Pip’s team talk about supporting her incredible journey
Learnings from working with a solo sailor
Pip’s shore team since the start now includes technical director, Joff, communications director, Isla, campaign manager, Lou and social media manager, Hayley. In this latest blog they share what they’ve learned so far from working on the 2020 Vendee Globe campaign.
As the shore team for an offshore solo sailor, we’re used to working remotely and being separated by geography. We spent months preparing for Pip to sail from Les Sables d’Olonne and into the unknown, and like everyone else we’ve spent the best part of this year adapting to change and evolving with the times. But no matter how prepared we felt as a team, this campaign and this year as a whole has been full of twists and turns.
You can draw a lot of parallels between solo sailing and the world we find ourselves in today; its unpredictable nature, its constant sea of change, and persistent onslaught of things you can’t control. So we thought we’d take a moment to reflect on just some of the lessons we’ve learned so far:
Distance doesn’t have to mean distant
Pip’s always said: “there’s a big difference between being alone and feeling lonely” and that’s something we’ve all taken on board this year. Pip is thousands of miles away from us and as a team we’re separated too, all working in different parts of the country. But we’ve come to realise that physical distance doesn’t have to mean emotional distance.
We’ve used technology to support each other and we’re in regular contact with Pip. We have a WhatsApp group (all of the skippers have a WhatsApp group too so they can keep up to date with the fleet while at sea). It’s pretty incredible to think we can catch up with Pip while we’re sitting at home and she’s in the middle of the Southern Ocean battling the big breeze.
Tech has been invaluable this year in enabling us to stay in contact and give Pip a morale boost while she’s away; we regularly update her on the support from home and the messages she’s receiving and we’ve no doubt that is helping with the feeling of isolation solo sailing inevitably brings. It’s also helping us - it’s great to be able to jump on daily video calls with the shore team and see each other’s faces (even if it is on a screen).
It’s all about routine
While solo sailing is all about freedom and exploration and time takes on a completely different meaning, Pip still has a routine. It might look very different to ours and it could change at any given moment, but the daily routine of checklists, jobs etc. while at sea gives Pip structure and a focus. And that’s something we’ve tried to maintain on land too.
All of our usual routines have massively shifted and our homes have become the place where we not only sleep, eat and rest, but work, home school and exercise. And in many ways that mirrors Pip’s life at sea as her IMOCA 60 is her entire world for the next few months. So as a team we’ve tried our best to learn from that and each other, carving out daily routines, scheduling in meeting times and setting up specific working environments.
The storm will pass
Pip has experienced all sorts of weather while at sea - last week she faced the lowest pressure system of the race so far and has been battling big breeze in the Southern Ocean, but just a few days before that she was sailing down the coast of Brazil in the glorious sunshine with her inflatable parrot. Things can change so quickly and just like the weather, we’ve tried to remember that there are some things that are out of our control and remember Pip’s own words: “know that things will change, just keep moving forward.”
Do what makes you happy
Working with a solo sailor and seeing them do what they love every single day has inspired us all to do a little more of the things we love too. There’s no doubt that with recent lockdown announcements in the UK and travel restrictions in place across the world, the start of 2021 is going to be very difficult for all of us. But during the last year we’ve learnt to take each day as it comes and focus on the things that make us happy which include:
Pip: sailing!
Lou: road biking
Isla: running in nature
Hayley: paddleboarding
Joff: cycling