1
00:00:01,334 --> 00:00:05,003
Being able to navigate
is an extraordinary gift,

2
00:00:05,003 --> 00:00:07,188
and there is nothing like it in the world.

3
00:00:07,274 --> 00:00:11,001
I get no more sense
of satisfaction greater

4
00:00:11,001 --> 00:00:13,969
than leaving a port

5
00:00:13,969 --> 00:00:18,382
and knowing that I can get
my team and my boat

6
00:00:18,382 --> 00:00:20,696
safely from that port to another port,

7
00:00:20,696 --> 00:00:24,296
maybe three, four, five,
six thousand miles away.

8
00:00:25,019 --> 00:00:27,582
Being at sea for me is ...

9
00:00:27,582 --> 00:00:29,241
it's to total freedom,

10
00:00:29,241 --> 00:00:34,031
and it is the ultimate
opportunity to be you

11
00:00:34,031 --> 00:00:35,873
because you can't be anything else.

12
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You are naked in front
of your peers on a boat.

13
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It is a small area.

14
00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:42,088
Maiden is 58 feet long.

15
00:00:42,308 --> 00:00:44,731
There's 12 women in a 58-foot boat.

16
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I mean, you are literally
up against each other,

17
00:00:47,444 --> 00:00:49,704
and so you have to be you.

18
00:00:50,091 --> 00:00:53,358
The greatest moment
for me when I'm sailing

19
00:00:53,358 --> 00:00:56,266
is the moment that the land disappears.

20
00:00:56,266 --> 00:00:59,209
It's an indescribable moment of --

21
00:00:59,209 --> 00:01:00,214
[gasps]

22
00:01:00,214 --> 00:01:01,147
adventure

23
00:01:01,147 --> 00:01:03,725
and no turning back,

24
00:01:03,725 --> 00:01:07,409
and just you and the boat
and the elements.

25
00:01:08,199 --> 00:01:11,910
I wish everyone could experience
this at least once in their lives.

26
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The further you get away from land,

27
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the more you kind of fit into yourself.

28
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It is you,

29
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how do we get to the next place,

30
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how do we stay alive,

31
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how do we look after each other

32
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and what do we do 
to get to the other side.

33
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So the question I get asked
the most when I go and do talks

34
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is "How do you become
and ocean-racing sailor?"

35
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And that's a really good question.

36
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I've always wanted to say "I had a vision,

37
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which became a dream,

38
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which became an obsession,"

39
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but of course life's not like that,

40
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and one thing I'm really anxious
for people to know about me

41
00:01:49,005 --> 00:01:51,624
is that my life
hasn't gone from A to B --

42
00:01:51,624 --> 00:01:54,975
because how many people can say
their lives just go from A to B;

43
00:01:54,975 --> 00:01:58,338
they think I'm going to do this
and they go and do it?

44
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So I tell the truth.

45
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And the truth is that I was expelled
from school when I was 15 years old,

46
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and my long-suffering headmaster
sent a long-suffering note

47
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to my long-suffering mother,

48
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basically saying that if Tracy
darkens these doors of the school again

49
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then we will call the police.

50
00:02:16,634 --> 00:02:20,192
And my mum took me and she said,

51
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"Darling, education is not for everyone."

52
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And then she gave me the best
piece of advice anyone has ever given me.

53
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She said every single one of us
is good at something,

54
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you just have to go and find what that is.

55
00:02:33,491 --> 00:02:37,219
And at the age of 16 she let me
go backpacking off to Greece.

56
00:02:37,636 --> 00:02:39,698
I ended up working on boats,

57
00:02:39,698 --> 00:02:40,972
which was OK --

58
00:02:40,972 --> 00:02:42,148
17 years old,

59
00:02:42,148 --> 00:02:44,216
didn't really know what I wanted to do,

60
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kind of going with the flow.

61
00:02:45,974 --> 00:02:48,798
And then on my second transatlantic,

62
00:02:48,798 --> 00:02:51,089
my skipper said to me, "Can you navigate?"

63
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And I said, "of course I can't navigate,

64
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I was expelled before long division."

65
00:02:54,833 --> 00:02:57,973
And he said, "Well, don't you think
you should be able to navigate?

66
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What happens if I fall over the side?

67
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Stop being a bystander in your own life,

68
00:03:01,829 --> 00:03:03,745
stop looking at what you're doing

69
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and start taking part."

70
00:03:05,967 --> 00:03:09,403
This day for me was the day
that my whole life started.

71
00:03:09,403 --> 00:03:11,615
I learned to navigate in two days --

72
00:03:11,615 --> 00:03:13,650
and this is someone who hates numbers

73
00:03:13,650 --> 00:03:15,469
and sees them as hieroglyphics.

74
00:03:16,063 --> 00:03:20,236
It opened up avenues and opportunities
to me that I could never have imagined.

75
00:03:20,236 --> 00:03:24,055
I actually managed to get a ride
on a Whitbread Round the World Race boat.

76
00:03:24,094 --> 00:03:26,862
It was with 17 South African men and me.

77
00:03:27,166 --> 00:03:28,987
I was 21 years old,

78
00:03:28,987 --> 00:03:31,155
and it was the longest
nine months of my life.

79
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But I went to cook,

80
00:03:32,852 --> 00:03:34,734
I managed to survive until the end,

81
00:03:34,734 --> 00:03:36,560
and when I got to end of this race,

82
00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,868
I realized that there were
230 crew in this race

83
00:03:39,868 --> 00:03:41,169
and three women,

84
00:03:41,169 --> 00:03:42,388
and I was one of them.

85
00:03:42,388 --> 00:03:43,990
And I'm a lousy cook.

86
00:03:44,319 --> 00:03:46,063
I'm a really good navigator.

87
00:03:46,807 --> 00:03:51,513
I think the second most profound
thought in my entire life was:

88
00:03:51,513 --> 00:03:56,993
no man is ever going to allow me
to be a navigator on their boat ever.

89
00:03:57,393 --> 00:03:59,316
And that is still the case today.

90
00:03:59,316 --> 00:04:00,939
In 35 years of the Whitbread

91
00:04:00,939 --> 00:04:02,833
there's only been two female navigators

92
00:04:02,833 --> 00:04:04,940
that haven't been on
on an all-female cruise,

93
00:04:04,940 --> 00:04:06,475
and that's how Maiden was born.

94
00:04:06,572 --> 00:04:08,689
That was the moment I thought,

95
00:04:08,689 --> 00:04:10,183
I've got something to fight for

96
00:04:10,183 --> 00:04:14,031
and I had no idea
that I wanted to have this fight.

97
00:04:14,355 --> 00:04:18,595
It was something that I took to
like a duck to water.

98
00:04:19,234 --> 00:04:23,524
I discovered things about myself
that I had no idea existed.

99
00:04:23,980 --> 00:04:26,448
I discovered I had a fighting spirit,

100
00:04:26,448 --> 00:04:28,178
I discovered I was competitive --

101
00:04:28,178 --> 00:04:29,914
never knew that before --

102
00:04:29,914 --> 00:04:33,598
and I discovered my second passion,

103
00:04:33,598 --> 00:04:35,451
which was equality.

104
00:04:35,737 --> 00:04:38,128
I couldn't let this one lie.

105
00:04:38,128 --> 00:04:41,665
And it became not just about me
wanting to navigate on a boat

106
00:04:41,665 --> 00:04:43,765
and having to put my own crew together

107
00:04:43,765 --> 00:04:45,219
and my own team,

108
00:04:45,219 --> 00:04:46,214
raise my own money,

109
00:04:46,214 --> 00:04:47,617
find my own boat

110
00:04:47,617 --> 00:04:49,181
so that I could be navigator.

111
00:04:49,181 --> 00:04:51,024
This was about women everywhere.

112
00:04:51,024 --> 00:04:53,166
And this was when I realized

113
00:04:53,166 --> 00:04:56,801
that this was probably what I was going
to spend the rest of my life doing.

114
00:04:57,041 --> 00:04:58,909
It took ages for us to find the money

115
00:04:58,909 --> 00:05:01,640
to do the 1989 Whitbread
Round the World Race.

116
00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:03,672
And as we looked at all the big,

117
00:05:03,672 --> 00:05:05,551
multi-million pound,

118
00:05:05,551 --> 00:05:07,315
all-male projects around us

119
00:05:07,315 --> 00:05:11,109
with their brand-new shiny boats
designed for the race,

120
00:05:11,109 --> 00:05:14,017
we realized this was not going to be us.

121
00:05:14,147 --> 00:05:16,278
We had to make this up
as we went along.

122
00:05:16,278 --> 00:05:19,159
No one had enough faith in us
to give us this kind of money.

123
00:05:19,159 --> 00:05:20,928
So I mortgaged my house

124
00:05:20,928 --> 00:05:23,161
and we found an old wreck

125
00:05:23,161 --> 00:05:24,495
with a pedigree,

126
00:05:24,495 --> 00:05:25,772
an old Whitbread boat --

127
00:05:25,772 --> 00:05:27,867
it had already been
around the world twice --

128
00:05:27,867 --> 00:05:29,262
in South Africa.

129
00:05:29,262 --> 00:05:31,646
We somehow persuaded
some guy to put it on a ship

130
00:05:31,646 --> 00:05:33,932
and bring it back to the UK for us.

131
00:05:34,029 --> 00:05:37,316
The girls were horrified
at the state of the boat.

132
00:05:37,510 --> 00:05:39,565
We got a free place in a yard.

133
00:05:39,565 --> 00:05:41,170
We got her up on the hard

134
00:05:41,170 --> 00:05:42,805
and we redesigned her;

135
00:05:42,805 --> 00:05:44,271
we ripped her apart;

136
00:05:44,271 --> 00:05:46,503
we did all the work ourselves.

137
00:05:46,503 --> 00:05:49,931
It was the first time that anyone
had ever seen women in a shipyard,

138
00:05:49,931 --> 00:05:51,537
so that was quite entertaining.

139
00:05:51,537 --> 00:05:53,740
Every morning when we would walk in,

140
00:05:53,740 --> 00:05:55,442
everyone would just gawk at us.

141
00:05:55,491 --> 00:05:57,020
But it also had its advantages

142
00:05:57,020 --> 00:05:59,457
because everyone was so helpful.

143
00:05:59,457 --> 00:06:00,920
We were such a novelty.

144
00:06:01,306 --> 00:06:03,034
You know, we got given a generator,

145
00:06:03,034 --> 00:06:04,369
an engine --

146
00:06:04,369 --> 00:06:05,704
"Do you want this old rope?"

147
00:06:05,704 --> 00:06:06,710
"Yep."

148
00:06:06,710 --> 00:06:07,707
"Old sails?"

149
00:06:07,707 --> 00:06:09,092
"Yep, we'll have those."

150
00:06:09,092 --> 00:06:11,618
So we really made it up as we went along.

151
00:06:11,618 --> 00:06:15,829
And I think actually one of the huge
advantages we had was,

152
00:06:15,829 --> 00:06:18,592
you know, there was no preconceived idea

153
00:06:18,592 --> 00:06:21,695
about how an all-female crew
would sail around the world.

154
00:06:21,695 --> 00:06:23,905
So whatever we did was OK.

155
00:06:24,185 --> 00:06:28,120
And what it also did
was it drew people to it --

156
00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:29,519
not just women --

157
00:06:29,519 --> 00:06:32,839
men, anyone who had been told
you can't do something

158
00:06:32,839 --> 00:06:34,470
because you're not good enough --

159
00:06:34,470 --> 00:06:35,467
your right gender

160
00:06:35,467 --> 00:06:36,468
or right race

161
00:06:36,468 --> 00:06:38,035
or right color, or whatever.

162
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Maiden became a passion.

163
00:06:40,390 --> 00:06:43,577
And it was hard to raise the money --

164
00:06:43,577 --> 00:06:45,576
hundreds of companies wouldn't sponsor us.

165
00:06:45,576 --> 00:06:47,972
They told us that we couldn't do it,

166
00:06:47,972 --> 00:06:50,522
people thought we were going to die --

167
00:06:50,522 --> 00:06:52,996
you know, guys would literally
come up to me and say,

168
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"You're going to die."

169
00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:56,525
I'd think, well, OK, that's my business,

170
00:06:56,525 --> 00:06:57,600
it's not yours.

171
00:06:58,101 --> 00:07:01,084
In the end, King Hussein of Jordan
sponsored Maiden,

172
00:07:01,084 --> 00:07:02,929
and that was an amazing thing --

173
00:07:02,929 --> 00:07:04,333
way ahead of his time,

174
00:07:04,333 --> 00:07:05,610
all about equality.

175
00:07:05,610 --> 00:07:08,604
We sailed around the world
with a message of peace and equality.

176
00:07:08,604 --> 00:07:12,245
We were the only boat in the race
with a message of any kind.

177
00:07:12,418 --> 00:07:14,702
We won two legs of the Whitbread --

178
00:07:14,702 --> 00:07:16,285
two of the most difficult legs --

179
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and we came second overall.

180
00:07:18,132 --> 00:07:21,986
And that is still the best result
for a British boat since 1977.

181
00:07:22,399 --> 00:07:23,943
It annoyed a lot of people.

182
00:07:24,176 --> 00:07:26,052
And I think what it did at the time --

183
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we didn't realize.

184
00:07:27,114 --> 00:07:29,042
You know, we crossed the finishing line,

185
00:07:29,042 --> 00:07:30,233
this incredible finish --

186
00:07:30,233 --> 00:07:32,958
600 boats sailing up the Solent with us;

187
00:07:32,958 --> 00:07:38,877
50,000 people in Ocean Village
chanting "Maiden, Maiden"

188
00:07:38,877 --> 00:07:40,069
as we sailed in.

189
00:07:40,069 --> 00:07:43,203
And so we knew we'd done something
that we wanted to do

190
00:07:43,203 --> 00:07:46,144
and we hoped we achieved something good,

191
00:07:46,144 --> 00:07:51,408
but we had no idea at the time
how many women's lives we changed.

192
00:07:52,018 --> 00:07:53,947
The Southern Ocean is my favorite ocean.

193
00:07:53,947 --> 00:07:55,441
Each ocean has a character.

194
00:07:55,598 --> 00:07:58,132
So the North Atlantic is a yomping ocean.

195
00:07:58,377 --> 00:08:02,679
It's a jolly, go-for-it,
heave-ho type of --

196
00:08:02,679 --> 00:08:04,198
have-fun type of ocean.

197
00:08:04,378 --> 00:08:07,969
The Southern Ocean
is a deadly serious ocean.

198
00:08:08,106 --> 00:08:12,438
And you know the moment
when you cross into the Southern Ocean --

199
00:08:12,438 --> 00:08:13,911
the latitude and longitude --

200
00:08:13,911 --> 00:08:15,609
you know when you're there,

201
00:08:15,609 --> 00:08:17,314
the waves have been building,

202
00:08:17,314 --> 00:08:19,868
they start getting
big whitecaps on the top,

203
00:08:19,868 --> 00:08:21,344
it becomes really grey,

204
00:08:21,344 --> 00:08:23,395
you start to get sensory deprivation.

205
00:08:23,779 --> 00:08:28,599
It is very focused on
who you are and what you are

206
00:08:28,599 --> 00:08:31,621
with this massive wilderness around you.

207
00:08:32,158 --> 00:08:33,278
It is empty.

208
00:08:33,278 --> 00:08:36,948
It is so big and so empty.

209
00:08:37,457 --> 00:08:40,179
You see albatrosses
swirling around the boat.

210
00:08:40,179 --> 00:08:43,339
It takes about four days to sail
through their territory,

211
00:08:43,339 --> 00:08:45,592
so you have the same
albatrosses for four days.

212
00:08:45,592 --> 00:08:47,703
And they find us quite a novelty,

213
00:08:47,703 --> 00:08:52,838
so they literally windsurf off the wind
that comes off the mainsail

214
00:08:52,838 --> 00:08:55,458
and they hang behind the boat,

215
00:08:55,458 --> 00:08:57,588
and you sort of feel
this presence behind you

216
00:08:57,588 --> 00:08:58,596
and you turn around

217
00:08:58,596 --> 00:09:00,691
and it's this albatross
just looking at you.

218
00:09:00,691 --> 00:09:02,806
We sold Maiden at the end of the race --

219
00:09:02,806 --> 00:09:04,499
we still had no money,

220
00:09:04,499 --> 00:09:06,649
and five years ago we found her

221
00:09:06,649 --> 00:09:09,068
at the same time
as a film director decided

222
00:09:09,068 --> 00:09:11,542
he wanted to make
a documentary about Maiden.

223
00:09:11,984 --> 00:09:13,126
We found Maiden;

224
00:09:13,126 --> 00:09:14,526
she burst back into my life

225
00:09:14,526 --> 00:09:17,744
and reminded me a lot of things
I had forgotten actually,

226
00:09:17,744 --> 00:09:19,063
over the years,

227
00:09:19,063 --> 00:09:21,760
about following my heart and my gut

228
00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:24,088
and really being part of the universe.

229
00:09:24,337 --> 00:09:28,273
Everything I find important in life,

230
00:09:28,273 --> 00:09:30,257
Maiden has given back to me.

231
00:09:30,257 --> 00:09:32,132
Again, we rescued her--

232
00:09:32,132 --> 00:09:33,328
we did a Crowdfunder --

233
00:09:33,328 --> 00:09:35,175
we rescued her from Seychelles.

234
00:09:35,373 --> 00:09:36,433
Princess Haya,

235
00:09:36,433 --> 00:09:37,689
King Hussein's daughter,

236
00:09:37,689 --> 00:09:41,211
funded the shipping back to the UK
and then the restoration.

237
00:09:41,356 --> 00:09:43,128
All the original crew were involved.

238
00:09:43,194 --> 00:09:45,142
We put the original team back together.

239
00:09:45,640 --> 00:09:46,698
And then we decided:

240
00:09:46,698 --> 00:09:48,495
what are we going to do with Maiden?

241
00:09:48,631 --> 00:09:51,297
And this for me really was
the moment in my life

242
00:09:51,297 --> 00:09:54,483
where I looked back on every single
thing that I'd done --

243
00:09:54,483 --> 00:09:55,646
every project,

244
00:09:55,646 --> 00:09:56,751
every feeling,

245
00:09:56,751 --> 00:09:57,756
every passion,

246
00:09:57,756 --> 00:09:58,755
every battle,

247
00:09:58,755 --> 00:09:59,764
every fight --

248
00:09:59,764 --> 00:10:02,803
and I decided that I wanted Maiden
to continue that fight

249
00:10:02,803 --> 00:10:04,341
for the next generation.

250
00:10:04,341 --> 00:10:06,058
Maiden is sailing around the world.

251
00:10:06,058 --> 00:10:07,655
A five-year world tour.

252
00:10:07,655 --> 00:10:11,737
We are engaging with thousands
of girls all over the world.

253
00:10:11,737 --> 00:10:15,979
We are supporting community programs
that get girls into education.

254
00:10:16,261 --> 00:10:19,181
Education doesn't just mean
sitting in a classroom.

255
00:10:19,403 --> 00:10:24,684
This, for me, is about teaching girls
you don't have to look a certain way,

256
00:10:24,684 --> 00:10:27,184
you don't have to feel a certain way,

257
00:10:27,184 --> 00:10:29,090
you don't have to behave a certain way.

258
00:10:29,090 --> 00:10:30,264
You can be successful,

259
00:10:30,264 --> 00:10:31,536
you can follow your dreams

260
00:10:31,536 --> 00:10:33,076
and you can fight for them.

261
00:10:33,076 --> 00:10:34,798
Life doesn't go from A to B.

262
00:10:34,798 --> 00:10:35,814
It's messy.

263
00:10:35,814 --> 00:10:38,732
My life has been a mess
from beginning to end,

264
00:10:38,732 --> 00:10:41,292
but somehow I've got to where we're going.

265
00:10:41,541 --> 00:10:44,860
The future for us
and Maiden looks amazing.

266
00:10:45,248 --> 00:10:46,899
And for me,

267
00:10:46,899 --> 00:10:48,884
it is all about closing the circle.

268
00:10:49,172 --> 00:10:51,659
It's about closing the circle with Maiden

269
00:10:51,659 --> 00:10:54,315
and using her to tell girls

270
00:10:54,315 --> 00:10:56,624
that if just one person believes in you,

271
00:10:56,624 --> 00:10:58,548
you can do anything.