Meet The All-Female Sailing Team Taking On The Ocean's Toughest Race

Every woman likes a fitness challenge, however large or small. Whether it’s a new gym class or signing up for a marathon… or risking your life to race a 65ft yacht around the world as part of an all-female crew.

Yep, that’s what we said. Sorry if we just threw your spin class achievement out of the window there. But that’s exactly what a group of 11 women will be doing this October. Yahoo met the SCA team at their Lanzarote base to find out how it’s done.

"There’ll be no difference between us all when we’re out at sea," is the retort from the only all-female sailing team taking part in this year's Volvo Ocean Race - the first women only outfit to set sail in this challenge since the race's 2001-02 season.

And we're backing them to win.

With 72 days and counting until the ‘off’ from Alicante, Spain, team SCA have been training intensely for months. They’ve been racing two boats against each other – one 65ft and the other 70ft.

And they’ve been in the gym most days, building up muscle for the grueling challenge of turning winches to lift a 100ft sail, and learning to sleep in four-hour shift patterns.

Now if you love being by the seaside you’ll probably be enticed. Sounds like a fun trip, right? Training to a physical peak then seeing the world via a round the world race with a bunch of like minded women?

Team member Dee Caffari says hold up there a minute. This is serious, professional stuff. “It is extremely challenging and hard-going and rough. Sailing in the sunshine here in Lanzarote in near perfect conditions, we all think it is wonderful, but we have to remember if something goes wrong, or in the depths of night in the Southern Ocean when the conditions get more extreme, that it is a whole different ball game.

"It is true, the bad stuff does not last forever, but physically it is demanding and mentally it is demanding and it is relentless.

"With technology now we can really take everyone on our journey and show the world what it is really like, and I think you need to see some of those bad bits to realise you are probably better off sailing in the sunshine!”

And what about being a ‘girl at sea’? It’s a catch-22 for these ladies. Because they’re flying the flag as an all-female crew, but that means talk always turns to beauty regimes on board.

You wouldn’t catch people asking the male crews how they’ll wash their hair.. but with the women, it always comes up.

For now, at least, Dee’s team mate Annie Lush says. “We stand out because we are all girls. But as we have said time and time again, we are doing the same job, sailing on the same boats, with the same weather in the same bits of ocean - so there really is no difference once we are out there.”

The team is lucky to have the support of their sponsor SCA hygiene - which has enabled them to set out on this year's race – making products including rather lady-specific Bodyform and Tena among others.

Find out more about their progress on their Facebook page or go to http://www.teamsca.com/

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