Dee Caffari MBE is a two-time Guinness World Record holding yachtswoman. She has sailed round the world no less than 6 times.
Her first record, awarded in 2006, was for being the first woman to circumnavigate the globe solo and non-stop against the prevailing wind and tide (known as the Impossible Voyage) and the second, in 2008, for being the only woman to have sailed solo and non-stop around the world three times. She still holds both these titles.
She is only one of five Impossible Voyagers to have EVER sailed “the wrong way” round the world solo and non-stop.
She has led round-the-world crews, run marathons, campaigned for the environment, is on the board of charities, speaks and lectures to corporate clients and, as she strives to ever improve, has her sights firmly set on competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics when she will be 51.
Having read her amazing book, “Against the Flow”, I was very keen to talk to Dee about the highs and lows of sailing as metaphors for life on land and how these have been valuable lessons in life, as well as the drama and adrenaline overload, however I found myself in a very different conversation than the one I had planned. Such is the absolute joy of speaking to women as amazing as Dee!
The first half is very much chatting about the adventure aspect, the toughness of life at sea and basically me geeking out over the the hows and whys of sailing around the world.
Gradually, however, we started to talk about teamwork, playing to people’s strengths, trust, leadership skills, communication and how she has taken what she learned in some of the most extreme situations on the planet and uses them to teach people about using them in real life.
We touched on how to encourage girls and young woman to stick with sailing despite the difficulties facing them during the awkward teenage years (no loos on boats, all male coaching and officials teams) and how more women are needed in the sport to make this more accessible for them.
And then we talked environment and how sailing all the oceans of the world has highlighted the need to end our reliance on single use plastic and how we can all play an important role in this.
Finally, we discussed going to the Olympics in your 50s and whether she thinks she has the appetite for another round the world voyage!
I came off the call wishing I had asked 1000 more questions about the drama of solo sailing, her most vivid memories on the ocean and other things, but you’ll just need to read her book to get a feel for the insane amount of grit and determination and a little bit of bonkersness needed to achieve such a feat!
Such a privilege to have this much of Dee’s time and energy. Well worth a listen.
You can follow Dee on IG on @deecaffari and her website is www.deecaffari.co.uk