WHEN Alan Paris saw that one of Hollywood's most glamorous couples had turned up to a promotion of his solo round-the-world sailing mission, he was not especially surprised.

Film stars Michael Douglas and wife Catherine Zeta-Jones were in the audience in St. George's for the launch of a project which will allow hundreds of the island's schoolchildren to track and study Mr. Paris' 30,000-mile trip around the globe.

So was Mr. Paris not amazed to see two of the world's best-known film stars there for him?

"Yes and no," said Mr. Paris yesterday. "It depends how well you know Michael and Catherine. They really are the nicest people.

"Michael is a huge film star of course, but when he's back in Bermuda, he's a member of the Dill family. He's half-Bermudian so he's just a guy at home.

"I was lucky enough to be general manager at Ariel Sands, so I worked for Michael's family. My dealings with him in the past have always been very friendly.

"Catherine is a really nice person too. It was wonderful of them to show up, but I was not star-struck, because I know what sort of people they are."

The 37-year-old Bermudian will take his boat, BTC Velocity, around the world via the southern capes, leaving from Newport, Rhode Island in September and returning in April 2003. While he is away, children from 14 Bermuda schools will chart his progress on a web site showing photos, a captain's log update, video clips and media reports.

"It's great to be able to involve the children," said Mr. Paris. "To have an adventure like this and not involve them would have been a waste."

He added that he would be visiting all 14 schools involved in the Learn Around the World 2002 project before he left the island for more testing of his boat.

Mr. Paris said he did not feel overwhelmed by the huge scale of his voyage. "If you break it down into parts, it's not quite so daunting," he said. "Without question, it's more of a mental challenge than a physical one.

"The physical demands tend to come in spurts. You can be working full on for two or three hours and then do nothing for the next ten hours.

"My biggest worry is failing to finish. If I were to hit an iceberg or something submerged, then you could say the failure had been taken out of my hands, though I probably wouldn't feel that way.

"There is a lot of stuff out there in the ocean. The other day I hit a beluga whale. Luckily for me and the whale the boat just bounced off his tail fin."

Learn Around the World 2000 is backed by the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute and sponsored by the ACE Foundation and the XL Foundation.