're about to swap kites from one to the other.

Just setting up for it now, but I think also being on board these boats, you realize that you can do so much when you're working with each other so you can accomplish pretty much anything you need to do.

You have to very quickly learn these people inside out, which you do on a boat.

You get to know them very quickly.

So we're all on it.

Bob’s keeping us in order and making sure that we're doing the right things.

Teamwork is absolutely fundamental, and you've got to live together in a very confined space.

A lot of times the nearest other humans are in the space station, you know, you're right out there on your own.

Taking on this challenge together as a team and the competitiveness that develops between the fleet is all identical, so its all down to the crews at the end of the day and I think it brings out the best in people Okay.

Go, guys.

Go go go with your up.

The people say I didn’t come to race.

Oh yeah, come off it.

You change pretty quickly.

You want to race the same as everyone else here.

We have our Isles & Oceans, we have Xhuhai and we have Halong Bay- so we're all very close together.

Which is quite exciting.

It makes us really competitive.

And as a team you want to win and you realize only if we work as a team can you win.

How many football, rugby, cricket, baseball teams would love to have that sort of enthusiasm.

The most amazing thing I think, is the sense of challenge and achievement.

But not just that.

The fact that you're doing it with your teammates and you're making friends which become friends for life with people that you would never have met before, from all walks of life, from all over the world.

It's that sense of working together and achieving something that, on the face of it, when you first look at it, seems completely ridiculous and so out of reach.

For a lot of people, it's more than just a race.

It's it's to really achieve something and do something.

I love coming in really big down wind conditions and you're pushing it right on the edge - I love it.

I just I'm in my own world.

I have to focus on only that.

So it's almost an escape from everything else.

So it's fun.

We start to surfing down waves, so those are definitely my best days.

The ocean is just always crashing over the boats.

Everything is wet all the time, and you're in control of a boat that's in this vast ocean and you're surrounded by amazing waves that no one else is seeing.

You have the wildlife, the albatross.

We see whales, dolphins.

You see so much - all out in this, you know, such a remote area.

I think it's just, you know, to take that and absorb that.

I love that .

You're so secluded out there in the ocean.

There's nothing with you.

It's just the boat, your crew, your fellow crew members and the wildlife that's around you.

Which is amazing.

A lot of people that come on the boat, they find that when they leave, they miss the simplicity of it.

You know, if you get on a boat, you're sitting in the tail winds and it's little fluffy clouds.

The sky is blue, the sea is blue and sparkly, and it's warm, the wind steady.

You say, why would I want to be anywhere else - this is perfect.

And once you've crossed the ocean, that feeling is just amazing to look back at what you've achieved.

And you can feel it amongst the crew that everyone is like, oh my God, we just did that.

That's amazing.

And you really, you have to stop and and think about it and reflect on it to, to like keep you going.

And that keeps you motivated - .

Like we just crossed the North Pacific, which not many people have done.

And then going into the ports themselves representing America.

That's the finish line.

Oh my god!

Yeah.

There's absolutely a sense of pride being an American on an American boat.

essentially.

We finished!.

Yeah.

6500 people have done this clipper race now.

And what's amazing is how many of them take up sailing as their sport.

And remember, 40% of those people had never been on a boat before they came to us.

They have an over 700 crew taking part and over 55 different nationalities taking part in the race.

This year.

[TEAM CHEERS] So I did not grow up yachting and, I do not grow up anywhere near the ocean.

My name is Olwami Ozungo.

I'm in the Dare to Leadad boat, right?

I am from South Africa.

One thing I've understood about life, it's about risk.

The circumstances that you are put under when you're in the ocean.

Your life is in the hands of people that you do not know.

I think as soon as you get on the boat and you get in some bad weather or a tricky situation, the only option is for the team to come together.

So they teach us to just treat each other as humans.

And when you do that, the boat moves.

So right now we're going a little bit too far downwind.

And so we need to switch sails.

There is so many different people from so many different places.

We have everything from a 19 year old to a 70 year old.

They're from all different countries.

We have all of these people who quite ordinarily would probably never really interact.

But here we are.

They've signed up for - there are lots of different reasons why people do this as well.

And it's, you know, it's an odd bunch that you can have, but it's, you know, it's our bunch and it's what makes up our team.

Everyone stayed super strong.

So so you should be very proud of yourself.

Well done Hannah.

Oh well I don’t know.

Taking on a challenge like this really gives you a chance to understand what you're truly capable of.

To say the least.

But it's amazing how we all bond when we need to bond.

And whenever there’s a job to do we get it done.

We run a very happy boat - you’re working hard for 11 months, nonstop.

You got to enjoy it.

I think we all are aware that we're doing a really big thing.

It's hard work, and at times it's scary.

At times is nerve wracking.

Yeah, it's kind of crazy.

Slightly overwhelming.

It is truly life changing.

One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.

There is not a lot of things like this that you can do.

It's, you know, it's hard.

It's a challenge.

This type of boat that we have, it's a racing boat.

Sails fast, it goes fast.

And to be able to sign up to do that, race across oceans, that's not something you can do normally.

And that's really what I was trying to provide for people.

That opportunity, the side effect, which I hadn't appreciated but began to after about the second race, was how it changed people.

I'm so pleased because I know they're going to get more out of their lives from now on, and I like that.

I don't think I've worked a job that has me in this many uncomfortable conditions, or pushes me to my limits like this one has.

My name is Meredith Rogers.

I'm an onboard reporter for the Clipper Round the World Yacht race.

My job is to join the teams and document their race.

I've got the camera on me at all times, and I'm just ready to tell the story as it plays out in front of me.

I can have days where it's completely flat.

I'm in the sun.

I'm enjoying my day, having kind of - wondering like how I get to do this.

And the next day I'm on the boat being like completely soaked by waves and on the side with my camera.

And now I've grown to love this crazy like, insane job.

And then as we get through the Caribbean islands, they start to then peel off to port and head towards Washington.

DC and the Chesapeake.

Super exciting.

To to be close to getting to our home port.

We've pulled away quite nicely from Punta.

They're about I reckon they're about 15 miles behind us.

We're all very excited to come into DC.

It's another motivation in the race that we're going to our home port.

And that is the highlight of the Gulf Stream, which is very, very strong current which heads along the coast to the US and then out into the Atlantic.

Chesapeake Bay is actually the first place I ever stepped on a sailing boat and sailed.

So it’ll be exciting to go back there.

So i was about 7 or 8, at a family friends wedding.

And that was like, yeah.

the first time, first bit of motivation to do what I'm doing now.

All my roots of my family and my earliest memories are on the East Coast and actually in the Chesapeake Bay.

It kind of feels like a big, full circle moment for me.

It's like, that's where I learned to love the water.

That's the first place that I was ever on a boat with, like my grandparents and my parents.

Well, I've had moments in the boat where I'm pondering like, wow, I'm sailing around the world, like, where did this come from?

But I can probably trace that back to my summers spent on the Chesapeake Bay, like being around that maritime culture, kind of like seeing the sailboats that you would always dream of being on or like, oh, what if do you think I could ever do that one day?

I think as a kid, a big part of the desire to sail around the world and have that be a part of my life came from those moments.

The excitements built as we've raced around the world, as we've got closer and closer to our home boy, I mean, we've been so excited for so long.

Keep trying until it feels like the end.

We're pretty much the the anticipation is building and building and building.

[HORN BLOWS} The finish the line.

So I'll give you a little demonstration.

[HORN SOUND] It's a lot of fun.

It's a good way a good way to signal that we've ended the race, no one's in doubt.

Just finished the race from Panama to DC.

We're motoring now into the Chesapeake and up the Potomac.

Definitely wasn’t an easy race.

We're all very excited to finally be motoring into our home port.

The Chesapeake is pretty.

It's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be.

Came into the Chesapeake and the sun was rising, and it was just.

It looked amazing.

It was so nice.

And it I mean, it made me think of, like, reflect on my career and what I've done since then, which was a really nice moment for me.

The Chesapeake is a big, big bit of water.

There's lots of little sailboats out, lots of little fishing boats out.

All of the Clipper yachts, were going to rendezvous and all the Clipper yachts preparing ourselves to go up the Potomac River to our home port, Washington, DC.

For Hannah and I to know that we sailed, we led a team around the world and and we know we we lead a happy boat.

[CHEER} Delve Deeper Washington!

DC DC DC.

So to know that they are coming out of it with good memories and good experience is a really nice feeling.

And it's really rewarding.

To.

So to be arriving into our home port is really special and we're really excited.

I am looking forward to going to DC more than I have looked forward to anything in a long time.

I know some of the guys, once they knew the Washington was the sponsor, that they actually booked to come up to come on, just this race.

Everybody's really stoked.

Woodrow Wilson drawbridge, this is vessel charlie victor three zero.

Over.

How are you guys looking for the, opening at 4:45/ We are currently one nautical mile away from the bridge, awaiting, the opening.

So it is 4:45 in the morning, and we are just approaching the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge.

It's actually getting opened spe We've not had a bridge, opening quite as dramatic as that before.

You know, going up the Potomac and getting all the boats in line and getting the right timing and stuff.

There was a lot of sort of, you know, making sure we did it right.

And each boat went through it was really cool.

Well done for getting the fleet up here - we’ll see you in the Wharf.

It's pretty exciting.

We can already see the Capitol building, the, Washington Monument already in the background.

And you can really, really feel Washington's coming towards us, so.

Yeah.

Great.

[CHANT] Delve Deeper Washington!

DC DC DC.

[NUSIC: Welcome to DC EXCITED MUSIC] Welcome.

Welcome.

All right, guys.

Welcome to DC.

[EXCITED MUSIC] We’ve been building up this moment for so long, sSo it's a very, very big moment.

Very very excited after being away from home for ten months and then coming into Washington for my last mile.

I have to process a lot but it was a great journey.

Everyone's been super motivated coming into our home port.

They've been waiting for so long.

To come visit.

A huge welcome to Washington DC.

Congratulations on your amazing race result in the Come Sea DC Cup race.

We're delighted to have you here.

We know you're going to have an amazing time.

Good moring DC!

This is really the culmination of the whole thing for me.

I mean, coming back to the States back in the East Coast.

Thank you very much.

I'm so excited.

Because.

Everyone is super competitive out in the water.

So when you come back onshore, this is like camaraderie between the whole fleet, which is absolutely amazing.

Cheers.

And you're going to have a laugh afterwards in the chat about the hard bits and the amazing bits.

And it brings everyone together.

Yeah.

So, one cool thing is that whenever the Clipper fleet comes to a port, our crews get involved in the local community.

And today, some of them, doing a community service project, cleaning up the river.

So it's really cool to be able to give back and get involved, kind of experience the local stuff.

Today you're specifically here for our Green Boats program.

It's a school group.

It's a work group, volunteer group, you name it, they're coming out together because they want to clean the Anacostia.

Enjoy the river.

You guys are going to hang out up here just in this opening.

A lot of trash will be around the outskirts.

We just went on kayaks, the Anacostia River, and we collected a lot of rubbish.

Garbage- that was floating in the river and along the banks.

But we have a lot of DC public schools and charter schools.

Come out - great team building.

At first we were on the water and It was beautiful and we were loving the island.

And suddenly.

You see one bottle and then you see ten bottles and more plastic.

You just see so much.

You got a lot of garbage.

Yeah.

Pretty full yeah I’d say.

Wow.

That was fast, right?

If we don't get it here, then it's going to go meet up with the Potomac River, which then ends up in the Chesapeake Bay, which is huge, and then ends up in the Atlantic Ocean.

And all the world's oceans are connected.

They're considered one ocean.

And so they can go anywhere and up on any shore, end up in the middle of the ocean, affecting animals and people's health.

So we want to get it here before it goes on an adventure any further?

A lot of plastic and styrofoam.

But that's not the deep clean.

Oh, yeah.

Ship lines come in plastic lines, shoes.

.

.

So I don't know if there's a competition between the boats or something, but that was the most trash I'd ever seen.

We kept dumping out the bags and the pile just kept getting bigger.

It was great.

Clean DC!

Clipper fleet.

Clipper Fleet.

The fleet, Clipper race control - five minutes.

So today is our last day in Washington.

Tonight, we set sail on the final leg of the race.

We've done so much as a crew.

It's been an absolutely amazing experience.

I think I'm really looking forward to the next slide to completing it and finishing it out.

For me, it's taking taking all the fun, all the joy, all the things I love about this boat and then making sure I bring that back to my life on shore day.

In the spirit of Washington, D.C., a city that thrives on resilience and determination, we sail with you.

Team way is my team Washington DC at?

Team Washington, DC.

Let's give it up for Team Washington DC.

I think it's probably mixed emotions.

Like for all we've been doing this for such a long time, we're really excited to get to the end and be able to say that we've sailed around the world.

[CHEERS] I don’t want it to end this, I loveing it, I'm having so much fun.

And you know, at the finish, which we’re getting very close to now, they’re a bit lost to start with, you know, you see the change, they’re standing there more square, proud of what they've achieved - rightly so.

[CHEERS} Dare to Lead!

I learned that I'm actually capable of doing great things - when you, when you face the adversity that you're facing, it's like I can actually.

I'm actually great.

I think I'm really.

I'm actually really proud of myself to see the ways that I've grown in this job.

Thank you guys.

So that I found something that I really do enjoy.

You spend a year of your life onboard a boat that really has become home for me, with people that you get to know so well, and I think it will be hard to leave.

I've been looking at this present race.

We've got two skippers, three mates, those mates, 1 or 2 of them could be skippers in the next race.

DC Skipper!

Wow!

I'm just so - wow- I look forward to seeing that.

Let me know.

There you go.

Go get your quali’s.

I spent I actually spent a lot of time specifically recently.

Now we're getting towards the end of the race, reflecting on the whole experiences of about the way that I went to skipper a boat.

Ah - Our oors are open - even for you Bob.. You can't do such a huge thing as, you know, sailing around the world and not come out a different person.

And you will remember this for the rest of your life.

I really think the most important thing is that they enjoyed the race.

And we've talked about it because we are in 10th place.

So we could be we could be placing better.

Cheers!

I mean, I know you're on TV, you're on TV.

But what's more important to me is that the crew come away and they remember the good times, and they remember how much fun they had on the boat.

And in a few years time, they won’t remember they were in 10th place.

But they will remember the good times, and they will remember how much fun it was .

[CHANT] Delve Deeper Washington.

DC DC DC.

Love you DC.

Bye.

How The leg is it's the final leg of the entire race.

That's when everything gets decided.

And it's great racing.

Lots of points to play for.

And that's where the leaders wil finally settle.

And we'll find out the overall.

Wwnner of the Clipper Round The World.

The prize comes with the satisfaction of having done something special with your life.

You know you have.

And I always say to them what I want to hear you say at the end of the race is - that's the best thing I've done with my life.

And then I want you to say, so far-- now I know I've changed you.

[TRIUMPHANT MUSIC AND CHEERS]