165 days at sea, no GPS: Quebecer joined international crew for global race

Catheryne Langford was at the start of a five-and-a-half month sailing voyage around the world when she spoke with her grandmother for the last time by satellite phone.

Her boat was taking on water and the line was fuzzy as Langford held the phone up in the air, trying to find a signal on deck.

"It was really chaotic," said Langford, who had been told her grandmother's health was rapidly declining and warranted an emergency call back home.

"I was calling on the phone, crying.… It was really like a movie scene."

About a month before, in September 2023, she had boarded a Swan 57 sailboat with 10 strangers to spend 165 days at sea with no technology or navigational guides as part of the inaugural Ocean Globe Race.

When she and her crew aboard the Explorer arrived at their first stop in Cape Town, South Africa, Langford received the news that her grandmother had died while she was at sea.

"I had to say goodbye to her by phone," said Langford. "My world on shore was falling apart."

After completing the journey around the world last month, Langford, who is from eastern Quebec's Magdalen Islands, says the race pushed her outside her comfort zone.

She was the only Canadian to join one of the teams of amateur sailors in the first edition of the global race.

Just over 200 people were selected out of thousands of applicants, says race founder Don McIntyre.

"The definition of adventure is any outcome with any activity with an unknown outcome. And that's something that is integral to the human spirit," said McIntyre.

"And now everyone's talking about it and there's a lot of interest in the next edition, which will be in 2027."

A lifelong sailor from Australia, in 2014, McIntyre had the idea to recreate the Golden Globe Race — the first solo non-stop race around the world.

McIntyre's concept included amateur crews of eight to 12 people, paper charts, sextants (navigational devices that require no electricity or GPS) — and no autopilot.