Just days before he sets off on the greatest adventure of his life, Bermuda's solo around-the-world sailor Alan Paris and his his 40ft vessel BTC Velocity have endured an unscheduled test against Mother Nature - in the form of tropical storm Gustav which passed just off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island on Wednesday night.

Finalising his preparations for the Around Alone Race, which begins from New York on Sunday, Paris was accompanied by a crew of six en route to New York Harbour from Newport when he ran into the storm.

Luckily, his $350,000 craft emerged relatively unscathed after being tossed about by Gustav's near hurricane-strength winds while still tethered to the outer floating docks just inside the breakwaters of the harbour.

"Gustav caused havoc up here (Newport) because as it skirted past we had near-hurricane winds and all of the boats tied to the piers had to scramble just to keep from getting damaged, including Alan who was at the boat until late last night (Wednesday) along with the other skippers and their support staff," said crew member Ralph Richardson, speaking from Newport yesterday.

"We were all moored at the jetty but the boats had to be moved to the outer set of floating docks. They were somewhat exposed even though they were tied to the floating docks. But the docks were bouncing around almost as violently as the boats were. It was quite an eventful night but everyone seems to have got through unscathed.

"We are expecting to arrive in New York sometime tomorrow (today) depending on the wind and weather.

"The weather has abated somewhat. It's now blowing between 20 to 25 knots and it's expected to drop down to 10 to 15 by this afternoon. So we are hoping to get off to a good start although we expect there's going to be some fairly heavy seas rolling after Gustav's passage."

Sunday's start to the Around the World race will begin just below Ground Zero, the site where the World Trade Centre Twin Towers once stood before the tragic events of September 11, 2001.