Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year Lisa Blair overcame fear in world record voyage

Lisa Blair only began sailing when she was 25, when she landed a job as a cook on a boat in the Whitsundays.

She didn't know at the time that the job would spark an obsession which would see her set two Guinness World Records, desperately fear for her life, write a book, receive recognition from the Bureau of Meteorology for her scientific contribution and sail around the world.

And yet, like a yacht running downwind, that is the course her life has taken rather rapidly in the 12 years since.

Lisa's love for sailing saw her join a crew that was circumnavigating the planet and she fell in love with the thrill of the sport. That was where she learnt her skills, her navigation and how to cope in stormy seas.

However, it was during this time she turned her mind to the idea of Antarctica and circumnavigating the southern continent, a task no woman had ever achieved.

To do so, she would need to overcome the stormiest of seas on the planet, battling waves sometimes five storeys high, winds as strong as 90 kilometres per hour and the toughest opponent of all, her own mental barriers.

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She bought a boat and that same day entered it into the Sydney to Hobart race. "If I can't sail that race, I can't sail Antarctica," she said.

She did and so took a bearing towards the challenge of Antarctica.

It was 2014 when Lisa first committed to the goal of solo-circumnavigating Antarctica however it took until 2017 for her to launch her boat 'Climate Action Now' from Albany, WA.

On what Lisa called a "normal southern ocean day" when the waves were three storeys high, 72 days into her journey and 1000 nautical miles from land, a surprise storm rolled in. While she was bunkering beneath deck, she heart the crunching metal sound of the mast on her boat snapping off.

"This is really not a good situation to be in," she said.

She was underplaying reality. To save the ship from sinking, she was forced to climb over the safety rails and cling on between waves while using a hammer to release a bolt.

"I knew if I was lucky I had a fifty-fifty chance of getting back on the boat," Lisa said.

She called her shore crew to tell them if her PLB went off, she was in the water; coming to save her was pointless.

"It was no longer a case of would I survive the night, it was will I survive the next five minutes?" she said.

She survived, rigging a makeshift sail which carried her nine days to the safety of Capetown. She repaired the boat and continued on her way, becoming the first woman to solo-circumnavigate Antarctica with one stop.

Disappointed, Lisa said the opportunity was not a failure, but a learning opportunity.

She had unfinished business.

On February 21, Lisa left Albany, waving goodbye to solid land knowing, if she was successful, it could be nearly three months before she saw it again.

She was aiming to break the 102-day record held by Russian Fedor Konyukhov which he set in 2008.

The goal was to complete the journey in under 95 days.

Lisa had to overcome her fears, and said during many Southern Ocean storms, she would check on the mast from her cabin peep-hole, just for the reassurance and peace of mind its steadying presence had in her mind. It hadn't snapped; she could do this.

However, this time Lisa was doing it for more than just the record, she was extreme sailing for science.

One day while in the middle of the Southern Ocean during her time as a crewmember circumnavigating the globe, Lisa saw a Styrofoam box floating.

"This is just so wrong," she said. "We shouldn't see this human pollution in an area where no humans live."

She decided to use her sailing achievements to raise awareness about the need for climate action.

Everyone who attended Lisa' talk at Batemans Bay was invited to join the hundreds before them who had written a personal climate pledge on a sticky note and given it to Lisa. She collects and saves all the notes, and covered the hull of her boat in a mosaic artwork of all the individual pledges from people around the globe.

"As an individual you have the power to create change," Lisa said. "It starts with just one action."

For her world-record attempt, Lisa wanted to do more than just raise awareness. She offered her services as a citizen science. Throughout the trip she dispersed scientific equipment that, for three years since deployment, measures water data such as carbon levels, temperatures and ocean currents. She also took readings of ocean water along the journey, recording information such as microplastic content and meteorological data.

"It changed the focus for me," she said.

"It didn't matter if I succeeded because I was collecting data that simply wasn't possible to collect any other way because it was too difficult or too expensive to get there."

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Such was the remoteness of her journey, at one point Lisa calculated she was closer to astronauts on the space station than any other human on solid ground on Earth.

Lisa had to overcome incredible fatigue, taking just 10 minute micro-naps on repeat while weaving through iceberg ally, the constant threat of hypothermia, some of the strongest winds on earth, the ever-present threat of being thrown by waves unexpectedly while sleeping or walking around in the cabin and the knowledge she was all alone days from the nearest help.

However, after 92 days, she arrived back in Albany to claim the world record.

"Whatever I set my mind to, I can achieve," she said.

It was that can-do attitude that Batemans Bay Sailing Club commodore Simon Dunlop most took away from Lisa's presentation.

"This girl has got guts, determination and endurance," he said.

He was delighted when Lisa reached out to share her story at the club, and was excited to see a diverse group from the community attend to hear a talk which was fascinating for sailors and non-sailors alike.

"It was good to hear about some of the things others sailors go through and put your own experiences in perspective," Mr Dunlop said.

"It's an amazing story.

"People went away wowed."

Lisa is pioneering greater appreciation and inclusion for women in sailing.

"She's an inspiration," Mr Dunlop said.

"You hear about blokes doing amazing things, and it's nice to hear about women doing even more amazing things."

Lisa's book 'Facing Fear' tells the story of her first record-breaking attempt.

For Lisa, it's only the beginning.

"I have a long list of projects coming up," she said.