Publisher: A&C Black Publications Ltd, £16.99
Publication Date: 2007
For those of us who like to think of ourselves as reasonably experienced sailors with a handful of North Sea or Channel crossings, a few rough sails home on a Sunday evening or even a crewed crossing of the Atlantic, this is a very humbling book.
Dee Caffari took to offshore sailing after the tragedies of the deaths of her father and a close older colleague from the college where she was a teacher. This was in 1999 when Dee was 26. During a course at the UK Sailing Academy she had her first experience of the “sense of freedom on the open ocean”. Crewing on Group 4 then working for Mike Golding Yacht Racing, after an incredibly short time she was selected by Sir Chay Blyth to skipper a crew of 17 on a 72’ racing boat in the 2004/05 round-the-world Global Challenge Race. A really tough race included the near loss of a crew member through injury but eventually her boat finished 10th out of 12.
At the suggestion of Sir Chay, Dee decided to have a go at becoming the first woman to sail single-handed non-stop round the world against the prevailing winds and currents. The account of this epic journey of 29,227 miles fixing breakages, battling across the Southern Ocean and enduring an unrelenting succession of storms in a 72’ yacht occupies many enthralling pages. Her time for the successful voyage was 178 days, 3 hours, 5 minutes, 70% of which was spent beating to windward! In only six years Dee had circumnavigated twice and reached the top of her chosen sport, a truly astonishing achievement and an inspirational story.
In 2007 Dee was awarded the MBE for her services to sailing. - Christine Holroyd.
