Wealth Management: Blog – In conversation with: Alex Thomson

Sophie Kilvert - Client Adviser

As we continue to navigate the unchartered waters of quarantine, I was lucky enough to speak with professional offshore sailor, Alex Thomson, about his fascinating personal experience coping with isolation at sea. Despite our current geographical restrictions, I was able to talk to Alex about his methods for enduring long periods of separation from any face-to-face contact, in the hope that we might learn some valuable lessons for surviving lockdown.

Amongst his many achievements, in 1999, Alex became the youngest ever skipper to win the round-the-world Clipper Race and in 2016, placed 2nd in the Vendee Globe Race. Before the world was plunged into a pandemic, he was preparing for the 2020 race, which is planned to start in November. Now however, like most of the world, Alex is in lockdown.

While for most of us, this lockdown is our first experience of being physically cut off from others, Alex however, has experienced plenty of months at sea in isolation. To maintain a sense of normality, Alex stressed the importance of a routine. When sailing, that comes in the form of receiving the weather forecast four times a day, and the positions of other boats five or six times a day, both at fixed times. These regular anchors allow him to keep a sense of structure, even if these alerts arrive in the middle of the night.

As you can imagine, racing alone at sea takes endurance, both physical and mental, so Alex emphasised the need for short-term goals when faced with a long-term challenge. During a race, (Alex told me) he gives himself a metaphorical 'pat on the back' when he completes a goal, and for him this is a vital part of surviving the race. Although we all find it tempting to set ourselves grand goals during lockdown, Alex advised that the best way to pace yourself through a long period of mental endurance is to create achievable short-term targets. For him, this might be as minor as changing a sail or studying the weather. Sometimes, in particularly difficult moments, even these tasks seem too daunting, and he continues to break down a task until it feels achievable: eating a meal or calling a family member. Indeed, accomplishing even the smallest of tasks can re-motivate us, and ultimately helps us think bigger, and achieve more.

Despite all his pre-planning and attempts to maintain a healthy mental attitude, things do go wrong at sea, and in the world of racing, that can sometimes be crushing. Of course, his mistakes at sea are vastly different from the mistakes we all make in the real world; when something goes wrong for him it can lead to a life-or-death catastrophe. He shared with me that in 2008, he launched a brand-new boat, but just a few days into the race, he hit an object and sadly, after four years of preparation, Alex had to withdraw from the race. Even so, Alex showed his ability to look on the bright side. He told me how, while everyone was sailing in the race, he focused on putting together the strongest possible campaign for the 2012 race, so he would in fact be a year ahead of everyone else. Embracing our mistakes and finding the positives in them is essential to helping us develop and learn.

Many of us need to consume news in this lockdown, to feel we know what is going on in the world, and I was curious to learn how Alex copes with communication at sea. While he may not have the easy access the rest of us to do to constant media, Alex can still communicate with his family, albeit with a scratchy, delayed telephone connection, and he always tries to stay as up to date with current affairs, as a self-confessed 'news junkie'. Yet in our current, unique situation, even Alex admitted that obsessively checking the news is not healthy so now checks it only once in the morning and once in the evening. In isolation, Alex suggested over-consumption of media can exacerbate the gravity of the situation and recommended avoiding it for as much of the day as possible.

It's tempting in lockdown for us to focus on 'the end' and what happens when lockdown is lifted. Yet in a racing situation, Alex explained the danger of focussing on the finish line to me, and the worry that he becomes complacent. Of course, on a boat, there is never any room for complacency. Taking lessons from the boat to lockdown, Alex told me he is trying not to second guess the length of this isolation, despite its temptations.

Hopefully, we can all learn something from Alex's unique experience, although, as he shrewdly pointed out, the biggest difference between his experience and ours is that he chooses to spend 74 days alone at sea. Certainly, the rest of us would ideally like this lockdown period to be over as soon as possible! Even so, we can draw on some of his experiences in the hope that we can not only survive but thrive during this period of global isolation.