FAMOUS twin adventurers made an impromptu stop on Portland less than a day into a major six-week sailing expedition.

Professional adventurers Hugo and Ross Turner, better known as the Turner Twins, set off at the weekend on a six-week 100 per cent emission-free sailing expedition to the Atlantic Pole of Inaccessibility to complete a plastic survey.

However, a day after setting off from Southampton, the twins had to make an unexpected stop off in Portland Marina after hitting bad weather and breaking one of their sails.

Dorset Echo: The Turner Twins, Ross and Hugo, made an impromptu stop in Dorset after breaking a sail during a sailing expedition. Picture: The Turner Twins

They stayed in the area for more than three days fixing their sail and making final preparations before leaving to continue their expedition at around midday yesterday.

During the expedition, the twins will be working with the University of Plymouth’s International Marine Litter Research Unit, to carry out valuable research, which will be used to help build a long-term clean up strategy for marine plastic pollution. The official project communications partner, Iridium, will support Hugo and Ross throughout the expedition, ensuring they have constant communication back to land.

A Pole of Inaccessibility (POI) is defined as being the geographic location furthest from a coast - often featureless, hostile, and nearly always remote. Hugo and Ross have already reached four of the Poles (Australian, North American, South America, and Iberia), with just five to go (Atlantic, Greenland, Madagascar, Eurasia and point Nemo). On completing this trip, they’ll be the first people ever to reach five POIs. They have their sights on reaching all nine.

On their unplanned stop, the twins said: "We hit bad weather off Portland Bill and broke one of our foresails so we pulled into the marina around 3am on Sunday, welcomed by dolphins.

"We could have had a stay over in a worse place... especially as it's been quite nice weather lately. It's a brilliant place, good local shops, pleasant beach and most of the services we needed to make our repairs.

"Sadly we've had no time for sightseeing but we've been watching the kite surfers and windsurfers in the harbour area."

On continuing their journey after following this delay, they said: "We're feeling good about the trip - it's going to be a long trip and the one thing which will make our plans change will be the weather. It is constantly changing, so will our route but we've got the latest weather routing provided by Iridium and Thales so together we should be fine."

Professor Richard Thompson OBE, Head of the International Marine Litter Research Unit at the University of Plymouth, said: “While there is global consensus behind the need for action, we urgently need to stem the flow of plastics from land to sea. Understanding the quantities and types of litter already at sea is of key importance, and satellite technology presents a real opportunity to highlight where larger items exist. I hope that through this collaboration we can demonstrate the merits of this innovative technology, and go some way to helping better understand the hot spots where plastics have accumulated far away from land.”

From start to finish, the trip will be 100 per cent emission free, using hydrogen provided by TCP Eco to power everything they need at each step of the journey, from the 40ft yacht’s electric engine to charging the electronics they need to communicate back to land and film the expedition. The UK summer tour will also be powered by a zero-emission (at point of use) hydrogen fuel-cell generator and battery inverter unit.

Upon their return to the UK, the duo will embark on a tour of 10 major coastal cities in the UK with Parley, to take action and raise awareness of the health of the oceans and planet. From beach clean ups and talks highlighting the importance of sustainability. The twins will continue to promote hydrogen fuel technology in the aim to normalise its use, with the UK tour also being powered by hydrogen fuel.