Jimmy Cornell took up sailing in the early 1970s while working as a reporter for the BBC World Service in London. In 1975-1981, he circumnavigated the planet on a 36-foot sailboat with his wife, Gwenda Cornell, and two children. He has since circumnavigated twice more while logging more than 200,000 sailing miles in the world's oceans. In 1986, Cornell organized and launched the first Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), an annual flotilla voyage from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean that is now in its twentieth year and has become the largest transoceanic event in the world. Cornell then founded the World Cruising Club, which specializes in international sailing events, and in August 1998 he initiated the Millenium Round-the-World Rally, in which more than 50 yachts sailed together around the world. Five years after its launch, his website www.noonsite.com attracts more than 1 million hits per month. Cornell is a contributing editor and regular columnist for Cruising World magazine, where his columns support sales of his books. He is the author of World Cruising Routes, which has sold more than 65,000 copies in North America and more than 130,000 copies worldwide since its first publication more than twenty years ago.