HAVING sailed around the world three times a Suffolk yachtsman is today preparing for a new trip to bring a bottle of port to the Queen.Josh Hall, of Shotley, will join Portuguese-sailor Ricardo Diniz to make the trip from Portimao, in Portugal, to London to hand over the bottle as part of the Queen's 80th birthday celebrations.

HAVING sailed around the world three times a Suffolk yachtsman is today preparing for a new trip to bring a bottle of port to the Queen.

Josh Hall, of Shotley, will join Portuguese-sailor Ricardo Diniz to make the trip from Portimao, in Portugal, to London to hand over the bottle as part of the Queen's 80th birthday celebrations.

The trip, which will hopefully start on November 10, will also mark the 250th anniversary of the Demarcated Douro Region in Portugal.

They will travel 1,300 miles on the trip which should take seven to ten days to complete and they hope to arrive in the centre of London in late November.

The idea of the trip, which will be carried out in an historic vessel, is to boost the fragile Port industry but the pair are still unsure whether the Queen will be present at the finishing ceremony.

A former pupil of Northgate Grammar School in Ipswich was born into a family of sailors and he grew up racing around the shores of England.

The 43-year-old now lives in the county with his wife and three children and has had his fair share of unsuccessful missions.

In 1995 he hit a submerged object during the opening leg of a long-distance race and promptly sunk and in the 1998-99 Around Alone he was again forced to retire when he lost the top of his mast.

This trip will be carried out by the duo wearing a uniform of a mix of the Portuguese and English flags as they bring the bottle dating back to 1926 - the year of the Queen's birth.