A TRIO of Vale sailors who have braved the high seas on three different yachts have been returning to dry land.

Richard Williams, a 37-year old Salford Priors man, came home after skippering the 50-foot yacht Ice Maiden.

The boat left the UK last September to take members of the armed services on a 10-month training expedition to Antarctica.

Richard, a major in the Royal Engineers and a keen yachtsman, took the helm for the 2,200-mile leg of the voyage from Recife in Brazil to Uruguay's River Platte.

The Ice Maiden is continuing its 20,000-mile trip to the southern ocean and will carry out work for the British Antarctic Survey.

Meanwhile Eckington couple Alex and Jon Smith are preparing to fly to New Zealand at the end of the month to meet their daughter Susie, who is on the BT Global Challenge round the world yacht race.

Susie, a former Prince Henry's High School pupil, had no sailing experience before setting sail from Southampton last September as a crewmember of the 72-foot yacht Olympic.

She has taken a year off from her job in London to make the trip and her mother said: "She is quite adventurous, but we were surprised that she would be away at sea for a whole year."

Susie keeps in touch with regular e-mails, and is expected in Wellington, New Zealand soon.

Another Vale sailor, Holly Jones, aged 36, is due to return home after arriving in Hawaii last weekend.

She has been taking part in the second leg of The Times Clipper 2000 Round the World Yacht Race aboard the Bristol Clipper.

Holly, a 36-year-old freelance catering consultant, joined the boat in Cuba on December 1 and has since sailed the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and across the South Pacific.

The Bristol Clipper finished second in the leg and Holly arrived in Honolulu on Sunday.