‘Damn it, I’ll have a go’: SA mum and athlete Katie Sarah on what pushes her to the edge – and beyond

She’s the only woman to have climbed the seven highest mountains and volcanoes on all seven continents. Now SA’s Katie Sarah has set course for a new challenge.

Katie Sarah is about to take on one of the biggest challenges of her life.

The 54-year-old Adelaide Hills mother of three is the only woman in the world to complete mountaineering’s rare feat of the Seven Seven – the highest mountains on all seven continents as well as the seven highest volcanic peaks.

For the last five years, Covid-19 and geopolitical tensions have dashed her hopes to ski to the North Pole, a trip that will see her clinch the coveted Explorer’s Grand Slam.

The Grand Slam is the world’s ultimate mountaineering challenge – the Seven Seven, plus expeditions to both Poles.

SA mountaineer Katie Sarah climbing Mount Everest.

But an unexpected phone call has changed Katie’s path, for now.

It came in 2020 from Adelaide businessman Campbell Mackie, asking her to join him and nine others in the Ocean Globe Race, an audacious around the world sailing event.

For someone who has spent much of her life as far from sea level as possible, it’s an ironic and intimidating mission.

Fifteen amateur teams will set sail from Southampton in the UK in early September and finish there in April next year.

There are no computers, no GPS and no hi-tech materials. It’s back to navigating by the stars and paper charts.

The race is a 27,000-mile sprint, spread across four legs, taking in the Southern Ocean and the three great capes – Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, Australia’s Cape Leeuwin and South America’s Cape Horn.

There are stopovers in Cape Town, Auckland and Punta del Este in Uruguay.

Sounds like fun? Think again.

Temperatures will be extreme and the capes are notorious for bad weather and high seas. The crew will have little sleep, sharing the watch shifts to look out for any signs of danger – other boats, oil tankers, whales and wild weather.

The Ocean Globe is less about big budget sailing and more about determination, resilience and pure grit.

The 2023 Ocean Globe Race route. Picture: Supplied

Katie Sarah isn’t an experienced sailor but there’s a reason she’s been invited on board – her extraordinary mental strength.

She likens the challenge to her first Everest bid in 2007.

“It’s quite a unique challenge for me personally with my lack of sailing skills and knowledge. It’ll certainly be up there with the biggest things I’ve done,” she says.

“It’s going to push me outside my comfort zone and not much does that.

“My preparation is just to learn as much as I can about sailing.”

Adelaide men Matt Sinnett-Jones and Mike Davey are on board too. The team calls itself the Spirit of Adelaide.

They’ll sail aboard a Baltic 55 they purchased two years ago, confident in her ability to carry them safely around the world.

“Her name is Outlaw, and she’s actually done this race before, 40 years ago, so she’s got a good history,” Katie says.

“The race takes us from Southampton underneath Africa and Australia, underneath South America and back up to the UK.

“The Southern Ocean will be really cold and it’ll be really hot at some point down the coast of Africa. If we get through the Doldrums, it’ll be very warm and very unpleasant below deck.

“I’m expecting the seas to be very big for me.”

Katie Sarah at the helm of “Outlaw” during a recent warm-up voyage. Picture: Supplied

Katie admits the thought of capsizing has been on her mind.

“I’m not terrified or nervous about it but it’s just one of those things that I’ve been working through,” she says.

“I’m by a long way the least experienced of the crew so (I’m) just making sure I know what to do when things go pear-shaped, or just keep out of the way.

“I’m OK with really unpleasant conditions and hard and different environments and just getting on with it. It’s that sort of mental approach of not falling apart. There’s no point in whingeing because there’s no alternative.”

So, why put yourself through the mental and physical pain of a challenge so uncomfortable and risky?

Katie is unapologetic about being forever curious.

“It’s all around the challenge of seeing what I’m capable of doing, how far I can push my body and my mind” she says.

“I just love learning something new and as I get older, I think, in 20 years, will I look back and think ‘I could have done that? I wish I’d done that’.”

She’s known for being obsessive about training. At the Adelaide Hills property she shares with husband Tim, she’s regularly seen pulling a set of heavy steel harrows attached to her back.

In the lead-up to the race, she’s doing 90 minutes of cardio a day including running, cycling and horse riding. She walks on the Heysen Trail and lifts weights at least twice a week.

Katie Sarah training on her Adelaide Hills property. Picture: Supplied

The gruelling regime prepared her well for a recent “warm up” 4000 nautical mile trip across the northern Atlantic.

The crew of eight men and three women from around the world delivered Outlaw to Southampton ready to set sail.

The conditions were more challenging than they expected.

“We had some big winds and some big seas which certainly knocked a few of the crew for six with sea sickness,” Katie says.

“It was a big swell and we were going into the wind which means you’re bashing into the waves.

“The middle of the Atlantic was never going to be champagne and canapes and I’m expecting way, way, way worse in the Ocean Globe.”

Along with others, Katie took the steering role on the recent trip.

Her petite five foot nothing frame is almost lost behind the giant helm. She was exhausted but remained forensically focused.

“Helming was the big one and a new one for me,” she says.

“I’m focusing on the compass and instruments plus what the sails are looking like … to avoid accidental jibe or crash tack.

“I was trying to tackle each wave at the best possible angle to avoid smashing down the other side, which is not only uncomfortable for those on board but also not good for the boat.

“I was learning and coping in some decent seas, just trying to push myself and work out the best way to steer the boat and not mess it up.”

The yacht Outlaw. Picture: Supplied

Katie Sarah at the helm of “Outlaw”. Picture: Supplied

She was also in charge of victualling, planning and buying all the meals for the trip.

Muesli and porridge, fresh cornbread, spaghetti Bolognese, even beef bourguignon were served up from the tiny galley.

Mountaineering expeditions have taught Katie just how important nutrition is for both fuel and morale. She excelled and has the job again for the big Ocean Globe race.

And she’s steeling herself once again to survive on minimal sleep.

“If you’re not on watch, you sleep, but you’re only getting three hours at a time at night by the time you’ve got yourself out of your wet weather gear and crawled up into the cot,” she says.

“The intention is you don’t put the anchor down and stop. You’re sailing the whole time.”

There will be glimpses of pleasure on the trip.

“The moments when you’re sitting on the boat in the middle of the day and the weather’s nice – it’s stunning,” she says.

“I do love being in places where you don’t have city and people everywhere. It’s an amazing place to be.”

Her husband Tim, a “water boy” who loves sailing and surfing, will be at the starting line in September and at the end of the first leg in Cape Town.

Katie says while their boys, Angus, 28, Ben, 26, and Will, 25, find her latest challenge “quite hilarious”, they understand its significance.

“They’re used to me doing crazy stuff. I provide them with quite a lot of amusement,” she says.

“I hope just quietly that they are proud of what I do.”

She hopes her bold seafaring mission will inspire other women too.

“I would love it if I could change some women’s mindset to think ‘I’d love to do that. Damn it, I’ll have a go’,” she says.

“To change that mindset from ‘I couldn’t possibly’ to ‘I’ll try’ and to accept that not achieving it doesn’t have to be failure.”

Katie Sarah isn’t done with mountaineering. Not even close.

“I’m certainly enjoying the sailing and will keep it up but there’s definitely still another couple of mountains and land-based expeditions that I want to do,” she says.

It’s no coincidence that the best nautical athletes are often compared to mountain climbers, because they depend on the weather, their technical knowledge and ability to adapt.

Katie Sarah is a woman of endurance and survival. An incredible South Australian showing us there’s always a way through to outlast the storms.

Go well, Katie and the Spirit of Adelaide. Godspeed.