MID Kent Water employee Catherine Jones just cannot get enough of the wet stuff. The 30-year-old water quality scientist from Rochester is taking a year out from her work at Mid Kent Water in Snodland to take part in the Global Challenge 2004/05 Round-the-World Yacht Race.

Catherine will race on one of 12 identical 72ft yachts setting off from Portsmouth Harbour on October 3. The teams will be calling at ports across the world from Buenos Aires in Argentina to Cape Town in South Africa, before heading back to the UK in July 2005.

Daughter of a Navy Submariner and a member of the Royal Naval Reserves, Catherine first started sailing at the age of 12 with the Tunbridge Wells Sea Cadets, and has sailed over 3500 nautical miles on different sizes of yachts around the UK and the Caribbean.

Now she has joined up with the Kunachi team to take part in one of the toughest round-the-world yacht races.

She said, "It has been my dream to sail around the world for as long as I remember, and I hope the Global Challenge will be the most exciting and rewarding way of achieving this ambition.

“There is so much to organise before we go, but as soon as we set sail from Portsmouth on 3rd October my dream will finally become a reality".

Paul Butler, managing director of Mid Kent Water, added, "It is such an exciting time for Catherine, and Mid Kent Water wish her and the Kunachi team every success in the race.

“We are looking forward to hearing about her sea-faring adventures when she returns to us in a year's time."