00:00

If you're old enough to remember when phones had cords and the only thing that went viral was a cold, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Big Six-O with Kaylee Harris and Guy Rawlison. Because who better to discuss life's second act than two people who still think mature is a type of cheese?

00:34

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's edition of the Big Six podcast with me, Kayleigh Harris and Guy Rawlison.  Now guys, so far on the podcast, we've spoken to some amazing people with equally amazing stories.  And I'm sure our next guest is used to hearing this about herself when she does interviews. But to say  Lisa Blair is amazing seems like the greatest understatement of the year. We're all amazing, I guess on some level, right? But  what Lisa has achieved goes so far beyond that.

01:03

Lisa Blair is the first woman to sail solo around Antarctica and her journey has been captured in a documentary film called Ice Maiden. It's now showing on SBS On Demand.  So to prepare for this interview,  I watched the doco, of course, but I have never felt sick or anxious before watching something on television  until this. was out of

01:26

Pure worry for you. Lisa Blair, welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me on the show. Let's set the scene for the documentary and the lead up to your  first attempt  to be the first woman to circumnavigate Antarctica unassisted.  This was in 2017? Yes. OK.  Now, your boat is called Climate Action Now.  And what I love about it is the boat was covered in little post-it notes,  I guess, painted on...

01:52

It's like a giant sticker, like a vinyl, like a car wrap.  What I'm saying is not actual post-it notes. No, I do get little kids sometimes come up and go, don't they fall off when you're sending them? I'm like, no, I'm sorry, love.  So all these little notes have got  messages to do with climate action, something you're very passionate about. Yes. Is that  why I'm just thinking the climate action now, why the journey? Was it to do with to raise awareness for that or was it more about

02:21

you wanting to do something for yourself to break this record? Was it all of the above? Was it because you'd been a sailor a long time? Talk us through, take us back to then and how that all came, I think because your mum was a sailor. Mum got into sailing when my folks divorced when I was about 12-ish.  And so we had been on the odd sailboat as I'd been growing up, like the odd Easter holiday, it was on her new partner's sailboat.  And so it was...

02:49

a sort of first exploration into it, but I was a teenage girl,  you know, with zero interest in learning how to sail from my, you know, my mom's new partner or anything like that, as you would imagine as a kid that day, those days.  So it wasn't until I was 25 that I really started to learn how to sail and got an interest for it.  And I randomly got a job as the cook and the cleaner on a charter boat in the Whitsundays. And I just  absolutely fell in love with that sense of

03:16

I guess like accomplishment getting a boat from point A to point B completely off the wind,  all the little things you can learn and just like that journey that I went on with that.  And it led me to do a yacht race around the world called the Clipper around the world yacht race, which is like an amateur yacht race. So you sign up, you pay a birth fee, you race each other around the planet. And so  coming from almost no sailing experience to wanting to go and do

03:41

big projects and reading stories and seeing Jessica Watson  finishing her record and like just thinking, that's amazing. I'd love to have a go, but I've got no kind of sailing experience to back it up yet. That race seemed like a really great option to learn  and to get the projects kind of going. And then it was while I was sailing around the world with the Clipper race that I started to really see the firsthand impacts of humans on the oceans and

04:09

You know, and it was a really like I was always quite sustainably aware anyway, as a kid, we grew up in the bush on solar power, we were taught always to respect wildlife and the nature around us. But I hadn't really seen like the actual effects in these really remote regions in the middle of the ocean where almost no humans pass through and there was just trash floating past. I mean, once we were halfway from South Africa to Australia and I was helming the boat, we're closer to Antarctica.

04:38

then  Australia or like to any main continent. And then the styrofoam box just floated past us thousands of miles out to sea. And we sailed up towards  China and across the North Pacific from Australia. And on that trip, there were whole sections where the volume of plastic pollution in the water was so thick, we had to actually get a crew member on the bow of the boat with a boat hook, like pushing in and shoving it out of the way of the boat.

05:07

And to me, that was just like,  I felt so overwhelmed  and I didn't know how I could change it or impact it or help it. But I thought if I'm feeling this way, it's quite likely there's millions of people feeling this way. And how could I then maybe craft a project around the idea of impact and positive impact and  how could we inspire people to take on a change for our environment? And that's really where the climate action now in the Post-it Notes came through. Because you tend to think that

05:36

certain parts of the world, ocean pollution would be worse than others. And you think automatically it would be closer to land. But to imagine you're in the middle of nowhere and there's rubbish floating on  the ocean, that's heartbreaking. Exactly. And we hadn't seen land for 20 days. And I was finding trash.  Like it's just wild. And so the whole concept of the Post-It Notes was to go out and it's still an active campaign for any listeners who want to get involved, go to the website, you can add a message to the boat.

06:05

But it's an actual action that that person is already taking. And I've collected them in talks, events, boat shows, open boat days, like around the world, schools, like,  and every New World Record, I actually update the hull wrap on the hull of the boat so that everyone's new messages I've collected in the time between  can actually go on the boat and become part of that inspiration for our communities and showing people that, you know, ultimately every action matters. You just have to start taking a action.

06:34

whatever it is, big or small, whether it's picking rubbish up when you walk your dog at the beach, or whether it's having short showers, turning the lights off when you leave the room, whether it's investing in a compost system at home or, you know, whatever that is for you.  If you start taking that one action, then it does have that really positive kind of viral effect across communities because your social circle will start to see your actions.

06:57

taking place and then they get influenced and maybe your friends, your kids, your family, the conversations you start having. And for me now, I can't walk past cigarette butts on the ground. I can't walk past trash in the storm drains because everything ends up in the sea. So simple things like that, it's changed my behaviour around how I live and exist in communities. And  yeah, and it's around inspiring others to do the same.

07:23

just make sure you don't put a message in a bottle and throw that bottle into the ocean. Especially if it's a plastic bottle. That's right. Can I go back just a little bit to when you were a kid? I watched the documentary and I said to you earlier, I watched it twice. Yes. And I said, I just wanted to give you a hug. And you were generous enough. You gave me a great big hug.  It was warm. It was welcoming. But as a kid, I think it was your sister  and probably your mum too saying that you were just that kid.

07:51

You were that kid that was into everything and adventurous and just full of energy.  What,  how did that path lead you to just, you know, not only your career in sailing, but, know, just the whole environmental aspect of things.  At what point did you say, this is what I want to do. This is how I want to go.

08:13

Yeah, I don't think I ever really had a clear moment where I  chose this as a future. I mean, there was definitely moments where I chose projects, but I still never really kind of thought that they would become careers or,  you know,  anything like that. I mean, I studied visual arts and education at university. And I know my mum has an opinion that I was this loud, outgoing kid, but I  don't agree with it as much. Like I was pretty heavily bullied through school. So I

08:41

I know through my high school years, I definitely like regressed, became a lot quieter, became a loner, became an introvert because my social situation demanded it.  I'm dyslexic, so I've always really struggled at school  and academic kind of platform. So I had a lot of people over my younger years effectively telling me I wasn't really going to amount to anything. And if I couldn't learn to spell this word perfectly, then you're not going to succeed in life. You're not going to be able to achieve anything.

09:10

So I think a lot of that kind of fire that I have  for driving this forward is also around  not so much proving them wrong, but showing other people that might be suffering in that sort of scenario and struggling, particularly kids at school, but it could be young adults,  could be people just trying to find their space in life, could be older adults that are trying to start again,  but showing them that other people's opinions don't dictate what we're capable of.

09:40

And so that was a real, you know, I think as a kid, I was a blend of both, you know, in social circles, I was quite reserved, quite quiet. When I was alone or at home in a comfortable environment, I would be that loud, boisterous, friendly, bubbly kind of wild person. So yeah, it was just that little bit of balance.

10:00

So what came first?  you buy the boat first or then did you first decide I want to go and break this record, the record held by the Russian Fedor Konikov? Konyakov. Konyakov.  What came first? And talk us about how you got the boat because that was a really interesting long journey.  it actually started a little earlier than getting the boat.  So I'd finished the round the world yacht race with the Clipper.

10:27

I'd become a circumnavigator, whereas two years earlier I hadn't really sailed at all.  And so for me, that was just mind blowing. And I'd had to raise $80,000 to compete in the race. And so I'd done these big fundraising cycles from Sydney to Sunshine Coast and all sorts of things to just reach the start line. And it was the first time I guess I'd achieved something significant that I felt I'd put genuine heart and effort into and come out the other side. And then I'd race around the planet.

10:55

And so off the back of that, I thought, how do you make it harder? Cause I just figured I'd  done the hardest thing most people would consider, which is racing a yacht around the world. Cause we weren't cruising, we were racing.  And I thrived in that environment and I  still wanted to learn more. I wanted to push myself. I wanted to see what else I was capable of because  my previous opinions were now blown out of the water of what I was capable of.

11:21

And so that led me to try and sign up for a yacht race, which was a solo yacht race, New Zealand to Australia. It's called the Trans Tasman yacht race and it runs once every four years.  And I remember calling them and saying, hi, I'm this Aussie. I've never sailed solo. I don't own a boat, but I want to sign up for your race. I've got 12 months. When can I tell you I bought a boat for it? I've managed to find a boat for this race.  And I remember the guys laughing on the other side of it, just being like, what?  Who is this person?

11:49

But I already had that kind of idea that if I commit fully, then I can figure out a way to make it happen. It's just the commitment needs to be so solid and so grounded and so there to back it up basically.  So  I signed up for this race, paid the entry fees, I was the laughing stock of  the whole process.  And it was while trying to convince a complete stranger to lend me his boat,

12:16

when I'd never sailed solo to sail to New Zealand solo as my qualifier to then race back to Australia,  that I really  came across this concept of Antarctica.  And I was trying to borrow this guy, James Buick, his amazing solo sailor.  And he had this class 40 racing yacht, like the sexiest thing you could find in our waters, right?  And  he was like, look, I'm not in a position to like lend you the boat, but maybe if you could combine this project with something larger,

12:45

you might be able to buy the boat. And at the same time, he was looking at doing Fedor's record, trying to challenge Fedor's record with that boat. And so he was like, maybe you should have a look at this Antarctica trip. It's perfect. This boat's perfect for it. would do it. No worries. Like, have a look at it.  And I'd never sailed solo and he's throwing this idea of sailing around Antarctica solo at me. And I instantly was like, there's no way. Like I have been sailing for less than three years.

13:14

I, you know, I've raced around the world, but I've raced around the world as crew, not the captain. it's a whole, like the learning curve to go and leap to something like that was going to be huge.  And so I initially like, didn't think I'd be capable of it and I canned it.  And  then I went and I got my captain's license and I started skippering boats in the Whitsundays. And while I was driving in these tropical paradises in the Whitsundays, taking backpackers around, I couldn't shake that idea that

13:41

that what if like what kind of boat would you need? How cold was cold going to be? Where was the iceberg line like that real kind of idea? And so I started researching and then I started talking to my family about it  and my mum was instantly absolutely no way. Everyone thought I was  nuts to even consider it.  And then I managed to borrow another boat last minute for this trans-Hansman yacht race, raced to New Zealand and back, had a major learning curve, absolutely fell in love with solo sailing.

14:11

And then  on the back of that, I spoke to my family again and I was like, you know, what do you think? And they're like, well, I know you've done 3000 miles solo now. So, you know, who are we to stop you  if you feel you're capable?  So that was 2014.  And then I moved to Sydney to try and raise the money and figure it out. And I figured if I'm close to the corporates and surely they'll sign up. Like, it's  going to be harder for them to say no if they're looking at me in the eyes and in person. And, and I started

14:40

working across different companies in Sydney, driving boats or teaching sailing and just kind of trying to make ends meet while I tried to drive the project forward. I had to postpone it a year initially because I couldn't get any money. It was like the chicken and the egg problem. Like  you couldn't raise the sponsorship unless you had the boat, but you couldn't get the boat without the sponsorship and that sort of situation. And then  when I was just...

15:05

in the second year,  reaching that critical kind of tipping point of do I postpone again?  And I'd been like sending thousands of proposal documents out having meetings just getting nowhere with it. And it was my first kind of solo project of scale. So obviously, like, you know, I've got no assets to back it up with yet. I haven't proven myself to anyone yet.  And it was at that time that my mum had thought about maybe loaning me the money for the boat. So she

15:34

came to me with a conversation. She was like, I think I can refinance against the family home and help you buy the boat.  And I adamantly refused because I didn't want to have to put, you know, family assets and she, you know, we don't have a lot in our family. I didn't want to put that on the line for this.  And she said, look, it's,  you know, you'll pay interest. It's a good investment from my side.  I see it as investing in your business or your career. I want to see you succeed. So here, like, you know, let's figure it out.

16:04

And then we started boat shopping  and I found  Climate Action Now after about three months of searching and I just fell in love with her instantly. And I was familiar with the boat from another person that I knew had raced on it.  And I'd seen the boat once before in person and I'd been jealous of it then because I just thought she was the sexiest boat I'd ever seen.  And so  we finally then went to the banks and  unfortunate timing there a week earlier.

16:32

we had had the Royal Commission across Sydney, like across Australia,  and they changed the way that loans were done  from, you know, equity driven to serviceability. And we were no longer eligible, even when we combined mine and mum's information and we put deposits on the boat and we'd hauled it out and done the survey.  We'd, you know, been progressing things, but we now couldn't get the money together.  And randomly,  you know,  I think you'll see this as a running theme throughout my entire story, but

17:01

effectively, anytime, everyone else would have gone great, I had a  I tried, you know, the bank said, No, I'll keep trying the other way. But like, maybe it's not for me kind of thing and stop.  It was when I do one extra thing at that moment that I'd actually get somewhere with it.  And so I went to the local sailing based paper, and I said, Hey, can you help with an article?

17:26

They'd written an article which had managed to get me a boat for the trans husband yacht race and they wrote an article saying I'm looking for an investor,  know, pay 8 % interest, you know, blah, blah, for the loan of the boat.  And I managed to find a past crew member of mine, Colin was amazing, him and his wife.  And they funded the boat initially,  but it still needed around $150,000 spent on it to get it ice safety and like, you know, ready for the Southern Ocean.

17:56

That was when Dick Smith came involved and became my first sponsor. Were there times where you thought this is a mountain that's just too hard to climb?  Not what you were doing, but just to get to the starting line? A million times. A million times. Every day.  All the time. And it was like,  it was such an emotional rollercoaster because you're trying something that you've never done before. You don't know if you can do it. You don't really know...

18:22

you know how to convince a complete stranger to give you their money effectively for marketing exposure.  And you're fumbling your way through it, but learning all the time. And the biggest thing I learned was to take the personal nature of it out of it. It's a numbers game. Sponsorship is a numbers game.  And so if you ask enough people, you might get 99 no's and you eventually get one yes.  And the 99 no's I would get most of them I would say, hey,

18:51

Can you give me any feedback on my proposal documents? Is there anything specific you'd be looking for that I didn't have in here? I understand the opportunities pass now, but is there someone in your network that you feel that this would align with?  And so then they would be able to connect me up to somebody else and then I'd start the process again with them.  And so it's just a consistently chipping away  and just chipping away and chipping away and chipping away. And so...

19:17

You know, like a normal day, I'd go out and I teach sailing for six or eight hours and then I'd come home and I'd send 20 or 30 emails. And then I'd follow up with them a week later when I had a gap between sailing charters, I'd be calling people and trying to follow up and check they got my email and schedule a meeting. And  then I'd have to like not accept a charter so I could go to a meeting and like, you know, it's just a constant hustle effectively. fast forward.

19:41

You hustle and hustle and hustle for over three years. Yeah. You finally get to the point where you're ready to go.  The work's been done on the boat. Can you give us a quick rundown of what sorts of things needed to be done to the boat to prepare it for going into the Southern Ocean? Yeah, absolutely. It was significant.  Basically rebuilt the boat, but I had,  you know, almost no money.  So I had a six month refit condensed to six weeks with the help of hundreds of volunteers that showed up.

20:11

to dig in, to help unbolt staunches, to just go through the boat. So we did haul out through a yard and had a ship ride do all the necessary safety things as far as quality of the hull check. And  we tried to take the keel off, but the keel didn't want to come off. we ultimately, the reason for trying to take it off was to check it wasn't going to fall off. So we were happy with that, replace the keel bolts,  the rigging wire needed to be replaced, all the running rigging. So that's all your ropes and everything across the boat.

20:41

To give you some context, ropes for a boat that size are normally about $60,000 just for the ropes.  New sales, so that's about 45,000 just in sales and that's with sponsorships.  All the safety gear had to be updated. Most of the tools had to be replaced or upgraded.  Internally, the boat didn't have any storage as such for an extended voyage and the previous owner had been using lots of jerry cans to like do that.

21:10

So I ended up having to install tanks, I had to install the water maker, you know, reconfigure all of that. So a lot of that is me, you know, down on the tools, sanding, grinding, painting, finishing, had an amazing friend of mine, Yvette, and she is a shipwright and she was brilliant. She donated her time and was very affordable to work with me on the boat. And so the two of us just like got into it and we're building shelving, we're building walls, we're changing.

21:37

hatches, we're re-glossing, we're strengthening areas of the boat that we thought might need them.  I'm attaching fittings for  safety gear like storm drogues and the likes. I'm also going through  the mental aspect of each worst scenario that could take place or each possible area of risk, like falling through the safety rails, even if I'm tethered to the boat and I'm ending up on the outside of the boat, still attached, but through the rails.

22:04

you know, how do I prevent that? So I added two extra safety lines, I raised the railing height, I put netting through the rails, like, you know, so it's all these little things that you have to kind of go through  to make it possible. But effectively, we bought on all the electronics were replaced as well, full upgrade on all the electronics and the battery system,  which was like 100,000 in the budget, just that. So yeah, it was a significant overhaul of the boat.  Definitely. But getting the boat

22:33

Ready is one thing. You're spending your time, your money, your efforts, calling on friends and your network. How do you get yourself emotionally and ready for something like that? Because in between everything, it's going to be you, the ocean and this very sexy looking boat that's going to be taking on the world. How do you start to acclimatise mentally for something like that? Yeah, it's a...

23:03

I don't know if I did that part so well.  A lot of that happened when I was at sea. I think I was so focused on reaching the start line. And the biggest thing I wanted to do was take some of the pressure off on the record aspects, just finishing the loop and coming home alive became became  my primary focus, right?  Even though I wanted the record and I wanted to be the fastest and all of these things, they weren't

23:30

what I focused my energy on, just making sure I could survive it was where I focused my energy. And it meant that  my first significant goal was reaching the start line. And I celebrated that because I think so many people look at the start, it's the beginning, but you've already had this huge journey of overcoming challenges to reach the start line. And anything else on top of that was just going to be like icing on the cake, right?  But it was,  I'd spent a lot of time visualizing.

23:59

And I, before I did the first Antarctica record, the longest I'd spent at sea solo was 12 days. So I had no idea  really how I would mentally cope. you were looking at three to four months at sea. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So I planned for four months. I was hoping for three. Um,  but, the record was three months or just short of three months.  Um,  and so it was really around trying to structure my mind.

24:28

or consciously come up with decisions and like a way of framing my mind up on the, I guess the best way I did it was I put it in perspective of when the project started in 2014. This is just the little bit at the end, the sailing part. And I know how to sail. And I know I love the ocean. I know I love being at sea solo. So I didn't think that that would be such a big part of the record outside of like the daily grind of like trying to survive in those conditions all the time.

24:58

But when I would have bad days,  I would always relate it back. Okay, this is, you know, I've worked so incredibly hard. I've given so much of my energy and commitment to just  getting to this point to have this experience to be going through hell at the moment. And I tried to then frame it as a positive in like, I'm privileged to have this experience to be hypothermic in the middle of the ocean and freezing in 80 lives at the moment.  But I'm incredibly lucky because it meant that I

25:27

all that work, you know, this is the top of all of that energy and work and effort. And the visualising helped a lot, but I don't know how you can visualise loneliness and depression and things like that when you're on your own in the middle of the ocean. you don't want to visualise 15 metre waves either. Well, I mean, you do you need to. Yeah. And you and I would think through all different scenarios like what happens if I broke my leg? What happens if the keel fell off? What happens if I lost a vital piece of gear?

25:56

what happens if my comms went down? How would I feel? How does that change the mental aspect of the game? Like, you know, all of these things. I  and I would spend like that three years of preparation was three years of thinking through everything I could possibly humanly imagine might occur, including  what if I get sad  because I'm alone? What if I miss my friends and family a lot like what if  and I'm already quite independent. I moved out of home when I was 18 and moved to another state like

26:24

So I've always been quite like not lonely. Like I'm always, you know, I get along with my family brilliantly and I love them a lot. And we talk all the time, but I'm not with them. I'm not living with them. I'm not surrounded by that all the time. So I feel like it wasn't such a big leap to get out to say solo. But that isolation is completely different. It's borne to 99 % of the population, isn't it? Being out, being this little bobbin.

26:50

popping through the Southern Ocean.  And at night times,  what was like? I love the nights. The nights are my favorite. They're the best.  You can't see the ocean, but  you feel the boat when it's happy. It's got this shushing sound that it makes when it's on course. The boat's happy. You're gliding through the waves. You've got this incredible clear sky. I mean, I didn't get that many clear skies. It's the Southern Ocean. It's mostly gray and overcast, but...

27:16

the clear nights were just breathtaking. And you would get it sometimes where it was so calm that you'd have the stars reflected on the surface of the ocean and you couldn't tell the difference between sky and sea. And you would just be like, almost like you're in a spaceship,  like windly,  slowly drifting forward in these calm conditions.  And  I ended up actually spending most of my nights  up and sleeping  what I could in the days.

27:44

mainly also because I was trying to stay on the Australian time zone. So as I went through the different time zones, I ended up just because I was doing media interviews and stuff like that,  say.  But just going back to the loneliness thing for a second, like the when COVID hit, I got interviewed a lot around isolation and loneliness.  And the biggest thing that I  kind of I guess came to was the the fact that I chose this.

28:09

I chose this experience and I knew it was going to be part of that experience that I was setting off for. And it's temporary. I knew that I'll eventually reach port. It's three months. It's not forever. And I didn't have that unknown uncertainty. And I think so many people with something like COVID  struggled so much because they didn't know when it was going to end. They weren't sure. And it was somebody else telling them they had to stay home and isolated. Whereas with something like

28:37

what I was doing, I chose to be in that situation.  And you know, you're alone, but like you also know you've got, you know, thousands and thousands of people following you at home.  You know, that support, that outcry and support would come through when I'd have really bad days. My mum would go through my social media and copy and paste all the positive comments from people. And I couldn't see them at sea, but she could see them coming through and she'd drop them in a text email to me through the satellite system.

29:07

And so every now and then she had just picked up on my tone of voice or my language use in my text and she'd just realised that I was having a bit of a hard time. And she'd send those through and it would always just remind me that like I'm the only one out here but I'm doing it for this greater community of people.  let's go back to, so 2017 away you go, you take off. Yep.  And you're going along fine, you start your circuit navigation. You took off from Perth? Albany, Albany and Westminster. And Albany, yep.

29:34

and you're heading off and away you go and everything's going to plan and the ship's sailing along fine for a certain amount of time. Tell us how long and then what happened. Yeah, well, there was a little bump in the road there. Yeah, just a little one. Yeah, so I left from Albany because that's where Fyodor Koniakoff left from. So in order to challenge his record, I had to conform to the same race rules. So that means that I had to sail directly south into like a gated entry point at 45 degrees south.

30:04

That's roughly like the bottom of Tasmania. And then I had to circumnavigate between 45 South and 60 South. And 60 South is like kind of the upper tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. So that kind of ocean section is where I'm existing. So yeah, I spent 72 days  circumnavigating in there. So I'd crossed the whole South Pacific.  I'd rounded Cape Horn in a force 12 gale, thought that was going to be the hardest thing I had to deal with because that was the most risky section of the trip.  I  had to get the drogue out.

30:33

you know, 10 meter breaking seas. What's a drogue? Tell for people who don't know sailing. Yeah, great question. So drogue is like a sea anchor, but it's a smaller than like a parachute size. But it's like mine as a whole series, it's 130 tiny cones that you drag behind the boat. And it stops these huge waves shoving the boat off course. Because if you imagine a 10 meter wave, that's like a three story building of whitewater coming at you.

30:59

one square metre of whitewater equates to one tonne of pressure getting applied. So a 10 metre breaking wave has significant pressure that applies as an impact to the boat and it can throw the boat. So I've had my entire 10 tonne boat airborne on these oceans before they just literally picked up and thrown across the ocean. So the drogue's goal is to grip the surface of the sea and as these waves come over they can't throw you as hard.

31:26

and they hold you facing down the wave so they can't kind of knock you on your side and then the next wave would roll you. Yeah. Okay. So 72 days in. 72 days in, rounded Cape Horn, headed off, did Iceberg Alley and I was just exiting the South Atlantic Ocean and entering into the South Pacific, sorry, the South Indian Ocean when, you know, this day 72 kind of occurred. And it had been...

31:52

The whole South Atlantic had been kind of one big storm, but you got kind of desensitized to what a storm was. So six to eight meter seas became like a normal day. Breaking waves became a normal day, getting shoved, getting knocked down. It's like, that's just all part of sailing in those extreme conditions for such a length of time. And the winds were about 35 to 45 knots of wind, but were due to get worse over the course of the night. And that doesn't sound like a lot here in Sydney, but if you imagine 30,

32:21

30 knots of wind here, I'd have all the sails up on the boat still. I wouldn't even have a reef in the sail, which is shortening the sails a little bit. But in the Southern Ocean, I'm already down to my fourth reef, which is my tiniest little tissue of cloth and my storm sails because of the coldness and the dampness in the air, it applies more pressure to the boat. So 30 knots of wind feels like 100 knots, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Just the effects that takes place to the boat. So it's still considered really rough conditions.

32:51

I'd been on deck at sunset, I always do the sunset deck check and everything looked good, felt good, went below and I thought I knew the system was gonna get worse over the night so I thought I'd go and get a little Nana nap in and just try and reset a little bit before this next system kicked off.  And so I was lying in my bed  and just out of nowhere I just heard this enormous bang  and I was sort of that half a week, half asleep, stay like almost asleep.

33:21

and it was the most violent noise. really sounded like a gunshot had gone off like near my head. And you know that metallic after ringing, like that echoing,  I was getting that because of how violently loud that noise was. And so I knew  something had gone wrong. I didn't feel like we'd impacted anything, like we hadn't run into anything,  but I knew something had broken. I didn't know what at that point.

33:46

So I initially launched up onto my engine box, which is in the center of the boat. And above it, I have this like clear perspex kind of dome that allows me to look outside without having to go get all my gear on my safety gear, my life jacket  to climb out.  And it keeps me protected from the weather. And initially, I thought it was a rope piece of rigging at the back of the boat called your running backstay that had broken. So I had  jumped up and just looked to the back of the boat first. And that looked normal.

34:16

Everything was there. There was no problems. And then I looked to the front of the boat and it was just, I must've been white as a sheet. Like I just could feel the blood draining as I looked at it. And my mast is 22 meters high and it's aluminium. It's pretty solid, like piece of aluminium. And it was just bending and flexing like a hula girl shaking her hips. And I realised at that point I'd snapped a piece of ringing wire and

34:43

because that rigging wire had broken, the mast is now no longer supported on that side. So  my initial thought was tack the boat, change the direction the boat was heading so that the wind and the storm and the pressure is all on the other side of the mast that doesn't have a broken piece of rigging. And then I'll have time to lower the sails. Once the sails are down, I could get my drogue out, ride this storm out tonight. And then when I've got a calm,

35:09

I could look at running repairs. I've got extra piece of rigging wire with me for these sorts of situations. I planned for it. You know, I had the stuff with me.  And so I, I did, I just had my base layers on.  just like a, you know, merino wool kind of thermal base layer. didn't have any waterproofs. I didn't even bother putting boots on. I just ran up on deck in my socks  and my life jacket. And as I was clipping shut, like clipping myself to the boat to climb outside onto the deck,

35:37

to go and maneuver the boat into this tack position, like change the direction of the boat.  That's when the mast came crashing down. And it was this, like, I just wasn't fast enough. And it was maybe five seconds after the initial bang, 10 seconds after the initial bang. Like it was so quick.  And I was just frozen. I didn't even look. I was on the engine box, half out the hatch, and I just froze there as this  huge

36:06

just crescendo of noise came through. Like it was just  a tear up telling this story every time.  And it was this like, all the forces that have been pinned  supporting the mast had just failed. So the whole boat shaking and rattling and shuddering around you like with a lot of violence is that ricochet kind of effect happens. And then also you've got that

36:29

kind of metal on metal grinding noise, like that screech of nails down the chalkboard kind of sound as all the metals are like crouching and twisting and  angled like  and then you've got like the impact of landing on the boat and that echo through the boat and  it was so  aggressive and I hadn't like, you know, we had a chat before we started this podcast about, you know, preparation planning and emotional response and I hadn't

36:59

I planned for the dismasting, I hadn't planned for my emotional flight or flight reaction or freeze reaction taking place. And in that initial crashing of the mast, I froze completely. And then about like 30 seconds or a minute later of me going in my head going, this is so not good. This is no no. With a whole bunch of swear words, which I won't say on air, but this is so not good. This is so not good. This is so not good.

37:25

I like thought I better get up on deck and have a look and I hadn't even exited the boat yet. And I didn't stop to put gear on. I just climbed out. So I still had my life jacket on from trying to exit the boat, climbed out, stood up on the cockpit floor there, looked over the cabin top and I held on as one massive wave just barreled straight over the boat. So I was buried up to my neck in white water in seconds, soaked completely through. And as the wave passed, I could then see that there was just nothing.

37:55

left. Like, there was nothing up in the air anymore. There was just nothing. And I had snapped the mast at deck level. And now in all my preparations with talking with riggers and and you know, people had experienced dismastings before and trying to research it online and find as much information as I could. Everyone had said, if one of your rigging wires breaks, your mast will snap at the spreader. It's unlikely that it would snap. Where's the spreader?

38:24

So the spreader is like those cross arms you see on sailboats. So one of each, there's normally two or three on a sailboat.  So my first spreader would be where it would normally have snapped according to, you know, all the experts in the world.  But unfortunately for me, it snapped at deck level. And so that meant a couple of different things. It meant I now had a 22 meter long spear tangled to the boat with all the bits of rigging, the ropes and everything. And

38:50

The bottom sort of two metres of it was still on the deck of the boat, but the rest was in the ocean. And so the sails, all of that was in the ocean. And what was happening was that created so much drag, it rotated the boat 180 degrees around. And as the boat's getting blown, it's effectively anchored me in the centre of these conditions.  And  like...

39:13

they're all right when you're sailing with the waves, but when you're stopped in the middle of them, it's really not a  great experience to be going through it.  You know, these waves were  hitting the mast and the debris in the water first, pushing it up onto the boat. So it was driving that two metre bit that was on the deck of the boat  forward across the beam of the boat. And it was so much force that it was breaking a lot of the ropes that were run through the mast.

39:42

And now these ropes have a safe working load of 30 tonnes. And you could hear them snapping every wave that came through. But then the wave would hit the hull of the boat and smash the boat out from underneath that stump of the mast. And then it would bury the boat in whitewater and I'd be submerged up to my neck in whitewater. And you're basically effectively swimming on the deck of the boat at that point, trying to hold on, trying not to get washed away  down the boat and trying to just get through it kind of thing.

40:11

And so the boat's also heaving and rolling from side to side as these big waves are passing underneath us or over us.  And  the risk is that one of those waves hits a little harder than the rest and actually drops the mast off the deck of the boat, pulls it tight enough that that can occur and then punctures it through the hull of the boat and effectively starts sinking the vessel pretty quickly.

40:37

I was really lucky that that didn't occur. But what was occurring was that push shove motion was so aggressive that it literally started to cut the boat in half, like someone chopping something with a saw down the side of the boat.  And  so within,  you know, the first initial response was just panic. I need to get the mask free. I need to get the mask free like instantly like just thinking. And so I ran inside I put my

41:02

some foul weather gear, so like some waterproof pants and some waterproof jacket on and then reloaded my life jacket and my boots, but everything underneath that was soaked through and I didn't take time to change that, which is bad on my side, but I also didn't think I had much time to save the boat. I'm a thousand nautical miles from land. So I'm directly south of Cape Town. And we, I estimated at least three days for help to arrive  if I called for help.  And I knew that

41:32

with all of these records anyway, going into a project like this, but  it was a factor in how I managed this dismasting because I knew that they would never arrive in time to save me if I didn't get rid of the mast and try and save the boat. And if I had to abandon to a life raft, I wasn't going to live because you're not going to survive eight meter breaking seas for three whole days in a life raft in freezing conditions. You just won't. you've gone from essentially an, my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

42:02

moment to headspace my diver sort of how am going to put this together? How am I going to survive, let alone now? Yeah, how am I going to continue with the record? Well, yeah, the record was secondary to just living the night through.  And there was, you know,  it took me four hours to cut the rig free from the boat in the end, I didn't cut it because I was getting fully submerged by whitewater so I couldn't use my angle grinder. My bolt cutters did almost nothing.

42:31

You're getting heaved through like every wave that was coming. If I was up on the high side, I was suddenly on the low side of the boat, like just smashed into the rails on the other side, scrambling back up in time to try and get something done before the next wave washes you down.  You're trying to deal with it. So I ended up using a kit I'd pre-prepared and put together called a dismasting kit or that I nicknamed my dismasting kit.  And I hoped I've never had to use it and I pulled it out  and it was a hot pink pencil case so could find it in a hurry.

43:00

And in it, I had a  pair of needle nose pliers, bolt cutters, not bolt cutters, sorry,  vice grips, a hammer and a flat head screwdriver. And the intention was because of the way the mast and the rigging is kind of connected was to open this kind of metal split pin that they have there, knock that out. And then I could knock out what they call the clevis pin, which is like a joining pin holds the two pieces together  and then separate the mast rather than trying to cut it. And so that became

43:29

the way that I was able to actually deal with it, but it was a very, very slow process. I also started going into hypothermia. So I started shaking uncontrollably, which made hammering really, really hard to do.  And I was smashing my hand up more than I was hitting the screwdriver. And about three hours in was where I had to kind of really come to terms with the fact I might not live through the night.  And that was when I

43:57

had disconnected the back piece of rigging and the inner force stay. And the inner force stay is the second one from the bow of the boat.  And it's what I had one of my sails  wrapped up on.  They're called a furler, but it's  for those who don't know if you've seen a yacht in the marina and they've got the sail like packed away in a tight tube around the front of the rigging,  that's  what it is. And so when I disconnected that, because  the furler like effectively has an aluminium tube running over the rigging plus this

44:26

twisted up sail, it was like the stiff object. And so when it came loose, with the waves coming across, it actually whipped it around the deck of the boat with the metal drum on the bottom with so much force that if I was in the way, it would likely, you know, hurt me quite badly. And I had to like really have my James Bond moment at this point, because it was  I had to fully disconnect from the boat, so I had to make a conscious choice that I might be washed overboard.

44:53

But if I didn't throw this piece off the boat and time it with the  rocking with the waves, then it was gonna hit me and I would be compromised and probably have a broken leg or something.  So I un-clipped from the boat.  I don't think I told mum that part. Sorry, mum. Hi,  mum.  And then I had to,  like the boat dipped towards me, like towards the left side.

45:18

and I had to run up and it was like running up a hill and it's only four or five steps, but I had to run up and as I had to run, I then had to throw it as the boat dipped towards the piece of rigging and that allowed it to get the rest of the way overboard because it's all quite heavy or connected and stuff.  And so I eventually was able to get that  off  and then I retethered to the boat and it was at this point that I assessed the bow at the boat, this four stay wire, this very next piece.  And  as I looked at that, it was

45:48

trapped like the fitting I needed to get access to is trapped under the furler because of the way it had fallen to the right.  And  I couldn't like I couldn't really figure out an easy way to access it. Except if I maybe put one arm underneath and my other arm, I kind of wrapped it around and like hugged the piece of rigging and smash the fitting out that way. But if I did that, the minute it came free, it also had a furler with a furled sail and all of that attached to it.

46:15

it was probably going to whip around the deck of the boat and effectively smash into me quite aggressively. And so I  assumed that it would crush my arm or break my ribs or otherwise prevent me from being able to save the rest of the boat. And the only other thing I could think of was to climb over the safety rails completely at the very bow of the boat and sit down on what they call a bowsprit. You see those sticks that sit out the front of the racing boats.

46:40

and sit down on that facing backwards and actually attack it from over there because I could access the fitting man.  You know, this is six to eight meter waves. I'm struggling to hold on inside the safety rails with my tether attached. And you've got hypothermia. And I'm going into hypothermia.  But by this point, that hole in the side of the boat was like the size of a dinner plate, like a large, like kind of platter size hole. And it was now through the full deck hull joints. It was much faster in how

47:08

quickly it was cutting into the boat.  So a new time was also really limited and the hypothermia was starting to reach a point where I was getting almost like moments just lost, like where I'd be there and I'd be like, wait, I don't know where like, like vagueness that had occurred that I would come out of it and be like, wait, what was I doing? Like,  and I couldn't hold tools anymore, but I could

47:34

look at my hand and see that each finger had shut, but I had no feeling or no sensitivity. I'd been shaking for hours at this point, shivering as I got, my temperature just got colder and colder and colder. And I knew  if I went out onto the bowsprit, I might survive. I might have a 50 % chance that I come back if I'm lucky. But if I don't go out there, I have a hundred percent chance the boat's gonna sink tonight  and I'm not gonna survive.  And so I had to have that

48:04

kind of realisation and when I knew that I was going to have to take this extra really aggressive kind of step to try and save myself, I went inside the boat and I called my shore manager up. I was just about to say, have you let anyone know at this point the situation you're in? Yeah, so I had issued a pan pan after about 15, 20 minutes into the emergency.

48:25

it finally occurred to me that I was like, Oh, I should probably tell somebody.  And so I called Jeff up and it was 3am in Australia. So he was in bed  with his partner. And so I called him up and he's like half asleep. Hello. And I was like, I've, I've dismissed it. I've dismissed it. And he's like, he's so empathetic and is such a lovely person that he was just like,  Oh no, Oh no, Oh no.

48:52

And I was like, dude, I don't have time for the oh no.  I'm like in it, I need to get, you know.  And so I just started talking over the top of him and I've just said, yep, I've dismasted, I'm issuing a pan pan. And at that point I chose to issue a pan pan, not a mayday. And a pan pan for those who don't know is like one step below a mayday. It says I need assistance, but it's not immediate risk of loss of life or vessel. And a lot of people could probably argue with me that it was immediate.

49:21

but I also had the complete conscious knowledge that help was never going to arrive in time to save me. So the only way I was living that night was to save myself. And so if I issued a Mayday, then they're diverting a ship to me that's going to be on a recovery mission, or I've saved myself, in which case I still have a floating boat, in which case I still have options to get myself to shore afterwards. So I issued a Pampan  at that point, and I know Jeff's tried to ask me other questions and I just hung up on him.

49:50

I just said, I've got no time hung up and I went back out into the storm.  And so when I finally gave him an update, it had been two hours since I'd spoken to him.  No one knew  what was going on except me. He knew I was alive because I hadn't issued an E-Purb or, know, or he assumed, I guess. I'd made mainstream news across Australia by like 5am. I was national news.  And  I went in and I said,  he answered straight away and I said, I've  cut

50:19

disconnected the back stay and the inner force day. And he's like, again, so enthusiastic, right? He's like, well done, Lisa, well done. We're all behind you here in Australia. And I was like, that's cool. Yeah, not gonna change the outcome. And then he said, I had to tell him that I've got to go out on the bowsprit to disconnect the force day wire. And he got super serious, super quick, which is really out of character for him. But he understood, you know, the risks involved.

50:48

And I talked it through very quickly with him. And I said to him that if my PLB my personal location beacon on my life jacket, if that's activated, it's because I've been washed off the boat. I'm no longer attached. I'm basically like, that's my way of saying I'm not coming home.  And  so he then said, Okay, I understand. I understand. I'm gonna and then he tried to ask some of the question and I said, Look, I've just got to deal with it and I hung up.

51:16

and I crawled out into the storm and I crawled to the front of the boat and I got like two meters, I tear up every time telling this bit, I got two meters from the bow of the boat. And it was like that flight or flight  freeze response hit. And I couldn't  force myself to get closer to what looked like certain death, you know, and it was to some degree.  And  I just remember hugging the side of the boat safety rails so tightly.

51:45

These waves are submerging me completely every sort of 30 seconds to a minute every time I wave like one of the more severe waves would come through and it's ripped my legs out from underneath me a half dragged me down the boat. And I'm just consistently thinking like, how do I survive that? How do I figure it out? How do I get over that? But I have to do it because the boat will sink if I don't, but I don't know how to make it survivable yet. And I remember thinking through

52:12

all the tools that I have on board, all the equipment, all the  preparation, those conversations. And for like 20 minutes, I'm hugging the side of the boat there with a death grip,  trying to figure out a way to make it possible  and figure it out. And I think, you know, it's taken me a long time to like come over past to this kind of trip. And obviously, it still affects me to some degree, but  I

52:37

I think there's such a huge difference with these sorts of projects with having a conversation about morality with my family  and  having the potential of it being directly in front of me that maybe I might not survive the next five minutes. It wasn't a question of would I survive the night anymore? It's would I survive the next five minutes?  And because of the hypothermia that I was already displaying and because of the temperature of the ocean where I was was about two degrees.

53:05

Like I would have less than 10 minutes if I fell in the ocean. I wouldn't have the dexterity or the strength to be able to pull myself out. Like if I fell off, I wasn't coming back on. You know, that was it, game over.  And so I remember thinking all of that through and getting so  angry at myself because I was just  so frustrated. I knew I just had to keep taking action, but I couldn't like that  that response and physical response.

53:33

my body wouldn't let me move forward.  And so eventually I just screamed at myself and I was calling myself all sorts of names like just get on with it like you, you know, and I eventually just  hit a tipping point where I'd run through everything, every other option, which was not which was basically zero and came up with that this was the only option. And therefore I have to just do it if I want a chance of surviving. And so then I jumped over the rails and I sat down.

54:01

on the bow of the boat. And I'd initially thought I could kind of link my ankles together around the bowsprit, but it was just that little bit too wide and I'm a little bit too short. And so as I sat down, I could  only squeeze my legs up onto the rail. I couldn't cross my ankles because  I just couldn't reach. And so squeezing as hard as I could, my left hand, had the screwdriver and I could hold  one hand on the rail with that. My right hand held the hammer and it was too fat.

54:29

couldn't hold the safety rail at the same time. I was attached with my safety tether on a short tether. But again, like that's designed to stop you washing off the boat. It's not going to stop me from falling off the bowsprit and into the ocean.  And when these waves would come, you couldn't,  you couldn't see it. I think it was midnight. You know, it's pitch black. I've just got the glow of my head torch, but there's so much storm and wind and waves and everything happening that it's basically just white.

54:58

the tops of the oceans ripped sideways. So the reflection of the torch is just seeing all the water and the rain. You can't see anything but like maybe this like one meter loop around you. So you can't see the waves coming. You can just hear them. And it was this really instinctual, like you'd hear the wave break like 10 meters off the boat. And it would just be this roar. And as the boat's tilted up and it's climbing up the face of this wave, you hear the wave break. And a second before it would impact, I would just

55:27

hook my arm around that bit of rigging and just hug the boat like as tight as I could. And then the wave would smash into the mast first, you'd hear all the ropes breaking and the cracking and groaning.  And then we'd hit the hull of the boat. And when it hits the hull, it's like you've just been ran over by a car or something like it's like this real jarring  shockwave effect. And it will throw you to the trough of the wave, the bottom of the wave.  And when you impact, it's like you're hitting cement.

55:56

at the bottom. the boat itself will fall to the bottom, have this huge impact, which has got like that effect of trying to whip you off the boat. And then the wave hits and then you're underwater for a few seconds as the white water runs over the top of you. And then on the back of that, the wave would pass, the boat would pop back up and you'd have maybe 30 seconds or so to do something before the next wave would impact.

56:22

And  in that 30 seconds, I would have to let go of the boat completely with my hands, put my screwdriver in my fitting, try and get a couple of hits with my hammer, trying to knock this fitting out. And then I would hear the next wall of water coming down and I'd hug the boat again and hold on as we'd ride through it. And I initially thought that when the furlick goes, I thought it would rip all the railings off too, which would then leave me with nothing to hold on to. And I'd probably fall off at that point, which would be really bad ending.

56:52

I don't know how it happened, but as the boat dipped just right,  the fitting came loose and I was able to kind of throw it over my head and kind of behind me at the same time as the boat dipped just the right way to let that happen. And I got that in the ocean, which allowed me to then scramble. I got hit by the next wave and after that I was able to get back up onto the deck of the boat. And I  don't think I can tell you how much relief it was to be able to call Jeff back.

57:22

Like I hadn't survived yet. Like I haven't gotten out. I've still got pieces of rigging. I've still got a hole inside the boat. Still a thousand miles from land, but I'd survived what was, you know, the hardest part of the whole night. And I called Jeff up and I said, I'm back on board. I've managed to do it. And at that point he suggested I tried to keep my boom, which was the horizontal piece that your main sail flies on.  And  if I could salvage that, then I could potentially build a jury rig or something. And that was the first time I started to think about

57:51

what might be after surviving the night. exactly. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So hang on. It's whole lot of stories. Oh my gosh. It's amazing story. So you survive the night and you get through. Now this leaves obviously no chance of a record or anything like that. You're still in a fair bit of trouble. You're still a thousand miles from help. Yeah. But you make the decision then to head into South Africa to, to, guess, get

58:21

be safe and get the  fixed. so tell us about that. you,  how does that work?  once you under like you had a motor on board, once you use that, then all the records and everything's gone. But would you have had enough fuel even to get from where you were to South Africa? No. So yeah, so that decision, like it took me the next day to clear the debris from the water. So the mast sank, the sails, I lost all the masts and sails and most of the rigging attached to overboard that sunk to the middle of the Southern Ocean.

58:50

And I had to patch that hole in the side of the boat, which took me almost all day and  check that there was nothing in the water, no ropes and stuff in the water that could catch in my engine when I had to turn it on. And then when I went to turn it on at sunset, it didn't work because I hadn't been used in two months.  So I eventually got that working.  then  then I had to make the decision to void the record. And I could I had to juggle whether I was going to build a jury rig and sail the rest of the way to Australia.

59:20

and keep the record and just be the first woman and do it under jury rig. But it would probably take me another two months to finish the trip. And the risk was that I got hung between two 10 meter waves and the boat snapped because of  the weakness of where the damage was.  And, you know, ultimately all of these projects, it's about coming home. It's about raising awareness of the environment and coming home.  And so I had to make the decision to turn the engine on, voided the record, headed up to Cape Town.

59:48

But yeah, when I looked, I only had 230 litres of fuel. And when I did the calculations, I didn't have enough to get me all the way to South Africa. And at the same time, as the sun set that day, which is the day after the initial dismasting, the sat phone rang and I had this call from the MRCC in Cape Town. So that's the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre out of South Africa there. And they manage any rescue scenario for a Mayday in  those regions, that region of water.

01:00:18

And so I had issued a pan pan, so I didn't expect them to have diverted traffic or anything to that to me. But they called and said that they had upgraded me to a Mayday because I was solo and because I was so remote that they'd instantly upgraded me without my intention. And it diverted the closest vessel towards me. And that was a bulk carrier that was 600 nautical miles away. So, you  know,

01:00:47

1500 kilometres away to give people a bit of an idea if that was the closest. How long would that take to get to you? It took two days for them motoring south at the same time as I motored north. So at the time I said, look, I don't don't I feel like I can get the boat to shore. The hull itself was relatively intact apart from that hole. had no safety rails on the right side, but you know, that was, you know, and had no mast. But that was the biggest problems.

01:01:13

And  so  I said, Look, I feel like I can get there, but I'm light on fuel. Is there any chance like I'm not going to get a rescue, but is there any chance that'd be okay to meet me for a fuel  rendezvous and they can do a fuel transfer with me at sea. And so they checked with the master of the ship. He wasn't that enthused with me doing a fuel transfer instead of a rescue. But anyway, checked with the master of the ship, the master of the ship checked it with his insurance company because they have to get all of these things improved by their insurance first.

01:01:41

And then  they came back with the green light. So they kept heading south, but they'd never sailed through those conditions before as a big ship. This is a 200 meter long bulk carrier  ship. The side of the ship's 30 meters high and she weighs 86,000 tons and they were so thrown around in the swells that they had to slow down to six knots  from their normal 12 knots and all the crew got seasick because it just was so rough.

01:02:10

Whereas I'd been so desensitised to those conditions, because I'd been living in them for two and a half months by now,  you just get used to it,  So they kept heading south and  about two days after the dismasting, well, three days after the dismasting, we rendezvoused.  And I was still 800 miles from land.  And  unfortunately, it became quickly apparent that they didn't speak any English and I didn't speak any Korean. And it was a Chinese owned bulk carrier, crewed by Korean sailors.

01:02:40

And so they just kept saying, come closer, come closer. We have fenders out and their fenders, which is normally what you would use like against a dock or something to stop your boat getting damaged. Their fenders were two car tires hanging off the side of the ship, like just dangling in mid space. And they were touching the waterline when the ship was flat, but we're in six meter seas. The ship side onto the swell because of the way the winds blowing them.

01:03:05

And so they're rolling so significantly in these conditions that the offenders were one minute touching the surface of the ocean and the next were 10 meters up in the air and then touching the surface of the ocean again. And it was like this impossibility. And they just kept saying, come closer, come closer. We'll tie you up, balance stern line and  effectively like tie me up like I'm docking in a marina or something.  And, you know,  it wasn't going to work because my boat wouldn't be able to take the impact.

01:03:34

of that in any capacity.  And  it took me about six hours to try and communicate to them. And they were like super confused as to why I wasn't just driving up and parking alongside.  And after about six hours, I finally communicated that it was too risky, too dangerous.  You know,  they were effectively going to sink my boat if I tried to come alongside.  And  so we agreed that  I would put a line on the bow of my boat to the stern of their boat.

01:04:04

and  I would hold myself off them in reverse gear and then they would pass the containers of fuel down the line one at a time. Don't ask me why, that's what we ended up with.  And at this point, I'm down to email communication only, because that was the only way I could get kind of any sense of response.  And so I'd write an email, upload the email to the satellite, they would then call me and...

01:04:26

or I'd call them and say email, email, email, and then they'd download the email, read the email, reply to the email, call me,  upload it and call me and say email, email, email. So like one email exchange was like 30 minutes,  like so six hours later, we get to this point. And when I looked at, I tied them off, finally got the throw line, tied them off. And when I looked up, I saw them untying me from the back of the ship and they start walking me down the side of the ship to where the offenders are. Now,

01:04:54

I can get it from their perspective. They just haven't had experience with a small sailing boat like this before, or  in most scenarios where they might assist a sailing boat, it's for a rescue and the lack of the boat's not the problem. Like they're not trying to save the boat in any capacity, whereas I'm trying to save the boat. I'm trying to get myself to shore. I'm trying to protect my baby that I'd spent so many years working on and building and, you know, getting going. And there was also this weird thing that I knew if I lost the boat on the very first record,

01:05:24

I'd never get the chance to do another project. You know, you're just not going to get people to invest in you.  It's just not going to happen.  And so was so determined just to keep that boat floating at all costs.  And so then they start dragging me up the side of the ship and eventually  put me where the offenders are. But the ship's drifting towards me at about five knots. I'm on the lee side of the ship, still 25 knots away and blowing the ship sideways.

01:05:53

So I'm holding myself almost like in a T off the ship, like 90 degrees off the ship in full throttle reverse, trying to stay just off the ship as it's barreling towards me.  And,  you know, it was,  it was a bad call on my point  to  put the one line on. was another bad call to not get out the minute I saw them trying to relocate the boat. But I was sort of hoping that, you know, I could hold myself 90 degrees off the ship and just get it done because it'd been hours and hours at this point.

01:06:23

And they diverted so far to help me and they genuinely were trying to, like they were doing their absolute best to help me. They just didn't understand it.  And  eventually,  like within a short period of time, like maybe 10 minutes or so, the bow of my boat got pulled around in such a way that I was no longer reversing off the boat, but the line was tight. So I couldn't get my steerage back to turn the boat, to turn my boat off them.  And  I, you know, within seconds had this

01:06:51

86,000 ton container ship crashing down on the port side of my boat.  And it, you know,  you might have seen like cruise ship in Sydney harbour or something like that. You're looking up at a skyscraper of a building as a ship that's now basically landing on my boat. And as they would roll away, we would kind of separate and as I'd roll towards me, the  sort of curvature of the hull of the boat before it meets the actual top deck section.

01:07:21

was kind of catching on the corner of my boat and pushing my boat underwater. And then the positive buoyancy of climate action now would take over and like  squirt us, like pop us out clear. But that first impact, like the whole hull of my boat flexed the wrong direction. Like you could just see the whole hull compress and bend inwards. I lost all the safety rails on the other side. And very quickly I had a three metre long crack at the deck hull join.

01:07:48

on the the left, the opposite side to the dismasting. So now my entire boat's in tatters.  And  I look up and I'm shouting at them to cut the rope, ditch the rope. They can't understand what I'm talking about. They also don't understand that it's a fiberglass boat against a bulk carrier. It's going to lose that battle every time. And I look up and there's someone with like one of those really old school digital cameras, like the silver ones you used to get.

01:08:13

taking photos like it's a normal day. Aren't we great?  Well, you know, there's no negative feelings to them at all. Like they genuinely were doing their best effort. I just didn't understand. It's just a cultural difference, right? And a language barrier and all of these factors. And so I run forward and I throw their rope off and I run back to the throttle. I'm full throttle in reverse, like hard in reverse. I threw it into reverse so fast that I thought I'd

01:08:42

broken my gearbox, which is another part of the story.  And I'm bouncing my way down the side of the ship. And every time they roll towards me, they smash down on the side of the boat again. And then they'd roll up because they're still drifting  onto me the whole time. And I'm kind of pinned underneath them. And then there's this  horrific  moment. And I would never wish this on anyone. And I  actually feel like this whole scenario is more traumatic to me than the dismasting because  the dismasting was something I'd planned for and

01:09:10

was outside of my control, I just had to survive it. Whereas this whole situation shouldn't have occurred,  point blank. But the back of this ship lifted up on a wave and I'm still like, nearing the back bit. I thought I'm almost in the clear. And they kind of lifted up on a wave in such a way that half the propeller came out of the water. Because you know, the six meter waves, like the huge waves rolling through, this was probably a 10 meter one that came through just in a set and they lifted up. And as the propeller came out of the water,

01:09:41

the whole stern of the ship is now airborne. And what that does is it creates like a vacuum effect. All the water that was displaced with the ship being in the water now fills that space and it sucks your boat with it. And so the whole bow of climate action now got sucked under the ship. And I'm in the back at the helm and I'm looking up and the water from the back of the ship's landing onto the deck of climate action now that you

01:10:07

You can see it falling up like you're looking sheer up at this like huge wall of water.  Sorry, of water, wall of ship.  And  I just remember thinking, where's my grab bag? Where's my E-Pirb? Where's my bilge punt switch? Like just starting to try and think action like triage.  I know they're going to land on the bow of the boat. If it's forward of the mast, then the rest of the boat will stay floating at least,  you know, and I'm planning for them to crush the boat and smash the boat pieces.

01:10:36

And  I am still in reverse  and it took, it's like that slow motion horror film. You know,  you're watching it happen, but you can't do anything about it.  And as they're falling, it's like slow motion and then they impact into the water and I must have been free by like an inch  or something. I thought the whole bow of the boat was going to be lost. And as I'm still reversing as they're falling, I managed to just get clear at that point.

01:11:03

And it was like another six hours before I managed to convince them to put fuel in containers. And in that time, I'm dealing with the MRCC demanding I abandon the boat and take the rescue because more damage has been taken place.  They were threatening to arrest me on arrival at Cape Town if I didn't take the rescue and abandon the boat. There was this whole situation that like occurred out of that. Then the engine didn't work and I thought I'd busted my gearbox  and like, you know, it's  it was just such an ordeal.

01:11:32

And eventually I was able to get fuel from them.  And when I did look at the fuel, it was black in color and I didn't even know if it was going to work in my engine.  And it was like this defeated kind of  overwhelming us of like just surviving the dismasting, trying to come up with a new plan, grieving for the fact that I'd lost this record that I spent years working on and then facing this extra challenge that just shouldn't have happened. Like  just get me a translator and it would have been

01:12:00

fine, like,  you know,  and, and then trying to still get 800 miles back to land.  So yeah, it was it was quite the idea. I ended up building a whole new mast with  the boom and  stepping that into a vertical position. It took me two days to lift that upright.  And then I had to hand stitch my sails to fit the ones that were in the hull of the boat, my storm sails.

01:12:24

So I put those in and hand stitched them and modified that and I eventually, yeah, 10 days after I'd just mastered,  limped very slowly into Cape Town, very grateful  to reach dry land. And if you think that's the end of the story,  it's not. We're going to take a break and come back and get the rest of it.  The views and opinions expressed on the Big Six are personal and reflect those of the hosts and guests.  They do not represent the views or positions of any affiliated organisations  or companies.

01:12:53

This podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice. Please consult with a qualified professional for guidance on any personal matters.

01:13:06

Oh,  and before we go,  let's give credit where credit is due.  Kaylee Harris and I came up with all the genius content for this week's episode.  Our producer,  Nick Abood,  well, he keeps the lights on and makes sure we don't accidentally upload a cat video instead of a podcast. thanks for keeping us on track, Nick.  Nick?  Nick?