As two of sailing’s leading ladies, Dee Caffari and her co skipper Anna Corbella are the ones to watch in this year’s Barcelona World Race. While most people might think that sailing the world once is quite enough, this is not the British yachtswoman’s first taste of globetrotting - far from it.

As she puts her experience and passion to the test as a part of the only all-female crew in the around-the-world yacht race that spans three months and 25,000 miles, the 37-year-old record-breaker will be blogging exclusively for Sportsister - sharing the highs and lows of life at sea.

Read her first blog below and look out for her next gripping post in 2 weeks. You can find out more about Dee and the Barcelona World Race in our interview. Just click here ^[1].

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Read related features:

Sailing: Leading lady Caffari begins Catalan adventure ^[2]

Sailing: Caffari makes history ^[3]

Sailing: British women in the Vendee Globe ^[4]

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19 January 2025

Less than four weeks ago I was lying in front of a log fire at home, messing around with my dog and blissfully eating too many mince pies. In stark contrast, I now find myself sharing the cramped cockpit of my 60ft race yacht with my Spanish co skipper, Anna Corbella, where we have spent the last 20 days (with another 70 to go!) in relative austerity.

We started the Barcelona World Race on New Year’s Eve, our home for the duration is my IMOCA 60 race yacht GAES Centros Auditivos and the austerity I speak of is the basic nature of our existence as we race non-stop around the world.

The boat itself is 60ft in length, although the actual living area is probably no more than 20ft. We have no kitchen, no toilet and no bed to speak of although we have little need for the latter as normal sleep patterns are a distant memory when we are in race mode.

Our diet will consist of re constituted freeze dried meals supplemented with some long life products such as dried fruit or cereal. I make it sound so enticing don’t I? Well to me and Anna it is exactly that – the most amazing opportunity to sail amongst a fleet of highly skilled world class skippers at a competitive level and, on successful completion, for Anna to become the first Spanish woman to sail nonstop around the world.

We are the only all female team among 13 other competitor boats so we determined to put in a good performance against the boys!

I can report back that after just over three weeks of sailing, Anna and I are still smiling and laughing and on the basis we are spending twenty four hours a day together, seven days a week, that is pretty good going. When you think about that in the context of normal living, you realize that very few married couples spend that amount of time in each others’ company (or would want to in some cases!).

The added stress for us is that we are under intense pressure to perform, with every gain or loss broadcast to the world through daily position reports. The results speak for themselves so we have to be strong as a team and confident in the decisions we make together – good or bad.

Double handed racing has its challenges, the biggest test for me being sharing my boat and living space, which is purely down to the fact that I have previously sailed her alone for so many miles. It has been said that I am a bit of a control freak so when Anna and I practiced sailing together this year I had a head start in influencing the forming of certain habits onboard and since the start of this race we have fallen into a rhythm very easily, freely admitting when we are tired, hungry or cold.

We have been working hard to keep pace with the pack so extreme tiredness, hunger and being generally uncomfortable are commonplace and have all contributed to a heightened emotional state which inevitably spills over at times. Just as a wife is more likely to anger over the toothpaste lid being left off than some of the more important marital issues that bubble beneath the surface, it is the surprisingly small things that tip us over the edge. We are more likely to have a quick spat about a lack of tidiness onboard than we are about perceived good or bad sail trim and, since few sailors can agree in that area anyway, perhaps it is for the best.

At this relatively early stage of the Barcelona World Race it has also become apparent that striking a balance between racing as hard as possible and maintaining the integrity of the boat is not always an easy one to achieve. This is my fourth circumnavigation of the globe and, above all else, I know that finishing a 25,000 nautical mile race is in itself an achievement.

So far reports back from other boats have detailed issues they have had ranging from problems with hydro generators and damage to crash boxes, some of which can be fixed en route and some which required a technical pit stop, through to the more extreme and race stopping events like a dismasting which saw one team withdraw from the race altogether.

Thankfully, Anna and I have passed through the Doldrums relatively unscathed and crossed the Equator into the southern hemisphere late Friday night which heralded the traditional ritual to Neptune. Typically this involves a sacrifice of some sort – for me it was a bag of my prized Haribo sweets and for Anna some of her much loved Spanish ham – we hope that those together with a splash of Mumm Champagne will be enough for the sea God to grant us safe passage.

However, enough of sailing, as the main topic of conversation for Anna and I the last few days has been – what on earth shall we wear? We have settled into a watch system of loosely two hours on, two hours off depending on what work needs doing on the boat or with sail changes. What this means is that six times a day we each have to eject ourselves from the beanbag we sleep on and with each new watch start comes the deliberation over what to wear.

We began the race asking just how cold it was on deck with the answer resulting in the number of layers being thrown on. As we headed south, this progressed to assessing just how wet it was on deck whilst we were sailing through the tropics in soaring temperatures. Sounds very glam doesn’t it? Well believe me it is not quite the cruising lifestyle – more a case of charging along just on the edge of control with spray and waves being kicked up everywhere. At the moment it is wet and warm giving us high levels of humidity which are really exhausting conditions to work in.

The sea temperature is a balmy 27 degrees and, if we were alone, sailing in the nude would be tempting to eradicate the sweaty feeling, none too fragrant smell and build up of wet clothes. However, Anna and I have decided that there is only so much of each others’ flesh that we want to see on this race and since we are living in such close proximity as it is we should try and maintain a little feminine mystique.

I shall away now and continue our chasing of the boys!

Reader question: What is the most amazing wildlife encounter you have had?

“Sailing around the world puts you in some of the most remote environments on the planet so I have experienced some pretty cool sights over the years. I think my favourite encounter was when a pod of blue whales broached close to my yacht between Cape Horn and New Zealand when I was on the Aviva Challenge.

“In some yachts it can be a worry when whales come close to the boat as they can cause severe damage; however, because I was in a robust 70ft steel yacht I could relax and enjoy the view. They are amazing creatures and there is something truly magical in the air when they are around. I also love it when dolphins play in the bow wave at the front of the yacht as they seem to have a great sense of fun and always bring a smile to my face.”

Dee Caffari, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

Got a question for Dee or Anna? Email us at [email protected] ^[5], we will ask her a new question every two weeks.