PHOTO CREDIT: Corrina Ridgeway.
Lisa Blair’s 2022 Antarctic Cup Challenge Women supporting women in sailing By Shelley Wright. A balmy, northwest breeze filled the sails as we ghosted gently across the bay one morning in February. A perfect morning to introduce two teenage girls from the Australian outback to sailing. It’s days like this I find it hard to believe I’m paid to be on the water. On the other side of the continent, nearly 4,000 kilometres away, solo sailor Lisa Blair was undertaking last minute preparations for a very different type of sailing – heading deep into the Southern Ocean to complete a second solo circumnavigation of Antarctica.
As the girls on board our morning harbour sail each took the helm, I told them about Lisa. Completing a solo circumnavigation of Antarctica in 2017 (with one stop after being dismasted 900 nm south of Cape Town) and being the first woman to do so, is an impressive record. However, Lisa Blair has unfinished business. The elusive ‘non-stop’ record for a solo woman circumnavigating Antarctica is still calling. Lisa also has her eye on Russian Fedor Konyukhov’s record of 102 days to become the fastest person to sail solo around Antarctica, below 45 degrees south, as part of the Antarctic Cup. SisterShip 12
