Dougal Robertson

And I always remember...

My mother saying to Dougal, can we send up the rockets?

She meant the distress flares, you know.

And my dad said to her, don't be silly, Linda.

Only a fool would be out in weather like this.

Meaning to see the flares, you see.

Only a fool would be out at sea to see these flares.

But my mum turned it on him, please.

Like, who's the fools?

We're the ones who are out at sea in this weather, you know.

But we got used to it.

We did four on four off me and my dad.

So from being a farmer's son who had very little knowledge about boats and sailing, I was thrusting at the deep end and...

trying to steer this boat in extremely severe weather under sail, which is more difficult than motor, in an open cockpit.

And it was extremely rough.

It was a rough initiation that anybody could get, you know.

We wanted to come home.

By the time we got to Lisbon, 10 days later, we were coming back home.

We had had enough.

That Bay of Biscay was absolutely frightening for an inexperienced crew, you know.