Women break another record

While I and 16,000 others were sailing around the Isle of Wight on Saturday, Dee Caffari and an all women crew, including her Vendee Globe rival, Sam Davies, were breaking the record for sailing around Britain and Ireland.

Good luck to anyone who wants to try and better them. Been there, never want to go again.

Ellen MacArthur, a real dame

This year’s Isle of Wight Round the Island Race was a great day on the water. I had the chance to go sailing on practice day with Ben Ainslie helming Team Origin’s Extreme 40 Catamaran, then on the race itself with Dame Ellen MacArthur and Sebastien Josse. I’ll settle for that.

Ainslie had only helmed the cat for the first time on Friday morning before our afternoon sail but he had the Volvo Ocean race winning skipper Mike Sanderson ready to de-power the main if a tip looked on the cards.

I had expected the race to be a bit of a procession but there were some great duals around the back of the island off Bembridge when the wind died. The after-deck on ICAP Leopard is clearly not used to anyone trying to take its wind and Josse had a lot of fun doing just that.

Most of the day was spent chewing the fat on deck with Ellen MacArthur. I’d been looking forward to meeting her for some time but hadn’t wanted a set piece interview with PRs looking over our shoulders - more of a natural conversation if that could be possible. And that’s exactly what happened. I think I had read somewhere that she is quiet and reserved. Not true. But she’s her own woman all right.

Lots of people are rightly suspicious of journalists and those in the public eye need to be particularly guarded. I didn’t want to pry in to her private life but at no stage did she put up any shutters. If you’ve read her autobiography you will know as much about her as you could know about anyone.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to be pointed out and photographed everywhere you go – wearing I should think. It’s probably why she stays on the Isle of Wight most of the time. But at least people are friendly there. There’s none of the lampooning today that happened after she rose to fame during the 2001 Vendee Globe.

I’m not the star struck type and I would run a mile from celebrity interviews but MacArthur has real star quality – beauty too. It’s the eyes and the inner woman that sort of glows. It’s difficult to explain without seeming smitten.

When I mentioned to two friends that I would be meeting her, they said: “Oh yes, she was the fastest on Top Gear wasn’t she.” No mention of her extensive sailing achievements. How quickly people forget. Or maybe they were surprised, as people are continually surprised, by the depth of her determination.

There are a lot of egos out there in sailing and some people are very good at disguising them in the presence of journalists. But I think that what you see is what you get and what you get in Ellen MacArthur is a team player who makes time for people where she can – given the demands on her time. She came a long way very quickly in her teens and dealing with so much fame so soon must have been tough. Now she handles it like a professional. It’s the only way.

At the end of the day she didn’t rush off but came up to the bar tent for a beer. She wasn’t bossy as I’d feared she might be. But she was enthusiastic, infectiously so, about her passions – sailing, sustainability (a big one) and her charity. She seems to draw inspiration from the strengths of the children she meets who are suffering from cancer or leukaemia, and they must do likewise from her own achievements.

I suspect we’re going to hear a lot from her soon in the sustainability movement. She speaks about the environment and the ecology with a campaigning fervour and she knows her stuff. It’s what we need.

I liked her a lot. Top woman, Dame Ellen MacArthur.

NB. Top picture: Seb Josse with Ellen MacArthur.
Lower picture: Working our rocks off on the rail of the BT Open 60. Picture credit: onEdition.

Hungry wolves close on Rio

Spare a thought for the Volvo boats, denied their big Rio party by a lack of wind in the past few days. Snacks have run out on some of the boats but Ken Read, skipper of PUMA, seems to have the right attitude.

I love his comment about the chocolate bars his wife smuggled aboard that "I break in half and throw on deck to the wolves from time to time." Having met the crew I know just what he means.

Carrot still flying

It is possible that you have heard of Oliver Hicks. I believe he has had a little bit of media coverage but not a lot. Yet he deserves to be better known because just now he is undertaking a venture so tough that I think he must be a little bit potty.

Hicks has embarked on a single-handed row, some 18,000 miles around Antarctica via the Southern Ocean. He didn't invite much publicity because he was afraid that state authorities might impound his boat, so risky is the venture. He couldn't get permission to embark from New Zealand so left from Tasmania instead. This time he didn't seek permission and none was given. He just set off.

That was in January and today he is 55 days in to a voyage that he believes will take him between 18 and 22 months, including a winter break in South Georgia, before he continues around the globe to his starting point.

He is blogging most days so you can follow his progress here at Virgin Global Row. His boat is called the "Flying Carrot." For practice he rowed the Atlantic two or three years ago so he knows what it's about. Good luck to him. He's going to need it.

Vendee ends, Volvo closes on Cape Horn

The Vendee Globe ended for another four years yesterday when Norbert Sedlacek finished in 11th place after 126 days at sea. A lot of thinking should go in to the keel designs for the next race. While the existing keels work well in maintaining boat speed, too many are being wrecked or damaged in collisions, putting skippers in jeopardy. I don't know the answer but I would have thought it would be possible to design a weighted, canting keel that is flared on its forward edge in order to deflect a collision.

In the meantime the leaders of the Volvo Ocean race are closing in on Cape Horn in heavy weather, experiencing true southern ocean conditions.

Spirit arrives

Pete Goss and his Spirit of Mystery have arrived in Melbourne. It's less than a year since I interviewed him before the boat went in to the water. It was a big undertaking and I wondered aloud about the risks, particularly since he was taking his 14-year-old son, Eliot, as part of the crew.

I wouldn't say that Goss thinks about risk the whole time but it's a big part of his thinking, except that he views it as problem solving, not as an impediment. If you're going to need to tackle heavy seas, then you build a seaworthy boat.

He knew there was a chance of a big wave turning the boat over at some stage during the voyage and included extra ballast to give it better righting ability. He believes now that the boat may have gone over 160 deg during the knock down on March 3. Coicidentally it was around this date - a couple of days later - that the original Mystery experienced its worst storm.

I think a lot of people would have thought long and hard about exposing their child to a risk of this nature. I know that Goss did. But every time he thought about it, the potential benefits outweighed the potential risks.

Eliot will have seen and experienced things that are rarely part of a teenager's upbringing. He will have learned about the useful things in life, about making judgements, respecting the elements, and the special relationships that are formed when sharing adversity. Living without risk is impossible and living a life avoiding risk is not living at all.

Ultimately, the boat was tested to the full and proved its seaworthiness. The original voyage was remarkable for its time. Goss has shown that such a voyage is remarkable in our time too. Well done to Pete, Eliot, Andy and Mark and all those who worked to make this voyage happen. There are easier, quicker ways to get to Australia but, as Goss and his crew understand, life's all about the journey isn't it?

Spirit of Mystery back on course for Melbourne

Difficulties in staging a helicopter evacuation of injured crewman Mark Maidment have forced Spirit of Mystery to divert in to Portland where Maidment is receiving treatment to his leg. The three remaining crew are now carrying on their voyage, says skipper, Pete Goss.