Hardship is second nature to the diminutive yachtswoman, writes Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent.
When the Earth's crust shifted under the Indian Ocean almost seven weeks ago and the tsunami killed more than 150,000 people in 12 Asian countries, Ellen MacArthur's shore support team had only one thought. Would the aftershocks from the Aceh quake knock some precious hours off her attempt to break the solo round-the-world sailing record?
Ironically, the highly focused, determined, ambitious 28-year-old English sailor betrayed no such selfish absorption as she tried to tame the very elements that had caused such havoc several thousand miles away. Approaching the halfway stage of her circumnavigation, she noted on her website log that the biggest thought for New Year was the death and trauma that had occurred in the Indian Ocean.
She didn't have much time to dwell on it, however. Shortly after crossing the international date line, she experienced what she described as the worst three days of her sailing career in the treacherous southern latitudes. While trying to watch out for icebergs and maintain her speed in winds that alternated between lulls and storms, she decided to switch generators - and burned her arm badly in the attempt.
"I apologise to the albatross that came close in, wondering what my cries were all about," she wrote afterwards. "I was passed (sic) it, just passed it; empty, exhausted. But at that stage, with no escape, no button to push to make everything OK again no way to hide from the alarms and wake-ups from continuously interrupted dozes - absolute exhaustion."
In late January, she sustained more injuries when she cut and bruised her leg while climbing the mast to repair her mainsail. Her main preoccupation was the two hours she lost as she endeavoured to cover 380 miles a day at an average speed of 14 knots. And yet, as she has pointed out, "I chose to do this, and I really don't need any sympathy from anyone."
It is a remark typical of the diminutive yachtswoman who was fascinated by spy and survival books, fancied herself as a commando, and devoured Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons as soon as she could read. Though she grew up in "landlocked Derbyshire", she was introduced at an early age to the world of dinghies through her aunt Thea, and saved her school dinner money for eight years to buy her first craft, an eight-foot boat named. Threep'ny Bit.
Her 10th birthday present was a week at a race training camp at Rutland Water, and in her biography, Taking on the World, she recalled how she felt an outsider as she did not have a dinghy with new sails or the latest gear. She had no wetsuit, and sailed in a navy blue anorak and tracksuit which she would try to dry each night over a dormitory radiator. It was the first time in her life that she felt lonely, though she was surrounded by people.
There were to be several more instances of this social isolation in an activity that has its pretentious aspects - thankfully not among those who have built a wooden boat in their garage, or learned to sail through a friendly club or community group, or through the Franco-Irish sailing organisation, Glenans. A bout of glandular fever at school had dashed her hopes of becoming a vet. She spent much of her convalescence watching snatches of the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, and decided she wanted to be a professional sailor.
However, when she first moved to the mecca of professional long-distance yachting in Britain on the Solent, she felt very self-conscious and inadequate in her "scruffy" 21-footer - next to pristine sailing yachts crewed by weekend sailors driving fast, expensive cars. She lived in a Portakabin in Hamble with no running water. On a boat-purchasing trip to St Malo in France, she had no money for a hotel and slept in an old spinnaker on the cabin floor.
Hardship appears to be second nature to her. During one of her early races, she didn't climb into a sleeping bag for four weeks. She was just 18 when she won a British young sailor of the year award, and the following year she circumnavigated Britain in her 21-foot boat.
From there, she graduated to single-handed racing across the Atlantic and now holds a transatlantic west-east solo record; a transatlantic east-west record, and the record for the fastest female to race solo around the world in the 2000/2001 Vendée Globe race. She also holds a new course record for the Route du Rhum race from St Malo in France to Guadeloupe.
She has been quoted as stating that she now wants to give something back to sailing, through working with children - although her website suggests that her sponsors have other ideas. One of the many messages on the internet yesterday was from Francis Joyon, the Frenchman who set the solo circumnavigation record just a year ago last week in 72 days, 22 hours and 54 minutes.
Unlike MacArthur, Joyon planned his own route and did not rely on meteorological and routing expertise from "base camp". He lost his main sponsor, and had to sail on a minuscule budget. Though he admits that he would have liked to keep the record "a bit longer", he had not put it "on a pedestal".
"Ellen achieved this result through her concentrated efforts," Joyon says.
"Her team worked hard and backed her before and during her circumnavigation, and she did not ever lose her resolve. Being well supported is one thing, but when you find yourself in the middle of the southern lows in this type of boat, you really feel very alone"