How I Did It: Find Your Sea Legs Like World-Renowned Sailor Alex Thomson

Alex Thomson, 40, professional sailor

My dad was a search and rescue helicopter pilot. On Friday evenings we’d head to the airport, jump in the helicopter, land on a remote island and camp there all weekend. I wanted to be a pilot myself but at 17, I had an eye test at a naval hospital where they told me my sight was so bad, I couldn’t even be a seaman, let alone fly.

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I don’t really have any ‘old’ friends. I went to 11 different schools. At that age, you just lose touch with everyone.

When I play squash, I don’t just leave sweaty, I leave with cuts and bruises.

I did six months packing straws for McDonald’s after my A-levels. It was a kick up the backside to push me to do something I actually wanted to do.

It’s so easy to get into sailing. There are thousands of sailing clubs around the country, and the easiest way to start is to look on noticeboards for boats that need crews. Just make sure you’re determined. It’s a tough existence when stuff goes wrong.

All that ‘psychic twin’ stuff – I don’t think it exists. But my twin sister has had a few weird moments when stuff’s happened to me. My brother lives 200 metres down the road from my house, and she’s 200 metres down the road from him.

I didn’t collide with a French fishing boat. They collided with me. It took four years to prepare that brand new boat for a race, and three weeks before the start line, they hit us.

In 2006, my keel broke off and I had to abandon my boat halfway between Africa and Antarctica. I was 2,000 miles from land, in a life raft that you couldn’t see from more than 300 metres away, in 1°C waters. Luckily, another competitor saw me and rescued me, but I was on his boat for three hours, then his mast fell down. That was a pretty bad day.

Astronauts get the sense of how small the Earth is when they see it from space. We get the opposite. We get the effect that the world is enormous.

Best piece of advice I’ve been given? “To finish first, first you have to finish.”

The big one is the Vendée Globe Race in 2016. It’s the world’s most difficult sporting challenge. You can compare it to Everest if you want to, but more than 3,000 people have been up that mountain now. Fewer than 100 people have completed the Vendée. To get around the world you come out of France, turn left, go down to the bottom, head around Antarctica, left at America and back to France again.

Nowhere are you more aware of your own mortality than in the Southern Ocean. When you’re there, there are no fishing boats, container ships, helicopters or planes that’ll help you. If you’re 1,000 miles south of Australia, it’ll take three days for a ship to get to you. It’s a very dangerous place.

The boat I race is specifically designed for me. It’s like Ferrari giving you millions of pounds and telling you to create the world’s best car. And then every year you get more money to make it go even faster.

When the time comes, you’ve just got to shit in the bucket. I’ve got no toilet on board for weight reasons. It’s called the old bucket and chuck it.

I’m a sailor, so of course I like the sauce. I try to stay off the booze during the week and not party too hard at the weekend. I’ve got a lovely pub round the corner called The Fighting Cocks. They don’t take cards and they sell local eggs at the bar.

I’d be right up there with people who’ve racked the world’s most expensive phone bills. For a megabyte of data, expect to cough up about $10, and because I’m always on BBC News, I get through a lot.

There’s a lot of things at sea that I wish every man on Earth could experience, be it seeing the stars from the ocean where you can look at more than you ever thought imaginable; getting hit in the face by a flying fish; or sitting on the bow of the boat and watching dolphins playing under you while leaving little torpedo clouds of phosphorescence.

Hugo Boss sailor Alex Thomson will compete in the 2014-2015 Barcelona World Race.

From the December 2014 issue of FHM India.