The family that sails together ...

EVERY DAY IS AN adventure: swimming with dolphins, hand-feeding stingrays, watching an active volcano. Such is the life of a Hong Kong family which left the comforts of the city behind for a round-the-world voyage that's expected to take up to six years.

The odyssey was a fantasy of former Hong Kong police superintendent Robert 'Arni' Highfield, 57, since childhood. When the Englishman retired two years ago, the passionate sailor set out to fulfil his dream with his Hong Kong-born wife, Cam Cheung Wai-nui, and their young daughters, Molly and Nancy.

In May 2005 the family boarded their 42-foot catamaran called Jade, and have since traversed the Pacific, island-hopping in French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, and the Bahamas before sailing to Panama, Ecuador and up the US east coast from Florida to Delaware.

During the past few weeks they've anchored in New Zealand to steer clear of hurricanes and carry out maintenance. They plan to visit Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines before returning to Hong Kong next March.

Cheung, 37, doesn't share her husband's love of the sea, but enjoys visiting new places. 'If we stopped sailing, I would miss the wonderful people and some of the wonderful places we have seen. I would probably also miss the Jade, but I would not miss the sea,' she says.

'I appreciate the opportunity to see remote places and broaden the children's education,' says the former journalist. 'I'm not a keen sailor, although I have become used to it.'