00:00C'était très stressant et je me suis pensé ce qu'est-ce que je fais comme un 40 ans
00:03qui vendrede une maison à la place de sécurité pour aller à la fin du monde.
00:08Donc, oui, c'était un très dur temps pendant ces six mois, mais après on s'est vendu la maison...
00:26Dan, nous sommes en Cape Town.
00:28Bienvenue à toi.
00:29Et votre boat est pour sale.
00:30Oui, c'est vrai.
00:31Je me suis mis en place de la marquee.
00:32C'est cool.
00:34Oui, on va voir si on se voit.
00:35Donc, c'est juste pour l'émotionnel de la journée,
00:37plutôt que la voyage et la voie de la voie et tout.
00:39Donc, on va juste expliquer par par que,
00:42à un point de vue, quand vous décidez de faire la MGR,
00:46c'était la starte de votre expérience,
00:51et c'est évidemment que vous ne pouvez pas faire ça sans avoir des hauts et des hauts.
00:54Donc, tu peux quantifier ou décrire votre
00:57de votre passion, de l'inner-thoughts,
00:59de « je vais faire cette race » à la fois que le boat est terminé et que vous tourne
01:03au début.
01:04Oui, comme je disais, c'était une grande voyage.
01:09Pour moi, c'était en April 2020, ou non, c'est encore plus tard, mais c'est
01:15quelque chose d'ailleurs.
01:16Et j'ai toujours été aimé à faire une race à l'arrière-the-world et à l'arrière-the-world
01:19à l'arrière-the-world.
01:20J'ai toujours été aimé à l'arrière-the-world et à l'arrière-the-world, parce que j'ai
01:24pensé à l'arrière-the-world et à l'arrière-the-world, parce que j'ai toujours été un challenge
01:27à l'arrière-the-world.
01:29Et, évidemment, once this mini-glow race was launched, it's been on my mind ever
01:36since.
01:37So, it's been over five years now, from the concept to getting to here, and for me, it's
01:44been an amazing journey, from the things I've learned, right, from building the boat, to
01:48getting it to the start line, all the pressures, and all the mental process, and selling the
01:54house, and all the financial pressures, and having a family, and leaving them
01:59at the start line, and I just remember getting to Portugal, and I'd committed to the race,
02:06and I was so focused on doing it, but I remember the first day I took off, and I'm just thinking,
02:13what have I gotten myself into, and I really couldn't see the finish line.
02:17I know I've always broken things down into smaller bite-sized pieces, so I was just taking
02:21things one step at a time.
02:23And, yeah, it's really hard to, you know, just to fathom how far I've gone, and even
02:27from a personal perspective, and going from, you know, I just need to do this race, and,
02:32you know, ding-ding, one thing after another, to now I'm just feeling so grateful, and I
02:37feel at peace with myself.
02:38And, yeah, as I said, it's just been fantastic for me personally, for my family, what we've
02:45done, you know, where we've come from as a family, and how close we are as a family now,
02:50is just fantastic.
02:51I've said it, you know, plenty of times, like, it's brought my parents and myself closer
02:55together, it feels like I've brought my kids and me closer together, and my wife and I closer
02:59together, even though we're on the opposite sides of the planet, so, yeah, it's been amazing.
03:03So, take me to the point, the big one, when you're building the boat, it's hard not to
03:08finish the boat, but the issue of then using it, the MGR is a different story, but at some
03:11point, you had to make that decision to sell the house.
03:14Yeah.
03:15Now, prior to making that decision, were you in doubt thinking, oh, this is crazy, we
03:18can't sell the house, maybe I'll just use it as a local sailboat.
03:21Yeah.
03:22Just try and describe that emotion of then finally saying, fuck it, we've got, I mean, we've
03:26got to sell the house.
03:27There's a big, I mean, there's a big point, everyone, and, you know, a lot of people think about
03:30doing big things, and a lot of people start getting serious about doing things,
03:33but when it comes closer to, just doing, yeah, I'm getting my boat cleaned at the moment.
03:39Hang on a minute, here we go.
03:42All good down there?
03:45Yeah, can you loosen your rudder?
03:47Loosen my rudder?
03:48Yeah, no worries.
03:49I'm trying to go down to get the guy in the bloody water, here he is.
03:52Are you alright?
03:53She's off now, mate.
03:54He was looking around thinking, what's going on underneath the boat?
03:56Alright, I said, where's the voice?
03:58I can't see the bloody guy.
04:00Anyway, that was a bit of a detour there.
04:02Back to the decision on selling the house.
04:04Yeah, so I got to about six months out, and I was like, okay, we need to make a decision
04:07here.
04:08We didn't have the money to get to the start line, and prices and things were going up,
04:12and I realised then that we really needed to sell the house to make this, I don't know,
04:17financially feasible.
04:18We weren't going to be able to afford the mortgages, and obviously we needed a bit of
04:21money to get to the start line and do the race and whatever.
04:23So there was about a six month period where things really got really challenging, where
04:27there was a bit of, not so much between Nicky and I because we'd talked about it for a long
04:31time, but the actual process of going, okay, I need to now finish my job, sell the house,
04:36and then get to the start line.
04:38That's a really sort of a, it can be what is a stressful situation, and when you actually
04:42do it, it's one, it was almost a weight off my shoulders, but two, it was very stressful,
04:49and I was thinking, you know, what am I doing as a 40 year old man selling a house and leaving
04:54a place of security to go on a race around the world.
04:57So, yeah, as I said, it was a really tough time that six months, but after we sold the
05:02house, and we had a few tense moments between my mum and dad and I, and all those sorts
05:06of things, yeah, things got better.
05:09Yeah, absolutely, been there, done that, so I really take my hat off, you know, everyone's
05:13got a back story financially trying to get there, but I can really relate.
05:17So, okay, the next, the next peak, you might say, as you just explained it previously,
05:22saying you start the race, and you get out there, and you're trying to settle into the
05:26boat, and wondering, shit, I think I've blown it, because I know you said before you thought
05:31you might have to pull out.
05:32Yeah.
05:33Try and explain, you know, just that peak, all that sacrifice in the, oh, this is nuts,
05:38have I, you know.
05:39Yeah, well, to be honest, it happened for me really early in the piece, it was about day
05:42three or day two in the actual transit, and I had a knockdown, and I lost a whole bunch
05:48of things, and I broke, I broke some stuff off the stern, and then my hydrant ram wasn't
05:53working properly, nothing was sort of set up correctly, and then I went for about two
05:57days, and I wasn't sleeping, and yeah, I just remember having just almost an emotional
06:01breakdown out in the Atlantic for like two days, and just thinking, what have I done, and
06:05I've, you know, I've got, my place has got no money now, I don't think I'm going to make
06:10this race, and to me, Atlantic for me, like, I think everyone had it, like, it, that was
06:17probably the hardest part of the journey for me, the Atlantic, probably almost for the
06:20others as well, because we were really going from a world that we had in, you know, at home,
06:25and going to bed in a nice warm bed, and eating nice food, to just, you know, getting smashed
06:29in the Atlantic, and yeah, as you said, at the Christmas show, like, some people now
06:35are thinking this is a rally, but things haven't really changed, it's just the
06:38mindset, and the things, the way we're doing things, it's just, that's what changes,
06:41and, and what was really hard at the start is sort of everyday life now, so, yeah.
06:47It's a really amazing example of true grit, just bloody getting out there, and just
06:51hanging on to it, and going, because I think, I think, you know, everyone took to that
06:55differently, but I saw a little bit of it in everyone, but you were really open to it,
06:58what was going on, it was, it's an amazing journey for you, so you must feel proud at certain
07:03times now. Yeah, I mean, I'm a, I feel like these days, when I was younger, I was a very
07:08closed off person, but I'm a sort of an open book now, and for me, it was, it was amazing,
07:12and just to watch everyone rally behind me, and say, no, no, you know, you've got this,
07:15Dan, and you keep pushing forward, we're all behind you, and what you're doing is not,
07:19you know, is the right thing, and you're, you know, you're inspiring many people, and those
07:23sorts of things, and that's kind of what kept me going right at the start, yeah.
07:26I asked everyone the same question, you would have seen in the early days, when you mentioned
07:30what you were doing, people say, oh, you're crazy, you're nuts, in fact, I can remember
07:33a night that we had at the squadron, you were in the room, and I was telling the people on
07:37our table, this is very early days, that's impossible, don't be so bloody stupid, but
07:41now, you must see the huge difference of what people are thinking, and what they're saying,
07:46and stuff like that. Absolutely, the comments from the start, where you know, you're building
07:50yourself a coffin, like, all these sorts of things, you know, some of the things that
07:55you got were just, like, really, really negative, and it really did change through the race,
08:00but not even at the start, I even remember, like, the first day, I think it was Jasmine
08:03took off, and she had a bit of issues on the first night, and people were saying, oh,
08:07there's no one going to finish, no one's going to finish this race, no one's going to
08:10want to start from Antigua, and then the same sort of things when I started, and getting
08:14all these comments, oh, you know, you're going to pull out in Antigua, and all these sorts
08:17of things, and it's gone from that to just everyone just, you know, you don't get any
08:21of those comments anymore, it's just all positive. There's a high degree of respect.
08:24Yeah. Okay, so, again, you know, probably second to last question, but you've written a book,
08:31you know, what's the name of your book again? From Sands to Sea is the name of the book,
08:34and hopefully you're writing another one about the race, but good luck, yeah.
08:37But that explains a lot of things, you've done quite a lot in your time.
08:40Yeah. Now, where would you pick, where would you put this in the scheme of things, like,
08:43from top to bottom? Is this the best you've ever done?
08:45Oh, 100%, it's the best, it's the hardest, it's the most challenging. You know, from,
08:50in terms of, physically, it's perhaps not the hardest, but just the, you know, the endurance
08:56side of it, and how long this race goes for, and the mental aspect is just, it's, you know,
09:01it does take its toll, but at the same time, you keep finding something else within you to
09:05keep going. So, for me, this has been the most rewarding, you know, the best, and the most
09:10challenging, and everything that I ever, I could have wanted in a race, to be honest,
09:14yeah. Yeah. So, in the scheme of things, so we've got that there, so, oh jeepers, I've
09:20lost my train of thought now, because I've, so, okay, so we've got the, we're at ranks
09:27there. Oh jeepers, I've completely gone blank, I had the question sitting there,
09:31now, buddy guy diving and thinking about your book and stuff. Um, god jeepers. Okay, so,
09:38uh, inspiration, I think we're done. Yeah. That'll do. Yeah, yeah, no worries. But anyway,
09:43you're a good story, Dan, there's no question. Thanks, Don. Everyone's got their own, you know,
09:48sort of, um, tale to tell, but yours is one that's, uh, seen a real journey. Oh, that's
09:53what it was. Um, I've talked myself back into the question. So, I always say with these events
09:59that, um, people are out to find a life-defining and life-changing experience. Do you reckon
10:05this whole thing has changed you at all? And if so, you know, how do you, how do you see
10:09yourself being different now or when you get to Antigua? Oh, a hundred percent. Um, I mean,
10:14maybe, maybe once the race finishes and I go back to the normal life, maybe, maybe I'll
10:18fall back into the way I was. But, um, I've really noticed it probably since Fiji or even
10:23before that. You know, when I went back to Adelaide, I just noticed myself being a lot more
10:28of peace with, with everything. Like, I've, um, you know, I've always sort of been on edge
10:33about things and just, like, always stressing and have, like, a bit of anxiety and stuff.
10:37But for me, like, I just feel really relaxed, um, in myself and, and not getting fussed with
10:43little things any, anymore. And, um, I really, uh, at the last few months, I've been talking
10:47about Nikki about the next stage of life and getting really excited about it. And I feel like
10:51I'm going to be able to go back and, you know, I'm sure it's going to be a life of, uh, you know,
10:55interesting, exciting things. But, um, I feel in myself that, uh, you know, this is, you know,
11:00the peak and the, the one thing that I need to tick off my list. So...
11:04Probably because you've proved something to yourself.
11:05Yeah, exactly. So it's, it's proved to myself that I can do this. And there's always,
11:09and there's always been one race. Like, it's always been, you know, I think about
11:12when I started this race, oh, you know, you're not going to be into offshore racing. You know,
11:15I did a lot of dinghy sailing on offshore racing and I got a boat and just took off with the boat
11:19on offshore sailing. Uh, and then, you know, double-handed sailing is a different story.
11:23And then people that went into these comments like, uh, when I'm doing single-handed sailing,
11:27oh, you know, you might be, you know, having someone beside you is the one that got you through it.
11:31But now it's just me just proving to myself. So, um, it was really important to me to,
11:35to prove this to myself.
11:36Okay. Well, the bad news is we just launched a Round Australia race today.
11:41Someone was talking to me about that, but...
11:43Oh, gosh.
11:44Anyway, good on you, Dan.
11:46Cheers.
11:47Thanks, Dan.
11:48See you later.
11:49Cheers.
12:20Musique du générique
12:50...
