Toronto sailor back for Globe40 after pirate scare during first around-the-world race

Toronto sailor Melodie Schaffer is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — Melodie Schaffer

Melodie Schaffer hopes getting chased by pirates was a one-off.

The 57-year-old Toronto sailor embarks on the Globe40 around-the-world race Sunday for the second time in her career.

Schaffer was the only female skipper to complete the inaugural race in 2023, which she did in 174 days of ocean racing over nine months.

The Canadian piloted the Whiskey Jack to fifth out of seven boats. There were 16 entries confirmed for the second edition, with Lisa Berger of Germany as a second female skipper.

The double-handed race, which means Schaffer has a teammate on board for the prologue and the six legs, spans 30,000 nautical miles (55,000 kilometres). Four different people have volunteered to share the watches with Schaffer.

The race opens with Sunday’s prologue from Lorient, France to Cadiz, Spain before rounding the “Great Capes” of Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn. The route takes Schaffer through Cape Verde, Reunion Island, Sydney, Australia, Valparaiso, Chile, Recife, Brazil and back to Lorient. The race is expected to conclude next April.

It was off the coast of Brazil in her debut when Schaffer encountered a boat with what seemed to be malignant intentions.

“That was the scariest moment for me,” Schaffer said.

A boat had been shadowing the Whiskey Jack with its lights and identification system turned off when it suddenly turned and bore down on her vessel.

“They had a huge spotlight shining down and you could see the guys lined up on the deck,” Schaffer recalled. “I messaged race management and told them to track us very carefully. We have a tracker on the boat, so they know where we are at any time.

“After about 15 minutes, I guess we didn’t look worthwhile. They stopped following us. I really hope my pirate experience is that once and only once.”

While Schaffer knows what she’s in for the second time around — a lot of sleep deprivation for one — she knows she’ll encounter problems on the high seas that only her ingenuity can solve.

“You really have to know that no matter what happens, you’ve got to handle it,” Schaffer said.

During the 36 days from Cape Verde around the notorious Cape Horn in South America to Mauritius in 2023, Schaffer was down to three sails from her allowed maximum of eight.

“If a sail tears, you try and repair it, but you’re hand-sewing and it’s a massive sail,” she said.

Schaffer says her master’s degree in biomedical engineering helps her troubleshoot circumnavigational problems.

She had ambitions as a young woman to race the 470, or dinghy, in the Olympic Games. After five years of designing dialysis catheters, her company moved to the United States, so Schaffer spent the next two decades raising her three children to adulthood.

“In 2017, I read an article about an offshore race. I went and tried it, really enjoyed it, went back the next year,” she recalled.

“I came home from that race and I said to my family, ‘Listen, I love being a mom, but I’ve been so focused on the family, I forgot about me, and I forgot how much sailing means to me.’”

There isn’t time to catch up on sleep on land between legs, Schaffer said. It’s 14-hour days of repairs, maintenance, restocking supplies, monitoring the weather and planning race strategy to the point where it’s almost a relief to pull out of port again.

Racing the Globe40 will cost about $400,000, with about $150,000 of that spent on new sails, which she pays for through sponsorship and fundraising.

Overcoming the challenges of multistage racing and watching the waves like people watch the flames of a campfire brings Schaffer joy in her gruelling pursuit.

She considers a dolphin sighting good luck, and there’s nothing like spotting an albatross, with its majestic three-metre wing span, hovering in the Whiskey Jack tailwinds.

“I do love the ocean. It’s got so much energy to it,” Schaffer said.

“There’s emotions to it. You’re out there and you really are so, so alone, but somehow, you can feel quite powerful with that because you’re thinking, ‘well, I’m doing this, on this tiny little thing out there.’”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2025.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press