A 59-year-old Las Vegas man just spent nearly a year at sea, sailing roughly 40,000 nautical miles around the globe with almost no prior sailing experience. Jimmy Johnson, a retired Clark County Fire Department captain, returned home after completing the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, a grueling eight-leg circumnavigation that tested him with storms, seasickness and two dislocated thumbs.
Johnson embarked on the 14th edition of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race in August 2025, sailing for Team Warrant, which represented a logistics company from England, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The race itself began in Portsmouth, England, and eventually finished there too, wrapping up an 11-month journey that took Johnson and his crewmates through waters on nearly every continent. Team Warrant sailed from England to Puerto Sherry, Spain, then continued across the Atlantic to Punta del Este, Uruguay, before pushing on toward Cape Town.
Despite having hardly any sailing experience before the race, Johnson said his approach to the chaos of open-ocean racing mirrored his decades on the fire line. He attributed his ability to handle the challenge directly to his firefighting experience, comparing the tight-knit dynamics of a sailing crew to those of a firefighting crew. That comparison carries weight given his background: Johnson spent his career with the Clark County Fire Department, the largest fire department in Nevada, which operates 33 career stations and 10 rural volunteer stations and responded to 152,894 calls for service in 2024, according to Clark County.
Storms, Seasickness and a Self-Repaired Thumb
The voyage was not gentle on Johnson's body. He was seasick for five days early in the trip and dislocated his thumb twice, repairing the injury himself both times, per the Review-Journal's reporting. Team Warrant's crew also weathered three consecutive storms during the first leg of the race, a rough introduction to the months of ocean crossings that followed.
One of the most harrowing moments came as the crew approached South America, when a Team Warrant crew member went overboard. The rest of the crew rescued that person, according to the same account. The race's structure leaves little room for professional backup in emergencies: each Clipper 70 yacht carries a watch crew of 18 to 22 non-professional paying participants overseen by just two full-time professionals on board, a skipper and an Additional Qualified Person, per Wikipedia. Team Warrant itself included 18 to 20 people, consistent with that structure.
The risks built into ocean racing of this scale are not new. Following two fatal onboard accidents during the 2015–16 edition of the race, UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch safety reports led to reinforced mandatory tethering protocols and stricter safety boundaries across the Clipper fleet, according to Scuttlebutt Sailing News. Every non-professional crew member, regardless of experience, must also complete 26 days of compulsory training split into four weekly modules at the race organization's headquarters in Gosport, UK, before ever setting sail.
A Route That Circled the Planet
The race route wound through an extraordinary list of stops. After leaving Uruguay, the fleet sailed from Cape Town to Fremantle, Australia, then from Fremantle to Airlie Beach, Australia — a leg Team Warrant went on to win as the crew continued from Airlie Beach to Subic Bay in the Philippines. From there, the route continued from Subic Bay to Qingdao, China, then from Qingdao to Tongyeong, South Korea, and on from Tongyeong to Seattle. The fleet then pushed from Seattle to Panama, from Central America to Washington, D.C., and finally from Washington to Oban, Scotland, before the last stretch back to Portsmouth.
Along the way, Johnson's partner, Marcella Brous, met him at every planned port stop, bringing groceries and meal plans for the crew and racking up more than 125,000 miles of her own travel over the 11 months. She even arranged a birthday cake and candles at a marina bar in Costa Rica when Team Warrant stopped there for supplies on Johnson's birthday. Brous effectively traveled the whole world during the journey, tracking her partner's progress from port to port.
Ninth Place, One First-Place Flag
Team Warrant ultimately placed ninth overall among the fleet's competing teams in a race that included 10 teams in total. Team GOSH won the overall 2025–26 title, accumulating 153 points across the 40,000-nautical-mile journey under skipper Oliver Irvine and first mate Otto Kulow, according to footage posted by Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Still, Team Warrant received a yellow first-place flag for its win on the Airlie Beach to Subic Bay leg, a highlight amid the long campaign.
Johnson described a large celebration at Portsmouth marking the finish. He said the journey had been daunting at times, recalling a moment in the middle of the Pacific when he felt the closest people to him were aboard the International Space Station overhead. Returning to land afterward brought a mix of emotions: Johnson felt elated and accomplished, but also anxious after so many months at sea.
What Comes Next
Johnson has been checking items off a bucket list since retiring from the Clark County Fire Department, and he said that list only grows as he crosses things off it. His next planned adventure is a motorcycle ride from Alaska to Argentina, continuing a post-retirement pattern of chasing extreme, drawn-out challenges far from the desert where he spent his career.
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