Dee Caffari, the record-breaking British round-the-world yachtswoman, sits at
our restaurant table and orders Caesar salad without, she stresses,
anchovies. “I'm rubbish with fish,” she says. “In the Tropics you get flying
fish landing on the deck. I'm squeamish about putting them back in the
water. I take a dustpan so I can pick them up with it. I'm scared of
spiders, too. And heights. I'm not quite all roughty toughty.”
It's some confession for the woman tipped to become our next Dame Ellen
MacArthur. Caffari, 35, is currently on the west coast of France preparing
for the start of the Vendée Globe solo round-the-world race early next
month. She has spent the past year learning how to sail her 60ft
latest-generation prototype racing yacht, Aviva. Just as crucially, she has
been exploring the cutting-edge science of navigating her mind and body
through unheralded challenges on the vast, lonely oceans ahead.
This is Caffari's first global race, but she has sailed solo around the world
before: in 2006 she became the first woman to circumnavigate the world the
“wrong way”, East to West, non-stop, against the prevailing wind and tide.
The voyage took 178 days. When the 30-strong Vendée fleet sets sail on
November 9 from the port of Les Sables d'Olonne in western France, it will
take a mere 88 or so. The boats are much faster, more powerful and far
friskier. “It's like going from driving an HGV to Formula One,” says
Caffari, who will compete against the cream of solo sailing, including her
old boss, Mike Golding. It's also her entrée to the big time: coming second
in the Vendée propelled MacArthur on to the front pages.
Despite her daunting task, Caffari arrives for our meeting all smiles, bounce
and bustle. She is not of the posh yachting set, but comes across as the
chattily unpretentious PE teacher she was until swapping netball hoops for
spinnakers eight years ago. She has been working out in preparation for the
race and is robustly ship-shape - and mighty friendly, too. Much of this
confidence is down to the detailed preparation in psychology, nutrition and
physical fitness she has completed with experts at Leeds Metropolitan
University, where she originally studied for a sports degree after leaving
school.
“It's a new boat and it's a steep learning curve, but a lot of the preparation
I've done is personal,” she explains. “Going around the world last time was
an emotional rollercoaster. It is easy to be obsessed by the technical side.
But to make all the right sailing decisions you have to be emotionally in
the right place. I did not really know what to expect last time. It would be
fine, fine, fine, then a big emotional dip, and then a big high. I've learnt
that when I am really tearful, it is because I am tired and hungry. Having
more knowledge about my brain and how it reacts will get me on a more even
keel emotionally. It takes more energy if I'm upset.”
Caffari admits to having been dubious about psychiatric coaching. “I went into
it thinking, ‘Why do I need this? I'm not a nutter',” she laughs. “I thought
that they were going to make me do visualisations, like Jonny Wilkinson
going into his ‘happy place' before kicking a goal. But I quickly realised
how much you learn when people reflect back to you what you've just said. It
was not gimmicky, it was about identifying my mental triggers, things that
cause me upset. It was learning to be methodical about my moods. I've had to
take my hat off to it. We identified that comparing mileages with other
racers put me under lots of pressure. When the first boat arrives at the
finishing line, I have a really depressing day because it feels like the
race is over. So I'm to concentrate on my own boat, rather than mentally
racing everyone else's race.”
Caffari is taking an old sailing pal to help her morale: her tune-packed iPod.
On her last global voyage she listened to Eminem to help her get through
tough times, and classical music on beautiful days. “This time I'm taking a
whole lot of new stuff to listen to,” she says. “You're the only one there
who is going to switch a bad mood around, so you need all the help you can
muster. The music is weather-dependant. If it's a gale, you want some music
with a bit of meat in it. There's stuff that I turn to for help in times of
difficulty - who can resist being motivated by the Rocky theme tune?”
“I'm packing food for 100 days”
Food is a vital yet largely unexplored element in gaining a yacht-racing edge,
says Caffari. “There is not a lot of research in nutrition in sailing. We
are all learning from this. You should not lose weight in the race, so you
have to sustain where you are. But inevitably it is hard to consume enough
calories compared with what you use.” Even on a £60 million state-of-the-art
racing yacht there is no refrigeration and only a single-burner stove. “Most
of the food I'll eat is freeze-dried. I am packing food for 100 days. It's
bizarre, saying ‘What do I want to eat in January?' when it's only October.
“The worst thing is boredom,” she grimaces. “I spent the last year trying
different freeze-dried foods from different manufacturers. It's very much
pasta-driven, so I don't eat pasta at home because of the boredom factor.
All the freeze-dried stuff tastes the same after a few weeks. To avoid sugar
lows during races I need to eat every four hours. I did cereal bars to death
last time. I'm on loads of fruit and vegetables at the moment. Before the
start, I'm just going to eat and sleep lots.”
Then there is the problem of drinking enough when going to the loo is a
challenge in itself. “Hydration is the big thing. It's no easy thing to go
to the toilet on board, what with the weather and all your layers, so it's
tempting not to drink much. But being dehydrated massively drops your
performance. Last time I was often dehydrated, so I'm working out how to go
to the loo more easily. We carry fresh water, but it runs out. We have
desalinating machines on board, though the water's not exactly perfect. You
have to get used to it. The desalinated water is always the same temperature
as the seawater - so in the Tropics it's hot and in the Southern Ocean it's
freezing.”
The third element of her preparation has been boosting her physical strength,
which again she did with the help of experts at Leeds. “The worst thing for
a solo sailor is illness and injury. We all know that we should bend the
knees and lift straight when lifting weights, but try doing that on a
heaving boat on a wet deck. We spent three to four months doing core
stability and conditioning. It gave me the strength to deal with the
demands. Then we started working on upper-body strength, on my back and
shoulders.”
Her regimen included three weights sessions in the gym each week. “It's
clearly had an impact,” she says. “I'm a lot stronger and haven't had any
injuries.” She also ran the London Marathon last year, as part of her
fitness campaign and to raise cash for Sail 4 Cancer, the charity of which
she is patron.
When Caffari, who lives near Fareham in Hampshire, looks around her at the
French port, she can see that many of her new-generation competitors have
also been hard at it in the gym. “It is a sign that offshore sailing is
becoming more professional. The boats are close in performance and the only
other aspect you can change is yourself,” she says. “A lot of us new people
are doing more training. Our Olympic sailors are working on fitness very
hard, so why aren't we? Every time I see Alex Thompson, his shoulders have
got bigger.”
Preparation - and superstition
Even with all the best preparation, though, you need luck - and Caffari shares
the traditional seafarers' respect for it. “You can't help but be a little
superstitious. “I'm not religious, but the sea is a religious environment.
Out there on my own, I talk to anyone that's listening. I talk to the boat,
and there's a lot of self-talk. My father's ashes were scattered at sea, so
I talk to him and ask him to put a good word in to the elements for me.”
Caffari learnt her love of sailing from her father Peter, who died seven
years ago, and who inspired her to realise her dream of sailing the world by
asking her: “Well, girl, are you going to do all these things or are you
just going to talk about them?”
Around her neck, Caffari always wears a dolphin pendant and a St Christopher.
“The dolphin is from my mum and the St Christopher is from my best friend.
I've worn it since I was 18. Every time I see dolphins when I'm sailing I
know that I am going to have a good time. At night, I can even hear them. As
they break the surface, they give a little snort. I'll get up and go out,
and there they are.”
Beyond fortune, there lies the simple, solid fact of her competitor's
motivation. “I've set myself a challenge and I've got to rise to overcome
it,” she says, her deep brown eyes holding an unshakeable gaze. “I've set
out what I'm going to do and I have told everyone what I'm going to do.
During the marathon I was feeling sick and could not take on water because I
had injured my muscles sailing. So I walked the second half. I had to finish
because I did not want to let people down. With the Vendée, the guys have
worked hard on the boat, the team believe in me and then there's the
sponsor. I want to deliver.”
But support from dry land is always welcome. Caffari regularly downloads
e-mails from friends, family and her live-in boyfriend and campaign manager,
Harry Spedding. She also relishes contact from the public. “The messages I
get from people when I'm onboard are a great motivator. People write to say
that they have really been inspired by my efforts to strive to improve
things in their own lives. I can't let them down. Being from a teaching
background, if you can inspire kids to take stuff on, that's great. You
can't say, ‘I've given up because it got tricky'.”
Her first priority is to complete the race
Ultimately though, she has set her sights realistically on the result of her
first round-the-world dash. “I'm doing this as a newcomer. So if I complete
it, it's another world record, the first woman to sail solo in both
directions,” she says. “I am confident, even though the drop-out rate
historically is 40 per cent. But the competitive element is new to me. To
stay in among everyone would be awesome. I am aiming to finish in 90 days.
The record is 87, but the new boats can go faster. If I progress, in four
years' time I should be looking at a podium place in the 2012 Vendée. I've
currently got 18 months' experience compared with people who have got 18
years. The race might put me off, but I'm confident that it will only give
me more enthusiasm.”
Follow Dee Caffari's progress at www.avivaoceanracing.com
Making waves:
29,100 miles
length of her journey “the wrong way” around the world
18
the size of her crew on the “wrong way” trip
9 hours
number of hours' sleep that she had in nine days at one point in the journey
3,000-4,000
calories consumed a day when out sailing
5 hours
average sleep per 24 hours
50 min
average length of sleep in one go
Source: Dee Caffari
