A Newport resident was spurred to help protect the river Cam after taking part in a round the world sailing trip as a crew member on a yacht.
Keith Baker was on the winning yacht in the 2019/2020 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, which has only just finished as the pandemic trapped the boats in the Philippines for two years.
The overall race was eight legs - sailing to Uruguay, Cape Town, Fremantle, the Whitsundays, the Philippines, Seattle, New York, Ireland and London.
Keith did the first half of the race, and will be re-joining in early 2024 to complete the circumnavigation and spend another six months at sea.
He said: "I would describe the experiences as some of the best of my life, and some of the worst - inspiring and terrifying.
"The exhilaration of surfing a 70ft yacht down huge waves in the Southern Ocean, the pain of crashing into mountains of water every 14 seconds (I counted) in the South Atlantic."
Keith said that his scariest moment on board was when the boat was knocked flat by a rogue wave in the middle of the night.
He said: "After a couple of hours of exhausting battles with the wind, waves, ropes, sails and gravity, we got underway again.
"It's only when settling down to normal operation that you realise there was never any doubt that the skipper and the boat would keep us safe."
Seeing the effect of pollution on the ocean strengthened Keith's resolve to do his bit for CURAT - the Cam Upper Reaches Action Team - which is a group of volunteers who are concerned about the state of the river.
Keith said: "The biggest long term impact on me was the spectacular sight of nature in all its forms in the middle of the ocean, followed by despair at the obvious signs of pollution and absence of marine life as we neared land.
"There is plenty of time sailing 24 hours a day for up to 35 days on each leg to mull things over, and the conclusion was that I should do my bit to clean things up.
"There are far more effective people than me at campaigning, so getting involved in local initiatives seemed to be the obvious option."
Keith is urging anyone is Newport and surrounding villages who is concerned about the Cam's condition to join CURAT. To get in touch email Keith at newport.curat@btinternet.com.
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