The general manager of Isle of Man Maritime, which is a non-profit organisation formed to develop, support and promote the island’s growing maritime sector, is undertaking a walking challenge to raise money for charities which support seafarers and the fishing fleet.

Captain Lee Clarke began his ’Port 2 Port Challenge’ on July 17 and has already raised more than £2,000 of his £5,000 target.

The challenge involves walking from one port to another, every weekend for six weeks - although Captain Clarke’s walk on July 25 had to be delayed, as he was in isolation, meaning the challenge will now end a week later than originally planned.

So far Captain Clarke has completed three legs of the challenge, walking from Castletown to Port St Mary, Port St Mary to Peel and Peel to Ramsey.

Next Saturday he will walk from Ramsey to Laxey, before completing walks in the coming weeks from Laxey to Douglas and Douglas to Castletown, where he will finish the challenge on Sunday, August 29.

Captain Clark is undertaking the ’Port 2 Port’ challenge to raise funds and awareness for the seafarer and fishing communities in the island.

All money raised will be split between The Seafarers’ Charity, the Isle of Man King George’s Fund for Sailors (KGFS), the RNLI and the International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network’s (ISWAN) ’Yacht Crew’ helpline.

Captain Clarke said: ’Normally I do it just for The Seafarers Charity, however I wanted to bring in more Manx charities as well. That’s when I added the RNLI and of course the King George’s Fund for Sailors.

’We added ISWAN because we recognised that there are a lot of people that live in the Isle of Man that actually work on super yachts.

’ISWAN offer a 24-hour helpline for mental health to the super yacht industry, and I wanted to show my support there.’

He praised the island’s maritime community, saying: ’I’m an ex-mariner myself, I’m an ex-captain and it’s been an extremely tough 18 months, certainly for seafarers who have been stuck on board for that time as well.

’I also just [wanted] to show gratitude to our fishing industry.

’They’ve been working through the pandemic just to make sure that there’s fresh produce on our tables, the Ben-my-Chree and all the crew [has made] sure that we have everything that we need.

’So it’s a sign of appreciation just as much as raising money.’

Catherine Spencer, chief executive officer of The Seafarers’ Charity, said: ’The Seafarers’ Charity is thrilled that Captain Lee Clarke is yet again supporting seafarers in his latest Port 2 Port challenge.

’Lee works tirelessly, through his professional roles and as an KGFS committee member, doing sponsorship and fundraising events for The Seafarers’ Charity.

We are so thankful to Lee for his years of commitment to the sector he loves so much.’

Lee’s fundraiser can be found on Just Giving at: https://buff.ly/3rY9hv8