A TEENAGER who set sail from Aberystwyth with her family on a round-the-world voyage 10 years ago has fallen to her death in Jamaica.

Bethany Smith, 18, was working as a deckhand on the 196ft (60m) luxury schooner, Germania Nova, when she fell while working high up on a mast.

The vessel was berthed in the Jamaican town of Port Antonio, Portland.

The teenager spent her early years in Glyndyfrdwy, Denbighshire, but her parents, Sarah and David, set sail from Aberystwyth in April 2007 in their yacht Cape along with her younger brother Bryn.

After spending three years cruising around the Mediterranean, the family sailed to the Canary Islands and west Africa, where they spent a further two years before crossing the Atlantic in March 2012.

They have since toured the Caribbean islands extensively, writing about their travels online.

Writing in a blog last year, Ms Smith’s mother said the family was delighted she had got a job as a trainee on the Germania Nova.

Jamaican police said Ms Smith was cleaning the schooner’s mast on Tuesday afternoon when the ropes became undone and she fell on to the deck.

Sadly Ms Smith died later in hospital after suffering multiple injuries in the fall.

See this week’s Cambrian News south editions for the full story, in shops and online on Wednesday