Kay Cottee - Where is she now?

by Nancy Knudsen on 8 Jun 2008 Where is she now? It's just 20 years since Sydney born Kay Cottee became the first woman to circle the globe by sailing solo non stop and unassisted.

The thing I remember most about her triumphant arrival back in Sydney Harbour, was that, after 187 days at sea, she was obliged to wait off Sydney Heads for two days in miserable weather just so she could appease her sponsor and arrive home on a Sunday.

After 187 days at sea, it seemed to me that the most valiant part of her journey could have been waiting those extra two days.

So where IS she now, 20 years later? Sailing more races? Cruising the world? Running a maritime business somewhere? Maybe on the speaking circuit or writing sailing books? The yacht 'First Lady' is in the National Maritime Museum, but you can't find her there.

No, you'll have to travel several hundred kilometres north where you'll find she's taken the 'seachange' option and is painting the ocean in Yamba on the northern coast of New South Wales.

Of course she HAS written two books since her arrival back, and was on the speaking circuit for some time, but now, well, she's made time to marry, have a son, now 14, and indulge her passion for painting and sculpting,

Marj Belessis of the Manly Daily caught up with Kay when she was in Sydney to be feted on the 20th anniversary of her achievement.

She writes that wielding a paintbrush might seem pretty tame stuff after steering an 11.3m yacht around the world, facing down everything the world's great oceans had to throw at you and becoming the first woman to successfully complete the world circumnavigation, solo, non-stop and unassisted.

But, two decades down the track, Cottee finds it just as fulfilling to capture the infinite variety of the sea's moods on canvas as it is to come to terms with them at the helm of a boat.

So painting plays a big part in Kay Cottee's life today. `I had always been interested in painting and sculpting, but got into it seriously just after I got back from my voyage,' she said.

She also has her own fine art gallery to showcase her work, set up on the first floor and the Yamba Marina, which she and Peter own in partnership with some Sydney friends.

And no sailing? 'Maybe in the future,' was what she told Belessis. She and her husband are renovating an old cruising boat, and she says, 'We'll go cruising again one day.'