South Australian adventurer Katie Sarah finishes Ocean Globe sailing race with crew on-board ‘Outlaw’

Just in case South Australia’s own Katie Sarah hadn’t ticked enough things off an adventurer’s ultimate bucket list, she’s completed another wild feat.

Adelaide adventurer Katie Sarah has completed another gruelling feat – this time the audacious around the world Ocean Globe sailing race.

The gutsy Adelaide Hills mother of three arrived in Cowes, Isle of Wight, in the UK overnight after completing a 27,000 mile sprint in extreme conditions, across four legs.

The race took 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, with stopovers in Cape Town, Auckland and Punta del Este in Uruguay.

Adelaide’s Katie Sarah at the helm of ‘Outlaw’. Picture: Supplied

Katie and her crew, named the Spirit of Adelaide, were aboard “Outlaw”, a Baltic 55 they purchased three years ago.

She says she’s ecstatic to have safely completed the circumnavigation.

“I’m sooo excited and relieved to have finished,” she says.

“I actually still cannot believe I said ‘yes’ to doing it, let alone having now successfully and safely finished a circumnavigation of the world around three capes including Cape Horn, the sailors’ Everest.

The map of the 2023 Ocean Globe Race. Picture: Supplied

“I’m now lining up for my second long shower because I can. Forty-four days without showering so I am making the most of it.”

The 55-year-old 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.

She says one of the major challenges in the Ocean Globe race was going so long without exercise.

“I have now lost a lot of fitness and strength so looking forward to getting home and starting work on regaining it all,” she says.

Katie wasn’t an experienced sailor when she took a call in 2020 from Adelaide businessman Campbell Mackie asking her to join him and nine others.

Fifteen amateur teams set sail Southampton in the UK in September last year.

There are no computers, no GPS and no hi-tech materials. Race participants use paper charts to navigate their way.

Their position in the race will be finalised once all of the competitors finish.

Katie will arrive home in 10 days time.