I spent my early childhood cruising with my family on the 42ft gaff cutter Mjojo, built in Lamu, Kenya by my father shortly after I was born. This boat was my home for the first seven years of my life as we sailed to South Africa, Brazil, and finally to Spain via the UK. My mother has since written a book about our adventures – The Ocean Voyager and Me.
The rest of my childhood was spent on the Mediterranean coast where I learned to sail, firstly in a dinghy my father built and then on the 27ft double-ender Racundra (built by Arthur Ransome) with my father.
I subsequently joined him on various trips (in the Caribbean and Eastern US) where he taught me celestial navigation. On returning to the UK, I spent a season teaching dinghy sailing on Wayfarers (Bradwell Sailing Centre in Essex) and then became joint owner of a 33ft Colin Archer replica, racing and cruising on the East coast before settling in Cornwall.
My sailing was put on hold when, in 1991, my husband and I co-founded the Penzance-based, Bash Street Theatre, an outdoor touring circus theatre company. So, for many years I was a performer (stiltwalking, juggling, acrobalance and unicycling) and co-director of the company, touring extensively to major festivals throughout Europe as well as in Turkey, Israel, Egypt, South Korea, Japan, and China. Apart from performing, my other responsibilities included financial management, strategic planning, fund raising, networking, marketing, social media and project management.
In 2013 (with a reluctant husband urged on by our two teenage sons) we bought a 35ft steel gaff cutter Island Swift and, with this blissfully naive crew, we set off the following year on a family sailing adventure which took us safely across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and back via the Azores. If you would like to read about our adventures, we wrote a Blog
This was the catalyst for me to run away from the circus and back to the sea. I have been working as a freelance skipper and instructor since 2020. I love teaching and inspiring others to go sailing and I am passionate about offshore sailing.
In 2016 I was awarded the OGA Cape Horn Trophy by Tom Cunliffe. Between 2020 and 2023 I was privileged to work with Sailing Tectona as Skipper of the 1909 Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter Olga (56ft LOD, 68ft LOA). In 2024 I started working with 59 North Sailing and skippered on their 65ft Far and 48ft Swan Isbjorn.