WORKING as a guidance counsellor Fiona Christie is used to supporting students as they navigate their way through life’s journey. However, the Ennis woman took on a navigation of a very different kind recently when she set sail across the Atlantic ocean.

A keen sailor Fiona had long hoped to take part in the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) race from Gran Canaria to St Lucia, however with work keeping her busy she didn’t have the time.

Finding herself between positions last August she decided to listen to that little voice inside her telling her to go for it, and she is delighted she did.

Now returned from her travels and working with students in St Caimin’s Community School in Shannon, Fiona tells us, “I always thought I’d love to do the race some day, but being a guidance counsellor in a secondary school I was always working in November when the race is on. It was something I thought I might do once I retire, but then the opportunity came up. In hindsight I’m really pleased I did it now while I’m reasonably fit and healthy because it was a tough race.”

Get a flavour of what the race is about here

She continues, “I’m glad I listened to myself, because sometimes we do not heed what our conscience is saying to us. It’s a huge personal achievement for me to do this transatlantic crossing. I’m an only child who grew up playing with my Sindys and I only came to this sport later in life, nobody is as surprised as I am that I completed this.

“As a guidance counsellor I talk to students about resilience and problem solving and how to navigate yourself out of difficult situations. I tell my students to listen to their inner voice all the time, so I had to practice what I preach. Some people thought I was bonkers to do this and couldn’t understand why I wanted to do it, but I did and it has been very good for me and I feel proud and pleased to have taken part.”

Having decided in August to take the plunge and take part in the race, Fiona found a place on a 12-person crew with Sail Racing Academy, a non-profit organisation that makes sailing accessible and affordable for people. “I pretty much signed on the dotted line there and then,” she recalls.

She joined her crew-mates in Gran Canaria in November where they spent a week prepping and training ahead of the 2,700 nautical mile journey. This was the 36th year of the ARC race, with 200 boats and 1,800 sailors taking part from all over the world.

They set sail on November 21, taking a northerly route, with one of the last things they saw of land the volcanic eruptions on the Canary Islands.

“That was the last of light and life that we saw. When we couldn’t see the embers anymore, we had gone 600 nautical miles off shore, then we were on our own. We were out of range of rescue services and lost signal on our phones. That was pretty moving and poignant. As someone said to me, there’s no-one coming to rescue you at that stage. In fact, there was a noticeable absence of other vessels for the whole of the race. We only saw one cruise ship, the Norwegian Dawn, but other than that we didn’t see any other boats. It was surreal.”

The crew settled into a ‘watch pattern’, with teams taking three and four hour shifts manning the boat while the others rested. “It took a few days to settle into that, it was very difficult at the beginning to be called at three in the morning for your watch.

“We adjusted to life at 45 degrees, because the one thing that a boat isn’t is flat. It’s like being on a roller-coaster with the boat heeling over at all times. That makes even the smallest of activities really difficult, like, trying to get into your pyjamas. I had wonderful aspirations of getting into my pyjamas for every sleep, but that didn’t happen because you were trying to get out of your sailing gear and life-jacket. You only had three hours of sleep at a time so I fell asleep with all my gear on on many an occasion, life jacket and all. But that was all part of the journey.”

Every crew member also had the opportunity to be ‘chef de jour’ with the added bonus of working from 6am to 6pm, meaning a full night’s rest.

“For my chef de jour I made pancakes, which was internationally welcomed. It was very difficult though because you’d hit a rogue wave and all the pancake mix would go flying all over the galley,” she laughs.

Life on board was “anything but glamourous”, with the crew ‘hot-bunking’ between watches and using sea water to wash in a bucket.

“We had three rules on the boat. The first, stay on the boat. Number two, don’t break the boat. And number three, don’t break the bucket. We only had the one and we were washing the dishes and ourselves in salty water. I didn’t wash my hair for 21 days, but when we had rain we took the opportunity to wash in the fresh water with soap. We actually needed three buckets but we set sail with just one. It was testing not having a shower, and I definitely appreciate running water and fresh water.”

Despite this, she describes the experience of being out at sea as “incredibly joyful”.

“There was a real wow factor about the whole thing from beginning to end. We were really a guest of Mother Nature and she was calling the shots. It was amazing to be out and up close and personal. I saw beautiful sun sets and sun rises, shooting stars, phosphorescence, the live volcano, pilot whales and dolphins, double rainbows.

“On November 25 we celebrated Thanksgiving as there were two Americans on board and it was as if Mother Nature knew. The whole horizon lit up with fork lightening for maybe tow hours, it’s was like our own fireworks display, it was mesmeric and breath-taking.”

Though beautiful, the sea is also a dangerous place with Fiona and the crew experiencing a number of “unnerving” moments during squalls.

“A squall is like a little storm pocket, travelling faster than the boat. During the day you can usually see it coming and prepare, but sometimes it would appear at night-time and the winds make the boat very, very difficult to handle. A couple of times the boat became overpowered and it was quite scary.”

Some 18 days, 22 hours, one minute and 24 seconds after setting off from Gran Canaria, the crew arrived in Rodney Bay, St Lucia. Before sighting land they spied a frigate bird and knew they were close.

“There was such excitement when we saw the bird, we knew there was hope. I was reminded of the Emily Dickinson poem ‘Hope is a thing with feathers’. It was wonderful to see land. We were really sleep deprived when we arrived, and we slept for about three days.”

While the crew of Fiona’s boat finished the journey safely, not everyone who took part in the race were as fortunate. A member of a three man French crew lost his life on board a yacht.

“It was shocking, a cloud descended on the ARC this year with the first death during the race ever. We had a minutes silence during the awards ceremony and it was an emotional close to the ceremony.”

The tragedy has underpinned to her just how fortunate she and the rest of her crew-mates were. Though she doesn’t have immediate plans to take on a similar challenge in the future, Fiona hasn’t ruled it out.

“I’m going to stay on terra firma for now, I consider myself very lucky that I came back safe and well and I made wonderful friends and learned loads and had a wonderful experience. I knew every moment of this that it was an amazing experience. I reminded myself of that when I was getting up at 3am that this was a once in a life-time opportunity and I was very, very lucky,” she says.

“Who knows I may do it again, and I’ll know what to look out for next time and I’ll definitely have three buckets,” she laughs.