Katie McCabe round Britain

I had lived on a boat since I was two weeks old aboard Ros Allither, a 50ft fishing trawler my parents had spent five years converting and restoring.

I spent my first year and a bit sailing around the Caribbean and western Atlantic with my parents, hitting my first storm at five weeks old, on the way to Bermuda. Our 50ft trawler was almost completely underwater, and mum was thrown onto the deckhead, from the floor, while trying to change my nappy. I’d already sailed across the Atlantic by 16 months old, not that I remember it, of course! At 12, I bought my first boat, Falanda, which was practically love at first sight. I saw beyond the mouldy bilge water which rose over the berths, and almost up to the cockpit floor. She had been out of the water for almost 10 years, full of fresh water, so needed ‘a bit of TLC’ as dad commented.

Dad was the one who understood how much I wanted this boat, so after a brief inspection of the hull, I offered the owners £800. I then spent what felt like forever bailing out the disgusting bilge water, before she was launched, and towed 90 miles back to the River Exe.

After the haul-out, the winter of 2019 was spent working on Falanda, after school and at weekends, before she was launched again two days before the first UK lockdown. In the summer of 2020 I set off for my first single-handed sail in Falanda, accompanied by dad, in his new boat, Amaryllis, a 33ft classic yawl. As well as both looking amazing, the pair sailed perfectly together. Four weeks later, we’d safely reached the Isles of Scilly, and I was desperate to carry on sailing.

Solo challenge

My dream for as long as I can remember has been to sail across the Atlantic solo, and after four weeks of being alone at sea every day, I’d had a lot of time to ponder my options. It appeared that I could either set off immediately and hope for the best, or hang on for another four months until the season to cross the Atlantic arrived. Or of course, there was the Mini Transat, which I’d read about after a friend of my parents suggested it might be the perfect opportunity for me to start a sailing/racing career; it seemed the ultimate challenge.

At this point, however, mum said no, so I moved on to the next best thing; sailing single-handedly around Britain.

That winter, the rules regarding liveaboards on the Exe were tightened up, so my dad decided that after living on boats full time for the last 37 years, it was time to move ashore. If I hadn’t been determined enough already, it was probably this which pushed me to start my round Britain project for real, so after was sold, I focused on the tedious passage planning, and getting ready.