Dubai's Captain Patricia Caswell : The woman who sails around the world.

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00:00So I was fortunate enough to sail around there for a few years.

00:06It's also where I did my first offshore trip.

00:08The company I worked for bought a boat and it was in Spain.

00:12So we got to sail it all the way from Spain through Panama and across to Australia.

00:17So that was like my first taste of ocean sailing, you know, out in the big wide world.

00:22And by then I was fully hooked.

00:24Then I was like, this is for me.

00:30It was all a bit of an accident.

00:34When I finished high school, I went up to the Whitsundays.

00:39And my mother was kind enough to send me out on a big sailing boat for a day for a cruise.

00:44Just so I could see the islands and see the reef.

00:47And I kind of just fell in love with it that day.

00:50And I didn't really know what I was going to do after high school.

00:53And I searched around and a couple of weeks later I got a job on a boat.

00:58So I started just working as a stewardess and on deck.

01:04Even got seasick my first week.

01:06After that it just sort of evolved.

01:08I realised I wanted to be out on deck with the boys.

01:11That was where it was more interesting.

01:13And so I started working away through my sea time and enjoying the cruising.

01:19By 21 I managed to get my first captain's licence.

01:24So I was driving old America's Cup racing boats and maxi sailing boats.

01:30So I was fortunate enough to sail around there for a few years.

01:36Even, it's also where I did my first offshore trip.

01:39I did a, the company I worked for bought a boat and it was in Spain.

01:43So we got to sail it all the way from Spain through Panama and across to Australia.

01:48So that was like my first taste of ocean sailing, you know, out in the big wide world.

01:52And by then I was fully hooked.

01:55Then I was like, this is, this is for me.

01:57And some of my, some of my colleagues had sort of left the sailing fraternity by then.

02:03And they'd moved overseas to super yachts.

02:06And for sure this was a way for me to learn to travel and to get around the world and do what I love.

02:15So that's when I crossed to the dark side, we call it.

02:17It's when I went from sailboats to motorboats.

02:19And I, I came to Europe.

02:22I got a job on a, on a 36 meter motor yacht, which was absolutely amazing.

02:30I got to travel the world for three and a half years to some very, very cool places.

02:34But that allowed me to save my money, go to school.

02:38Every holidays I would go to a maritime college in England and keep studying for my next licenses.

02:44You know, you have to keep going to sea, going to college, going to sea, going to college.

02:49So I spent, I spent my years in going through and doing my international licenses and coming up.

02:55And by 30, I managed to get my Master 3000 license.

02:59So that was my, my step to being able to move as a captain on, on the big white boats.

03:05And, and, uh, that was sort of the transition really.

03:10And then, uh, four years ago, I met the golf craft team.

03:14And that's when I really sort of transitioned into more full-time land base.

03:19It's, it's where I got to experience going home every night, felt like semi-retirement doing

03:24a five-day week.

03:26It was a new thing for me, but then I was able to, um, to still do yachts.

03:32You know, I still sea trial, do deliveries.

03:35We do trips like I just did to Qatar and, and, and so on.

03:38And now 29 years I've been at sea and it's just, it's just part of your soul.

03:43You know, it's just, it's just in there.

03:45But I love, I love the lifestyle of it.

03:49I love when people, when people get their first yacht, it's actually, or even a new yacht.

03:54It's one of the coolest days.

03:56It's where you get to see even the most scrupulous person melt and just become the happiest person

04:02in the world because they've just got their new, their new yacht, their new, uh, you know,

04:07lifestyle and a home on the water.

04:10It's, it's one of the coolest parts about it actually.

04:12Back in the day, I, there certainly wasn't many, uh, women docking the boats, uh, in,

04:17in the different ports when we would pull in.

04:20Um, but there has been a really nice change.

04:22So it, it was a little bit tough in the beginning and you got a lot of side looks.

04:26Uh, it was also, it was a bit tough in the beginning for, for owners to be accepting

04:31to have female captains on their yachts, but now it's a lot more generalised.

04:36There's certainly a lot more women in the industry.

04:38Um, you know, we work hard through the different forums and the different groups in the industry

04:44to support all of the, the junior generations coming up, whether it be on deck, whether it

04:49be engineering, just all across the industry.

04:52It's, uh, we're working very hard to, to keep pushing it.

04:56The numbers are there now and it's starting, starting just to become normal.

04:59It's no longer, uh, a, a difference.

05:02Some of the challenges, like in the very beginning, it's, it was, uh, you know, a bit of, you're

05:06not strong enough to be able to do the physical labour out on deck, you know, to carry the

05:11ropes and to do all that sort of thing, especially sailing, you know, uh, luckily I was a bit

05:16of a tomboy.

05:17But, um, you know, a lot of it is about technique.

05:20It's about how you do it.

05:21If we're, if we're sailing, it's actually about how you pull the sails up, the technique

05:26of lifting things, using pulleys and, and different systems.

05:30It's not that I just need to have these big, huge muscles to lug things around, there's

05:34always a way, right?

05:36So teaching that and learning that and, and, um, working with that as you go, you, you realise

05:43that it's, it's just not about brute strength.

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