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Outside Magazine November 2001
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She Rules the Waves (Cont'd.)

By Tim Zimmermann


O: Did it intimidate you that during the 1996-1997 Vendée Globe one sailor died and three had to be rescued?
MacArthur: "Intimidate" is not the right word. It made me more aware. It makes you realize that you can never beat the ocean. You don't go out there to do battle with the ocean. You go out there to sail with it and survive on it.

O: What's the most dangerous moment you've ever had on a boat?
MacArthur: During the Vendée, near the doldrums. I was up the mast trying to fix the wind instruments, which had failed for a second time. The boat was on autopilot, steering by compass, when the wind suddenly changed directions in a squall. The boat started to jibe back and forth with me pinned way up the masthead. I got bruised and battered up there. I didn't have time to be scared, but it certainly made me shake when I finally got down to the deck.

O: What was the toughest part of the Vendée globe?
MacArthur: The hardest moment for me was getting off the boat at the finish line. I looked after Kingfisher all that time. Every time something broke or went wrong, I would be there. That I was standing there on the finish line was living evidence she did a damn good job looking after me too.

O: During the race, you took 891 naps, and never slept more than three hours at a stretch. Did you ever get so tired that you simply couldn't function?
MacArthur: Toward the end I was very fatigued, and this took its toll. But for most of the race it's OK to sleep like this, mostly in 20-minute snatches. When you have problems, you find big reserves. It's afterward you realize how exhausted you are.

O: You ran into a whale in a transatlantic race. In the Vendée, you woke up to find Kingfisher barely clearing an iceberg, and then hit a submerged object, which tore off one of your daggerboards. Don't you get nightmares?
MacArthur: When I first hit what I now think was a container, the noise was gut-wrenching. I thought the bottom of the boat was gone. But if you worry about these things all the time, you'll never get round.

O: You sound pretty unflappable. Do you consider yourself a tough person?
MacArthur: I'm quite tough. But I can also be quite sensitive. You can be sensitive in some areas and tough in others. I'm not somebody who gives up.

O: The Southern Ocean has taken on a mythic aura. Sailors get thrilled, and killed, there. What was it like for you?
MacArthur: It's so pure and clean and wild. Going to the Southern Ocean is like standing in the middle of a desert. You are thousands of miles from anywhere, and you feel very priveleged to be there. It's a big thing just to get there.

O: It must get pretty lonely, with only the albatross for company. Did you talk to them
MacArthur: Anyone would do that down there. Anyone.

O: Sailors are notoriously superstitious. Some whistle for wind, and then there are rabbits, any mention of which is thought to bring on big storms. Are you superstitious?
MacArthur: I would never use the word about the animal with the long ears on board. In fact, if I ever saw it in a book, or anyone said it during a race, I would have to go straight to the mast and scratch it.

O: There is an all-woman team racing around the world in this year's Volvo Ocean Race. Is that something that interests you as a way to draw women into the sport?
MacArthur: It's amazing to be able to inspire people. I love that. But I wouldn't have a women's team; I would have a team. The world's made up of 50 percent women and 50 percent blokes. I'm not out there wave a women's flag. I'm not saying, "Women can go and do this." If you really want to do it you can go and do it. It doesn't matter what sex you are.

O: You did a great job e-mailing from the boat. Did you find the ability to be in constant contact with the world a burden?
MacArthur: It has always been a big objective for our project to use technology to share this story with as many people as we could. I also felt that communicating let some of the stress out, even if I was pouring out my soul in front of millions of people. One day maybe I'll set off alone with no communications just to sail around.

O: How does it feel to be famous, to be known by your first name, like Madonna?
MacArthur: Being in the Channel and seeing 250,000 people screaming your name at the finish line is pretty amazing. I was standing on the foredeck waving to these people, feeling like Ellen was standing behind me. You think, What have I done to deserve this?

O: Are you keen to go back and win the Vendée globe?
MacArthur: Yeah. But it's not time yet to make that decision. It's a big thing to do the Vendé, and the past few years have been completely crazy.

O: Do you ever get any time to yourself these days?
MacArthur: Not since the Vendé. To finish that race, everything has to go into it. Everything. You draw all your resources, and when you cross that finish line it's like someone pulls the plug out. The release and relief is massive. Because it's over. It's all over. But actually, it's just the start.
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