Eakin was born in Northern Ireland and lived at Helen's Bay in County Down, then briefly moved to Spain. His father was a civil engineer. He moved to Heswall when he was 12. He learned to sail with the Fourth Heswall Sea Scouts,^[1] sailing at the West Kirby Marine Lake. He left Calday Grange Grammar School in 1979, which he attended with his two brothers, Michael and Clive.

From 1979-83 he was at Wirral News. From 1983-85, he was a freelance journalist in Cheshire. From 1985-89 he was at the Liverpool Daily Post where he won North West Reporter of the Year. From 1989-90 he worked at Central TV as a journalist.^{[citation needed]} From 1990-97 he was a reporter for Look North at Newcastle upon Tyne. He twice won regional journalist of the year.^{[citation needed]}

BBC News edit

Eakin was most recently a presenter on BBC News. He has anchored outside news broadcasts from locations including Belgrade, Belfast, Beirut, Buckingham Palace, Tavistock Square in London and numerous UK floods including in Cockermouth, Tewkesbury and Boscastle, Cornwall. He was the main on-site anchor for BBC News after the Glasgow Airport terror attack in 2007. Eakin left the BBC on 28 May 2015 with his final show running from 11 am until 2pm.

Publishing edit

Eakin's book A Race Too Far describes the 1968 sailing race to be the first person to sail non-stop round the world single-handed.^[2]

Eakin is a qualified RYA Yachtmaster Offshore. He lives in London with his wife, Deborah, who is a GP. His older brother Michael is Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic,^[3] and his younger brother Clive works in BBC local radio in Warwickshire.^[4]

He is a world-class sailor and multiple award-winning skier, and a fan of Creedence Clearwater Revival. He has a 34-foot Hallberg-Rassy yacht.^{[citation needed]}

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