Born in 1973 and raised in land locked Hertfordshire, Dee now lives on the South Coast with her partner, Harry Spedding.
With a passion for sport and exercise, Dee has become an Ambassador for Active Southampton promoting 30 minutes of exercise a day. This keen interest in health and fitness stems from her roots as a secondary school PE teacher, a career taken up after graduating from Leeds Metropolitan University. With a childhood love of dance and growing up listening to 80’s music, co-producing a school production of Grease was a highlight from Dee’s teaching days in Halifax. Dee then moved from Yorkshire to Dorset to take up the role as Sports Manager of an International College which involved overseeing the sports programme, social programmes, health and safety as well as discipline and counselling for the residential students.
In 2000, after five years of teaching, Dee made the tough decision to make a career change and join the marine industry. Coupled with a desire for adventure, to travel and experience new environments this change in direction resulted in six months of windsurfing and qualification as a water sports instructor in Barbados. Dee went on to complete her sailing qualifications and through sheer determination began working in the sailing industry. A love of the ocean and our coastline has now seen Dee become an Ambassador for the RYA Green Blue Campaign to help encourage everyone to Reduce, Re-Use and Recycle.
Working in the yacht charter business enabled Dee to sail both in the UK and the Caribbean. Watching the start and finish of the 2000/01 Global Challenge Race was the catalyst that Dee needed to set her next career goal. It is at this time that Dee’s determination to succeed took hold and she spent the next 4 years gathering the experience required and went on to pass the rigorous selection process for the 2004/05 Global Challenge Race, setting off as the only female skipper in the fleet that year.
A natural team leader, the crewed round the world race dealt with man management, conflict management and also the extreme highs and lows encountered with success and failure on a race lasting ten months. Rather than acting as a deterrent to Dee, this spurred her on to push boundaries yet again by attempting the same journey – solo and non stop. After arriving home from the Global Challenge race in July 2005, it was just four months later that Dee set off again to attempt her pioneering voyage.
After six months at sea alone, Dee sailed victoriously back into Southampton on the 21st May 2006 having successfully become the first woman in history to sail around the world, single-handed, non stop and against the prevailing winds and currents. In recognition of her achievement, Dee was awarded an MBE for her services to sailing in the Queen’s Birthday honours list.
A strong desire to face and overcome challenges has led Dee into adventures outside of the sailing environment. Amongst the adventure races Dee has taken part in, the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge was the most extreme. This involved Dee leading an all female team over 6500km of rugged terrain using the four disciplines of trekking, running, cycling and kayaking. The focus was to raise money for cancer charities and Dee has since become a Patron for the charity Sail 4 Cancer.
However, Dee’s passion for sailing and ambition to succeed is the constant driver in her life and now she faces her greatest challenge to date when she joins the start line of the Vendée Globe in November 2008. Dee competed in what is widely regarded as the pinnacle of offshore sailing and set off from France in November 2008 amongst a 30 strong fleet of experienced and talented skippers. After 99 days at sea, Dee crossed the finish line at 13:12.57hrs GMT on 16 February 2009 in 6th place and once again, sailed into the the record books. Dee has now secured a double world record and become the first female to sail solo, non-stop around the world in both directions. To read more about the Aviva Ocean Racing campaign click here
Not one for letting the grass grow under her feet and after completing the Vendée Globe in February 2009 Dee decided it was time to get back out on the water to tackle a record a little closer to home, the Round Britain and Ireland monohull speed record.
Onboard her Open 60, Aviva, Dee teamed up with Vendée Globe race rival Sam Davies and two other female crew, Alex Sizer and Miranda Merron to break the overall speed record of 7 days 4 hours which was set in 2004 onboard Solune.
On 15 June 2009 Dee and her all female crew set off from Gosport and sailed the 1800 miles around Britain and Ireland. On 22 June, they crossed the finish line to complete the course in 6 days 11 hours 30 minutes and 53 seconds, breaking the record by a staggering 17 hours and 16 minutes.
