Against the Flow

“Dee has inspired the imagination of a worldwide audience. She has joined only four men who have achieved this feat. Other women may follow, but she will always remain the first.”—Sir Chay Blyth

This is the inspirational story of an ordinary woman who gave up her career to learn how to sail and become the first woman to circumnavigate the world against the prevailing winds and currents.

Her story is an adventure in the true sense of the word. It is about physical hardship in terrible conditions, overcoming solitude, sleep deprivation, the worry of crucial equipment failing, thirty-four days of gales, twelve-meter waves, cyclones, and a lightning strike. It is also about a woman who stepped outside her safe zone and gave up a good job and financial security, all because she wanted to sail. She dared to dream, and her courage resulted in a place in the history books alongside a handful of men.

Includes a foreword by James Cracknell, the double Olympic Gold-winning rower.

After an early career as a high school physical education teacher, Dee Caffari realized that her destiny was a life on the water. She gave up her job and worked with Mike Golding Yacht Racing, completing a number of offshore races. During the 2004–2005 Global Challenge Race, Caffari successfully skippered eighteen amateur yachtsmen around the world. In the same 72-foot yacht, Aviva, she completed her record-breaking circumnavigation, finishing on May 18, 2006.