What?
I hear you ask. WWSA has been to uni?
No, not that type of degree. The navigational kind.
We know we have "l"attitude, well now we have longitude too!
But how does one obtain a degree of longitude?
Lisa Blair has been a key member of WWSA since the inaugural Women Who Sail Australia Gathering on the Bay (GOTB) in 2016. Lisa amazed us with her plans to sail solo around Antarctica the following year, the audience enthralled by her enthusiasm and energy.
By the time the 2017 GOTB rolled around, Lisa was deep in the Southern Ocean and most of us were glued to our computer screens awaiting daily updates on her progress. Lisa spoke to the 2017 Gathering attendees via Satellite phone – broadcast via microphone to the room. There was barely a dry eye as she chatted cheerily from those remote and frigid waters to us in balmy Port Stephens. Two days later we awoke to a phone call relaying the devastating news of her dismasting.
Those who know Lisa were not at all surprised that she managed to jury rig Climate Action Now
and get herself and her boat safely to Cape Town, South Africa, for repairs before completing her solo record-breaking circumnavigation.
The enormity of what Lisa experienced and accomplished during this time was evident when she showed us her video footage once back home. To many of us, Lisa’s dismasting and consequent handling of that situation cemented her reputation as one of the most capable sailors on the globe. All the more remarkable considering she is from a non-sailing background, grew up inland, and was once turned down for a deckhand position on a charter yacht in the Whitsundays!
Safely back in Australia, Lisa’s feet barely touched the dock before she embarked on an east coast speaking tour, prepared an all-women team to compete aboard Climate Change Now in the 2017 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Race, skippered the all-women team aboard Dove-Defi des filles in the exhausting six-day PONANT Groupama yacht race in New Caledonia, and set off on another record-breaking solo circumnavigation – this time nonstop around Australia.
Amongst all this, Lisa somehow found the time to write about her Southern Ocean experiences in her debut book Facing Fear.
She also found time to attend the 2018 and 2019 GOTB events at Port Stephens (and was on track for 2020/21 but of course the pandemic had other plans for us all).
Having heard Lisa speak on numerous occasions I know her story well, she is a remarkable woman, and it came as no surprise when she told me she was planning a second circumnavigation of Antarctica, determined to complete the journey non-stop and to break the speed record (which she was ahead of at the time of her dismasting in 2017) set in 2008 by Russian Fedor Konyukhov.
So where does a degree of longitude fit into this story?
Always thinking outside the box, Lisa came up with a novel way to raise funds for the upcoming circumnavigation. Sponsors can ‘purchase’ a degree of longitude!
WWSA members are always keen to support Lisa in any way we can, so we combined our pennies and bought a couple of degrees of longitude. As Lisa reaches our ‘degrees’ on her circumnavigation there will be much celebration!
If you’d like to read more about Lisa’s upcoming voyage and perhaps purchase a degree yourself (or encourage your local club to do so) go to Lisa’s webpage ‘Lisa Blair Sails the World’.
And be sure to snaffle a copy of her new book Facing Fear, available at good bookstores or from www.lisablairsailstheworld.com
PHOTO: Women Who Sail Australia 4th annual Gathering on the Bay (GOTB) at Port Stephens 2019. Lisa Blair front row.