A young soldier from Brentford has embarked on an epic sailing adventure from Iceland to Norway via Greenland.

Chelsey Hampson, a Gunner in the Royal Artillery, is the only female in the crew of 67-foot yacht, Discoverer, which left Gosport at the end of last August to sail the breadth of the Atlantic, from the high latitudes and ice of Antarctica and the Arctic to the sweltering heat and humidity of the Tropics.

During its year long journey, part of the Army's Leadership Through the Atlantic expedition, some 200 soldiers swap on and off the boat to help crew it during its voyage.

Chelsey, 18, who attended Brentford School for Girls, in Boston Manor Road, joined the Army earlier this year and is with nine other young soldiers on the expedition for the final leg of its journey.

"This is all new to me, I've never sailed like this before so I hope to gain new skills and overcome sea sickness," she said before she left.

"It'll be an opportunity to gain new friends, work in a close team against the elements and I'll be able to tell some good old sailors sea stories when I get back."

The programme has pulled together 100 selected young soldiers who are at the end of their initial army basic training.

"My family think it will be a great experience for me and were very excited to hear I was going sailing across the Atlantic, although it will be inside the Arctic Circle," she said.

Chelsey, known as 'Wang-Eye' to her friends, will be joined by experienced army sailing instructors and soldiers who have recently been injured fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan, who will use the time to recover.