Hamble's Emma Richards had a cracking start last Sunday as she set sail from Salvador, Brazil, bound for for Newport, Rhode Island on the fifth and final leg of the Around Alone race.

When Emma completes this leg she will sail into the record books by becoming the first British woman, and youngest competitor, to complete the race.

Not content with just completing the race and with just over 4,000 miles left to go, Emma is pushing hard for a podium finish.

She commented just prior to her departure: "I can't believe that this massive adventure is almost over, but I am very focused on this final leg and just want to sail to the best of my ability.

"I have had an overwhelming amount of support throughout this race from all sorts of people from all over the world, so I just wanted to say thank you so much. I hope that I can repay their faith and do everyone proud."

By the time Emma completes her voyage in May she will have spent over 160 days at sea on her own, during which she has survived a hurricane, a terrifying climb up her 80ft mast, a pirate scare, handstitching her giant Kevlar mainsail with 1,500 stitches when it ripped in two and the icebergs and extreme conditions of the Southern Ocean - one of the most remote and inhospitable parts of the world.

Emma has faced some of the toughest conditions imaginable, but for her, the hardest element of the race has been the loneliness of solo sailing. As a self-confessed 'people person', she makes no secret of the fact that it is not the solitude that attracted her to this race, but a dream to sail round the world in the "biggest challenge of her life".

Richards has been pushing herself to the limit, but has written on her chart table 'Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go (TS Eliot),' to remind her why she is doing this race.

With one leg of the race left to go Emma only has to finish one place behind Simone Bianchetti on Tiscali to ensure a podium finish in Newport and secure her place in British sailing history.