Thursday 24 July 2014

The Colour Collaborative: July: Sail

With sailing we're back to the cool colours that I love so much.  Every shade of grey, muted blues, flashes of white.  It's no surprise that people go to stare at the sea on their holidays.  The distant horizon, the soothing colours, the slow pulsing of waves on the beach, it's all designed to drop your blood pressure way down low.


I'm no sailor, but I'm guessing that sailing can raise it way back up again.  Crashing through big seas, skimming white-topped waves, leaning into the wind and holding on for dear life - it's got to be exhilarating don't you think?  The ocean is seductive, calm and hypnotic at times, but turning angry and dangerous in the changing of a wind.  I suspect it's addictive, sailing.  Always different.  Always exciting.  And a million miles away from the cares and stresses of life on land.


But something else I know.  It's expensive.  I've heard it compared to ripping up fifty pound notes while standing in a cold shower.  These kinds of boat are surely just for the wealthy.



Sailing isn't a pastime for ordinary people.  You couldn't save up your dinner money and buy yourself a boat or anything.  Except, well, if you were very determined, maybe you could.

Stock photo
This is Dame Ellen MacArthur.  Her parents were teachers and she grew up in landlocked Derbyshire, but a combination of factors, including a holiday with an aunt on the coast and the reading of the Swallows and Amazons books, meant that she fell in love with sailing at a young age.


To buy her first boat, an eight-foot dinghy, she saved her dinner money for three whole years.  She'd take a little food from home, an apple from the fruit tree, and every single day she'd save the money for her meal, until at last she had enough for a boat of her own.  Amazing no?

She spent hours at libraries reading everything she could about sailing.  She worked at a sailing school whilst still in education, and by the age of 17 she had bought a bigger boat.  She passed her Yachtmaster qualifications with the highest possible marks, and at age 18 was awarded Young Sailor of the Year.  And she set sail on her new boat, the Iduna, spending four and a half months alone sailing around the British Isles.  After waving her parents and siblings goodbye, she was truly alone, coping with every problem and difficult decision without help.  In her own words, she left the harbour a shy girl and returned a young woman who was learning how to handle being alone, how to deal with fatigue and stress and how to make life and death decisions.

In an attempt to take her dream to the next level, she wrote 2,500 letters to potential sponsors.  Only two even replied.  She persevered, living in a Portakabin with just £10 a week for food.  She had found a business partner, although in her autobiography, "Full Circle" she says, "We had nothing bar enthusiasm and the most intense ambition..."

A surprise legacy from her nan enabled her to enter a transatlantic race, in a boat chartered at the last minute.  She won her class, and her victory at just 22 years old persuaded Kingfisher plc to sponsor her entry in the Vendee Globe, a single-handed round-the-world race, sailed not only alone but without assistance.  She came second.  Those who had thought her previous triumphs were just luck were forced to take her seriously.

In November 2004, aged 28, she set sail from Falmouth in an attempt to break the world record for single-handedly sailing around the world, a distance of some 27,000 miles.  The record had only recently been set, in a bigger, faster boat, and was considered unassailable.


Ellen MacArthur spent seventy-one days alone, enduring everything the oceans had to throw at her.  She slept little, and for no more than twenty minutes at a time.  Her mental toughness has always amazed and inspired me.  I can't imagine what she went through on the voyage.  While there were highs, and records along the way for the fastest speed times to the equator, the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, Cape Horn and back to the equator, there were lows as well.  In the Southern Ocean, the waves can be as high as five- or six-storey buildings.  She was on a multi-hulled boat, a dangerous proposition in such huge waters and when faced with icebergs and gale force winds.  She knew full well there was a risk of death.  Her exhaustion was obvious in her video diaries.  She badly burned her arm while changing generators and suffered injury scaling the mast to carry out repairs.  The loneliness is something very few people could cope with, let alone keep functioning through to achieve something so momentous.  The colours of the oceans and the heavens must have been burned into her brain by the end.  Every soft shade of grey and all of the dark purple slate colours of storm clouds.  Hour after hour spent gazing at the sea and the sky.  I imagine that days went by when all she saw was a monochrome palette.  And I can picture the gift of a beautiful pink and orange sunrise after a black night of sleepless exhaustion.

When she returned to Falmouth, 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds after she set sail, the record was hers.  Later that year she became the youngest person to be awarded Dame Commander of the British Empire.

Hers is a story that I love to hear.  There was nothing in her background to give her an easy passage into the exclusive world of competitive sailing.  She overcame impossible odds, she persevered and she never, ever gave up.  Her attention to detail was meticulous.  She was always the best that she could be.  She is for me one of the most inspirational people in the world.  I draw on stories like hers when I need strength.  I can't imagine that she would hesitate when it comes to a dream.  Problems are there to be overcome.  There is always a way forward.

It seems to me that to succeed, maybe your enthusiasm and ambition just need to burn brightly enough.  Start small.  Keep pushing.  And the world can be your oyster.


To visit the other Colour Collaborative blogs for more of this month's posts just click on the links below: 

       Annie at Annie Cholewa                                        Gillian at Tales from a Happy House

       Sandra at Cherry Heart                                         Jennifer at Thistlebear

       And July's guest poster, Leanne at Today's Stuff

What is the Colour Collaborative?

All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways."

28 comments:

  1. What a wonderful, inspiring post! I agree, Dame Ellen is phenomenal, a true role model.

    I grew up in a sailing community and we weren't rich. It's not always a sport for the wealthy (although it often is) and there are lots of ordinary people sailing modest boats just because they really enjoy being out on the water. It's like caravanning, but they float - that's what I'd tell my uni friends who teased me for being a posh southerner... :-)

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    1. I'm starting to feel the pull of it all, I must admit. My other half has a hankering for a bit of sailing as well I think. One day...

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  2. An amazing story isn't it? I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like as I am terrified going on the Isle of Wight ferry and hold on tight for the hour or so it akes to get there!!

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  3. Hey CJ,
    What an inspiring woman. We have a sailing boat. That is we have a quarter of a sailing boat. We bought a share in one when we moved to St Ives. I have to admit that it is only Marc that uses it. The older boys have said that Dad "is mean in the boat" which I think is code for them not liking being told what to do. I have sat on the shore and watched the boat go out and race on Saturdays and Wednesdays, wishing I could go too. But there has always been a baby or a small child to look after. We also have a tiny fishing dingy. that we own with three other people. It cost us £100, so you can guess how humble it is. At the weekend we took Olly out in it for the first time. He even took charge of steering! I loved every minute of it, and didn't want to come back into shore. It is a lovely feeling. I loved this post, CJ. Thank you.
    Leanne xx

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  4. An amazing woman, I grew up adoring Arthur Ransome books, their line drawings and maps and charts. My heroine was Clare Francis...and I raced dinghies. back in the 70s and 80s there was no youth schemes. I was lucky as my parents sailed too. Only ever little dinghies! I loved competing on an even par, and beating, the boys! Keep us updated :D

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  5. Lovely post CJ, I remember following the news reports of Ellen and thinking at the time how amazing she was. As for sailing ... Oh Yes its stressful .. when either your Dad, your husband or your brothers are yelling at you to 'mind your head', 'get out on the trapeze', 'mainsail up' ... oh happy times !
    I think you're right about the sea colours and the motion of the water being calming , maybe tha'ts why so many people feel the pull to the sea once retired.
    Have a good weekend,
    Kate x

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  6. What a wonderful post, you have inspired me to go and read more about Dame Ellen MacArthur. I remember being introduced to sailing as a guide and loving it but never wanting to take it further not quite sure why. I went on a sailing trip for my last significant birthday we and a group of friends chartered a boat and sailed it round Aran it was wonderful, would love to do it again. This wad a lovely read, thank you so much for sharing :)

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  7. I loved this post CJ, such an inspirational story beautifully told. My parents were not well off but loved sailing a small dingy on the lakes and coast before they had children. It's a shame they didn't have the opportunity to introduce my brother and I to this pastime.
    Have you seen this very pretty and frugal boat story....no sail but I loved it......http://www.junkaholique.com/2014/06/sprout.html

    Jacquie x

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    1. What a lovely post, they've made such a beautiful job of their little boat, I love stories like this. Thanks for sharing it. CJ xx

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  8. A truly inspiring story. I'm not that keen on boats, I prefer to keep my feet on land as I don't really have sea legs, though we did have a holiday on the Norfolk Broads one year.

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  9. This is such an inspiring post! You are right, start small, work up. I will try and remember that. xx

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  10. Oh, thank you for this fabulous post. What a woman! Your writing here is beautiful.
    I grew up on an island and the sea was never far out of sight. My daddy fished and I was on a boat a few times, but never really felt the pull for sailing. I did love being in the water, swimming and paddling around, tho.

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  11. That is one very determined lady!!! But, when you love something with all your heart, the sacrifices are worth it.

    Now I just have to figure out what I "love with all my heart" and get to it, right?

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  12. A really interesting post ,she is certainly one determined woman. This is such a beautiful piece of writing you should be very proud.

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  13. Another most enjoyable, and interesting, post.
    I had a friend who was into sailing in a big way who started out on Mirror dinghies at the local lido and ended up sailing round the world more than once.
    I have the greatest admiration for people like Ellen MacArthur who are such inspirational role models. Flighty xx

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  14. I'd never heard of Ellen MacArthur before, but what an interesting, courageous woman she is! I really enjoyed reading her story. Thank you for sharing. I have spent very little time on the water but I have always felt a bit nervous about it. It's in my blood, I think, since one of my grandfathers was in the navy and the other the Coast Guard, but I didn't get the gene. :)

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  15. Brilliant post Claire and beautifully written, and oh how I agree about the incredible, inspirational Ellen MacArthur. And of course now the work the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and Ellen MacArthur Foundation does is extending her amazing legacy.

    I am now convinced we will be reading about your sailing exploits sometime soon!

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  16. We had a very rough crossing one year from St Malo to Portsmouth. I'll leave the sailing to someone who enjoys that sort of thing!

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  17. Isn't it a good job that neither Martyn nor I like being on the watert?

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  18. Oh my.. I was rapt reading this post! I was also inspired by a girl who sailed around the world.. her book is called "Maiden Voyage" by Tania Aebi. She was 18. I also read "Dove" by a 16 year old boy who circumnavigated alone, by Robin L. Graham. I am going to see if your book is in the Apple Store online. I can so relate to the call of the sea - we had a 26 foot sailboat for years and sailed in the Pacific ocean and the Columbia River. We still have 2 14 foot Sunfish sailboats which we'll be sailing in a few weeks on Waldo Lake. You wrote an evocative and wonderful post. Love love. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  19. Wow. This was beautifully written. Thank you for sharing this amazing story!

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  20. Thanks for another lovely post, CJ. I am not a boating person, easily seasick and I find those big waves just plain scary. But I love to be at the seaside on a calmer day: the colours, smells and sounds are wonderfully soothing - an ideal place to dream. It would not necessarily get me to achieve my dreams, but most of the time it is enough to just enjoy dreaming them ;-)

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  21. This was an absolute joy to read, CJ, it brought back the awe and excitement I felt when Dame Ellen was making that amazing voyage. And to add the colours of the sea and sky that surrounded her on that journey, well, it just adds a new dimension to my thoughts about the entire event, thank you so much! Chrissie x

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  22. Gosh did this just inspire me!!!! Her story is fascinating!!! And your photos are gorgeous! This came at the perfect time as I needed a bit of inspiration today! Nicole xo

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  23. What a great post CJ, you write so well. Dame Ellen's achievement was phenomenal and she is a truly inspirational lady - I love (true) stories of triumph over adversity. Lovely photos of calm seas. Have a great weekend.
    Jane x

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  24. Wow, what an amazing story, I really knew so little of if before now and it is certainly inspirational and a reminder to never give up.

    S x

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  25. A really amazing post. I barely knew anything about her :). I love everyone's different interpretations of the prompt. You write so well CJ.

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