Series 3 - Ep11 - Dee Caffari Part 1

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In this month's edition of the podcast, Shirley Robertson sits down face to face with one of offshore sailing's most accomplished sailors, as she talks to British offshore trail blazer, Dee Caffari.

Caffari's achievements are well documented, she holds multiple 'firsts', she's sailed around the planet six times, completed two Volvo Ocean Races, spent months alone at sea sailing 'the wrong way around' and finished a Vendee Globe in it's most attritional edition ever.  And she's achieved all of that after a sudden and unexpected career change in her mid twenties...:

"I don't fit the mould, I think that's what confuses everybody, and they can't pigeon hole me, they can't put me into a box so I always feel on the outside a little bit.  I grew up dancing, I didn't grow up sailing!"

From the outset Robertson and Caffari's discussion is frank and honest.  Dee reveals the catalysts that saw her turn away from a successful and established career to take a chance on making it in the world of sailing.  Her story is inspiring, and before long she was skippering a yacht of amateurs in the 2004 Global Challenge race.

That successful endeavour kick started an unparalleled career that first saw her become the first woman ever to sail around the world solo non-stop against the prevailing winds and currents.  From there a Vendee Globe campaign onboard "Aviva" lead to a sixth place finish in an edition of the gruelling race that saw just eleven boats complete the course.

"In 2008 there were thirty entires, and only eleven finished, completed the race.  In the war of attrition, which the Vendee is known for, the odds are pretty much always against you.  But for me the big thing was to stand in the skippers' line up!  I hadn't grown up in that environment and I'd literally just exchanged my 42 ton steel tank for an 8 ton carbon fibre race machine!"

Episode One of this two part podcast finishes as Dee Caffari sails across the start line of the 24 000 mile Vendee Globe.  Her journey non stop solo around the world is then picked up as the duo continue their chat in Part 2.

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