WEBVTT 00:00:01.254 --> 00:00:04.979 Being able to navigate is an extraordinary gift, 00:00:05.003 --> 00:00:07.096 and there is nothing like it in the world. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:13.802 I get no more sense of satisfaction greater than leaving a port 00:00:13.826 --> 00:00:18.223 and knowing that I can get my team and my boat 00:00:18.247 --> 00:00:20.712 safely from that port to another port, 00:00:20.736 --> 00:00:24.336 maybe three, four, five, six thousand miles away. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:25.019 --> 00:00:27.297 Being at sea, for me, is ... 00:00:27.321 --> 00:00:28.859 it's total freedom, 00:00:28.883 --> 00:00:34.007 and it is the ultimate opportunity to be you, 00:00:34.031 --> 00:00:35.746 because you can't be anything else. 00:00:35.770 --> 00:00:38.577 You are naked in front of your peers on a boat. 00:00:38.601 --> 00:00:40.025 It is a small area. 00:00:40.049 --> 00:00:42.284 Maiden is 58 feet long. 00:00:42.308 --> 00:00:44.707 There's 12 women in a 58-foot boat. 00:00:44.731 --> 00:00:47.475 I mean, you are literally up against each other, 00:00:47.499 --> 00:00:49.955 and so you have to be you. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:49.979 --> 00:00:53.254 The greatest moment for me when I'm sailing 00:00:53.278 --> 00:00:56.317 is the moment that the land disappears. 00:00:56.341 --> 00:00:59.185 It's an indescribable moment of -- NOTE Paragraph 00:00:59.209 --> 00:01:00.303 (Gasps) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:00.327 --> 00:01:03.834 adventure and no turning back, 00:01:03.858 --> 00:01:08.175 and just you and the boat and the elements. 00:01:08.199 --> 00:01:11.936 I wish everyone could experience this at least once in their lives. 00:01:11.960 --> 00:01:14.016 The further you get away from land, 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:16.794 the more you kind of fit into yourself. 00:01:16.818 --> 00:01:18.048 It is you, 00:01:18.072 --> 00:01:19.665 how do we get to the next place, 00:01:19.689 --> 00:01:21.144 how do we stay alive, 00:01:21.168 --> 00:01:23.770 how do we look after each other 00:01:23.794 --> 00:01:26.214 and what do we do to get to the other side. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:26.670 --> 00:01:30.374 So the question I get asked the most when I go and do talks 00:01:30.398 --> 00:01:34.262 is "How do you become an ocean-racing sailor?" 00:01:34.286 --> 00:01:36.016 And that's a really good question. 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:39.453 And I've always wanted to say "I had a vision, 00:01:39.477 --> 00:01:40.682 which became a dream, 00:01:40.706 --> 00:01:43.165 which became an obsession," 00:01:43.189 --> 00:01:45.205 but, of course, life's not like that, 00:01:45.229 --> 00:01:48.805 and one thing I'm really anxious for people to know about me 00:01:48.829 --> 00:01:51.560 is that my life hasn't gone from A to B -- 00:01:51.584 --> 00:01:54.743 because how many people can say their lives just go from A to B; 00:01:54.767 --> 00:01:58.044 they think, "I'm going to do this," and they go and do it? 00:01:58.953 --> 00:02:00.509 So I tell the truth. 00:02:00.533 --> 00:02:03.967 And the truth is that I was expelled from school when I was 15 years old, 00:02:03.991 --> 00:02:08.644 and my long-suffering headmaster sent a long-suffering note 00:02:08.668 --> 00:02:10.010 to my long-suffering mother, 00:02:10.034 --> 00:02:14.692 basically saying that if Tracy darkens these doors of the school again, 00:02:14.716 --> 00:02:16.422 then we will call the police. 00:02:16.446 --> 00:02:20.231 And my mum took me and she said, 00:02:20.255 --> 00:02:23.457 "Darling, education is not for everyone." 00:02:23.481 --> 00:02:27.223 And then she gave me the best piece of advice anyone has ever given me. 00:02:27.247 --> 00:02:30.565 She said, "Every single one of us is good at something, 00:02:30.589 --> 00:02:33.403 you just have to go and find what that is." 00:02:33.427 --> 00:02:37.155 And at the age of 16, she let me go backpacking off to Greece. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:37.715 --> 00:02:40.716 I ended up working on boats, which was OK -- 00:02:40.740 --> 00:02:44.058 17 years old, didn't really know what I wanted to do, 00:02:44.082 --> 00:02:45.902 kind of going with the flow. 00:02:45.926 --> 00:02:48.637 And then on my second transatlantic, 00:02:48.661 --> 00:02:51.065 my skipper said to me, "Can you navigate?" 00:02:51.089 --> 00:02:53.022 And I said, "Of course I can't navigate, 00:02:53.046 --> 00:02:54.809 I was expelled before long division." 00:02:54.833 --> 00:02:57.750 And he said, "Don't you think you should be able to navigate? 00:02:57.774 --> 00:02:59.570 What happens if I fall over the side? 00:02:59.594 --> 00:03:01.508 Stop being a bystander in your own life, 00:03:01.532 --> 00:03:03.425 stop looking at what you're doing 00:03:03.449 --> 00:03:05.171 and start taking part." 00:03:05.839 --> 00:03:09.379 This day, for me, was the day that my whole life started. 00:03:09.403 --> 00:03:11.420 I learned to navigate in two days -- 00:03:11.444 --> 00:03:13.523 and this is someone who hates numbers 00:03:13.547 --> 00:03:15.165 and sees them as hieroglyphics. 00:03:15.872 --> 00:03:20.116 It opened up avenues and opportunities to me that I could never have imagined. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:20.140 --> 00:03:23.865 I actually managed to get a ride on a Whitbread Round the World Race boat. 00:03:23.889 --> 00:03:26.974 It was with 17 South African men and me. 00:03:26.998 --> 00:03:28.883 I was 21 years old, 00:03:28.907 --> 00:03:31.052 and it was the longest nine months of my life. 00:03:31.076 --> 00:03:32.750 But I went as a cook, 00:03:32.774 --> 00:03:34.483 I managed to survive until the end, 00:03:34.507 --> 00:03:36.238 and when I got to end of this race, 00:03:36.262 --> 00:03:40.102 I realized that there were 230 crew in this race, 00:03:40.126 --> 00:03:41.292 and three women, 00:03:41.316 --> 00:03:42.467 and I was one of them. 00:03:42.491 --> 00:03:44.094 And I'm a lousy cook. 00:03:44.118 --> 00:03:45.862 I'm a really good navigator. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:46.759 --> 00:03:51.388 I think the second most profound thought in my entire life was: 00:03:51.412 --> 00:03:56.983 "No man is ever going to allow me to be a navigator on their boat, ever." 00:03:57.393 --> 00:03:59.292 And that is still the case today. 00:03:59.316 --> 00:04:01.073 In 35 years of the Whitbread, 00:04:01.097 --> 00:04:05.016 there's only been two female navigators that haven't been on an all-female cruise, 00:04:05.040 --> 00:04:06.548 and that's how Maiden was born. 00:04:06.572 --> 00:04:10.065 That was the moment I thought, "I've got something to fight for." 00:04:10.089 --> 00:04:13.918 And I had no idea that I wanted to have this fight, 00:04:13.942 --> 00:04:18.442 and it was something that I took to like a duck to water. 00:04:18.932 --> 00:04:23.490 I discovered things about myself that I had no idea existed. 00:04:23.836 --> 00:04:26.329 I discovered I had a fighting spirit, 00:04:26.353 --> 00:04:28.105 I discovered I was competitive -- 00:04:28.129 --> 00:04:29.742 never knew that before -- 00:04:29.766 --> 00:04:33.370 and I discovered my second passion, 00:04:33.394 --> 00:04:35.625 which was equality. 00:04:35.649 --> 00:04:37.967 I couldn't let this one lie. 00:04:37.991 --> 00:04:41.538 And it became not just about me wanting to navigate on a boat 00:04:41.562 --> 00:04:43.764 and having to put my own crew together 00:04:43.788 --> 00:04:45.163 and my own team, 00:04:45.187 --> 00:04:47.304 raise my own money, find my own boat, 00:04:47.328 --> 00:04:49.239 so that I could be navigator. 00:04:49.263 --> 00:04:50.828 This was about women everywhere. 00:04:50.852 --> 00:04:53.018 And this was when I realized 00:04:53.042 --> 00:04:56.894 that this was probably what I was going to spend the rest of my life doing. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:56.918 --> 00:04:58.763 It took ages for us to find the money 00:04:58.787 --> 00:05:01.419 to do the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race. 00:05:01.443 --> 00:05:03.452 And as we looked at all the big, 00:05:03.476 --> 00:05:07.226 multimillion pound, all-male projects around us, 00:05:07.250 --> 00:05:11.085 with their brand-new shiny boats designed for the race, 00:05:11.109 --> 00:05:14.201 we realized this was not going to be us. 00:05:14.225 --> 00:05:16.154 We had to make this up as we went along. 00:05:16.178 --> 00:05:19.135 No one had enough faith in us to give us this kind of money. 00:05:19.159 --> 00:05:20.511 So I mortgaged my house, 00:05:20.535 --> 00:05:24.137 and we found an old wreck with a pedigree, 00:05:24.161 --> 00:05:25.315 an old Whitbread boat -- 00:05:25.339 --> 00:05:27.455 it had already been around the world twice -- 00:05:27.479 --> 00:05:28.751 in South Africa. 00:05:28.775 --> 00:05:31.371 We somehow persuaded some guy to put it on a ship 00:05:31.395 --> 00:05:33.774 and bring it back to the UK for us. 00:05:33.798 --> 00:05:37.255 The girls were horrified at the state of the boat. 00:05:37.632 --> 00:05:39.442 We got a free place in a yard. 00:05:39.466 --> 00:05:42.684 We got her up on the hard and we redesigned her, 00:05:42.708 --> 00:05:44.151 we ripped her apart, 00:05:44.175 --> 00:05:46.479 we did all the work ourselves. 00:05:46.503 --> 00:05:49.805 It was the first time that anyone had ever seen women in a shipyard, 00:05:49.829 --> 00:05:51.412 so that was quite entertaining. 00:05:51.436 --> 00:05:53.428 Every morning when we would walk in, 00:05:53.452 --> 00:05:55.435 everyone would just gawk at us. 00:05:55.459 --> 00:05:59.206 But it also had its advantages, because everyone was so helpful. 00:05:59.230 --> 00:06:01.404 We were such a novelty. 00:06:01.428 --> 00:06:04.239 You know, we got given a generator, an engine -- 00:06:04.263 --> 00:06:05.680 "Do you want this old rope?" 00:06:05.704 --> 00:06:06.886 "Yep." 00:06:06.910 --> 00:06:08.080 "Old sails?" 00:06:08.104 --> 00:06:09.266 "Yep, we'll have those." 00:06:09.290 --> 00:06:11.481 So we really made it up as we went along. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:11.505 --> 00:06:15.632 And I think, actually, one of the huge advantages we had was, 00:06:15.656 --> 00:06:18.568 you know, there was no preconceived idea 00:06:18.592 --> 00:06:21.522 about how an all-female crew would sail around the world. 00:06:21.546 --> 00:06:24.013 So whatever we did was OK. 00:06:24.037 --> 00:06:28.056 And what it also did was it drew people to it. 00:06:28.080 --> 00:06:29.231 Not just women -- 00:06:29.255 --> 00:06:31.669 men, anyone who'd ever been told, 00:06:31.693 --> 00:06:34.492 "You can't do something because you're not good enough" -- 00:06:34.516 --> 00:06:37.519 the right gender or right race or right color, or whatever. 00:06:37.543 --> 00:06:40.366 Maiden became a passion. 00:06:40.390 --> 00:06:43.553 And it was hard to raise the money -- 00:06:43.577 --> 00:06:45.659 hundreds of companies wouldn't sponsor us. 00:06:45.683 --> 00:06:48.016 They told us that we couldn't do it, 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:50.498 people thought we were going to die ... 00:06:50.522 --> 00:06:53.072 You know, guys would literally come up to me and say, 00:06:53.096 --> 00:06:54.296 "You're going to die." 00:06:54.320 --> 00:06:57.600 I'd think, "Well, OK, that's my business, it's not yours." 00:06:57.948 --> 00:07:00.568 In the end, King Hussein of Jordan sponsored Maiden, 00:07:00.592 --> 00:07:03.031 and that was an amazing thing -- 00:07:03.055 --> 00:07:05.586 way ahead of his time, all about equality. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:05.610 --> 00:07:08.680 We sailed around the world with a message of peace and equality. 00:07:08.704 --> 00:07:12.212 We were the only boat in the race with a message of any kind. 00:07:12.236 --> 00:07:14.594 We won two legs of the Whitbread -- 00:07:14.618 --> 00:07:16.261 two of the most difficult legs -- 00:07:16.285 --> 00:07:17.920 and we came second overall. 00:07:17.944 --> 00:07:22.419 And that is still the best result for a British boat since 1977. 00:07:22.443 --> 00:07:24.152 It annoyed a lot of people. 00:07:24.176 --> 00:07:26.028 And I think what it did at the time -- 00:07:26.052 --> 00:07:27.296 we didn't realize. 00:07:27.320 --> 00:07:30.509 You know, we crossed the finishing line, this incredible finish -- 00:07:30.533 --> 00:07:33.378 600 boats sailing up the Solent with us; 00:07:33.402 --> 00:07:40.354 50,000 people in Ocean Village chanting "Maiden, Maiden" as we sailed in. 00:07:40.378 --> 00:07:43.179 And so we knew we'd done something that we wanted to do 00:07:43.203 --> 00:07:45.966 and we hoped we'd achieved something good, 00:07:45.990 --> 00:07:51.290 but we had no idea at the time how many women's lives we changed. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:52.018 --> 00:07:53.923 The Southern Ocean is my favorite ocean. 00:07:53.947 --> 00:07:55.574 Each ocean has a character. 00:07:55.598 --> 00:07:58.454 So the North Atlantic is a yomping ocean. 00:07:58.478 --> 00:08:02.495 It's a jolly, go-for-it, heave-ho type of -- 00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:04.248 have-fun type of ocean. 00:08:04.272 --> 00:08:07.979 The Southern Ocean is a deadly serious ocean. 00:08:08.003 --> 00:08:12.199 And you know the moment when you cross into the Southern Ocean -- 00:08:12.223 --> 00:08:13.887 the latitude and longitude -- 00:08:13.911 --> 00:08:15.491 you know when you're there, 00:08:15.515 --> 00:08:17.086 the waves have been building, 00:08:17.110 --> 00:08:19.641 they start getting big whitecaps on the top, 00:08:19.665 --> 00:08:21.118 it becomes really gray, 00:08:21.142 --> 00:08:23.193 you start to get sensory deprivation. 00:08:23.556 --> 00:08:28.437 It is very focused on who you are and what you are 00:08:28.461 --> 00:08:31.738 with this massive wilderness around you. 00:08:32.118 --> 00:08:33.269 It is empty. 00:08:33.293 --> 00:08:36.714 It is so big and so empty. 00:08:37.297 --> 00:08:40.155 You see albatrosses swirling around the boat. 00:08:40.179 --> 00:08:43.132 It takes about four days to sail through their territory, 00:08:43.156 --> 00:08:45.655 so you have the same albatross for four days. 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:47.394 And they find us quite a novelty, 00:08:47.418 --> 00:08:52.814 so they literally windsurf off the wind that comes off the mainsail 00:08:52.838 --> 00:08:55.624 and they hang behind the boat, 00:08:55.648 --> 00:08:57.514 and you feel this presence behind you, 00:08:57.538 --> 00:08:58.723 and you turn around, 00:08:58.747 --> 00:09:00.831 and it's this albatross just looking at you. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:00.855 --> 00:09:02.835 We sold Maiden at the end of the race -- 00:09:02.859 --> 00:09:04.229 we still had no money. 00:09:04.253 --> 00:09:06.301 And five years ago, we found her, 00:09:06.325 --> 00:09:08.904 at the same time as a film director decided 00:09:08.928 --> 00:09:11.745 he wanted to make a documentary about Maiden. 00:09:11.769 --> 00:09:12.920 We found Maiden, 00:09:12.944 --> 00:09:14.321 she burst back into my life 00:09:14.345 --> 00:09:17.663 and reminded me a lot of things I had forgotten, actually, 00:09:17.687 --> 00:09:18.983 over the years, 00:09:19.007 --> 00:09:21.635 about following my heart and my gut 00:09:21.659 --> 00:09:24.126 and really being part of the universe. 00:09:24.150 --> 00:09:28.249 And everything I find important in life, 00:09:28.273 --> 00:09:29.948 Maiden has given back to me. 00:09:29.972 --> 00:09:32.059 Again, we rescued her -- 00:09:32.083 --> 00:09:33.256 we did a Crowdfunder -- 00:09:33.280 --> 00:09:35.302 we rescued her from the Seychelles. 00:09:35.326 --> 00:09:37.634 Princess Haya, King Hussein's daughter, 00:09:37.658 --> 00:09:41.263 funded the shipping back to the UK and then the restoration. 00:09:41.287 --> 00:09:43.102 All the original crew were involved. 00:09:43.126 --> 00:09:45.074 We put the original team back together. 00:09:45.640 --> 00:09:48.438 And then we decided, what are we going to do with Maiden? 00:09:48.462 --> 00:09:51.216 And this, for me, really was the moment of my life 00:09:51.240 --> 00:09:54.336 where I looked back on every single thing that I'd done -- 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.502 every project, every feeling, 00:09:56.526 --> 00:09:59.550 every passion, every battle, every fight -- 00:09:59.574 --> 00:10:02.686 and I decided that I wanted Maiden to continue that fight 00:10:02.710 --> 00:10:04.229 for the next generation. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:04.253 --> 00:10:07.545 Maiden is sailing around the world on a five-year world tour. 00:10:07.569 --> 00:10:11.713 We are engaging with thousands of girls all over the world. 00:10:11.737 --> 00:10:16.308 We are supporting community programs that get girls into education. 00:10:16.332 --> 00:10:19.453 Education doesn't just mean sitting in a classroom. 00:10:19.477 --> 00:10:24.610 This, for me, is about teaching girls you don't have to look a certain way, 00:10:24.634 --> 00:10:27.023 you don't have to feel a certain way, 00:10:27.047 --> 00:10:28.930 you don't have to behave a certain way. 00:10:28.954 --> 00:10:30.153 You can be successful, 00:10:30.177 --> 00:10:31.426 you can follow your dreams 00:10:31.450 --> 00:10:32.967 and you can fight for them. 00:10:32.991 --> 00:10:34.690 Life doesn't go from A to B. 00:10:34.714 --> 00:10:35.872 It's messy. 00:10:35.896 --> 00:10:38.708 My life has been a mess from beginning to end, 00:10:38.732 --> 00:10:41.349 but somehow I've got to where we're going. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:41.373 --> 00:10:45.144 The future for us and Maiden looks amazing. 00:10:45.168 --> 00:10:46.796 And for me, 00:10:46.820 --> 00:10:48.981 it is all about closing the circle. 00:10:49.005 --> 00:10:51.524 It's about closing the circle with Maiden 00:10:51.548 --> 00:10:54.211 and using her to tell girls 00:10:54.235 --> 00:10:56.642 that if just one person believes in you, 00:10:56.666 --> 00:10:57.841 you can do anything.