“When I first get in a car having been at sea, it feels really fast,” she says. “The fastest I went during the Vendée Globe round-the-world race was 33 knots (38mph) and that is very, very fast. In fact we were out of control at that speed.
“You don’t actually forget how to drive but it can feel very odd. When I came back from the Vendée Globe, which had meant over three months at sea, I remember getting in the car and thinking ‘I’ve been away a long time, so what do I do now?’ It was just a bit weird at the beginning.”
But while the transition from water to road may cause problems, the 27-year-old is actually rather keen on cars. The sail may always be her first love, but the engine also has its attractions.
“I really like the mechanics of a car, and I love being round engines,” she says. “I love getting covered in oil and changing things. My dad always fixed our cars at home so
I learnt a lot from him. I can repair an engine and I have even done so while at sea.”
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Fans who associate MacArthur with the tranquil open sea might find this a strange image, but there’s more. We were chatting at Silverstone ahead of last month’s British Grand Prix, amid a sea of noise and frantic activity, when she said: “I really like big lorries. I’ve driven a pick-up truck and I thought it was great. I have always liked trucks and lorries as they feel safe, and as you’re high up in them you get a great view.”
MacArthur is the youngest Briton to have circumnavigated the globe single-handed, and also the fastest woman to have done so. Almost overnight she became a sensation in February 2001 when she finished second in the Vendée Globe, despite broken rigging and a damaged rudder. She was welcomed back to shore in France by 100,000 fans.
Despite coming from land-locked Derbyshire she is, in the words of Tracy Edwards (skipper of the Maiden project, the pioneering all-woman bid to take the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989) “one of those rare creatures: an absolutely natural sailor”.
Driving came less naturally and her test didn’t go to plan. “I got to the part where I had to do reverse parking, and up to that point everything had gone well. Anyway, it was a busy street lined with trees, and a squirrel ran down one and under the car.
“I carried on and got into the space and turned off the engine, but then the examiner said, ‘Right, now move off’. I told him I was a bit concerned because of the poor squirrel under the car. So he opened his door and promptly hit the tree with it.
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“In the meantime the squirrel had run off, but that put him in a bad mood so he failed me on reverse parking. I didn’t see what was wrong with pointing out something that I was concerned about.”
Fortunately, she passed the second time, although just a day later she experienced another drama. “The day after my test I drove to Southampton in a Mercedes G-wagen 4x4, which is a very long car. I stopped at a supermarket, drove into the car park and promptly wiped out one of the plastic posts, damaging the trim on the door in the process. I wasn’t really used to city driving as I took my test in my home town of Buxton, which doesn’t have a dual carriageway or even many roundabouts to practise on, so there was still a bit of learning to do.”
She later crunched a Volvo she was driving in a traffic incident in Leicester — “only at 10mph, but it was a horrible feeling” — but nowadays she remains very calm behind the wheel. “Whenever I come back from the sea I see people getting stressed about things that are really completely irrelevant. I look at them and wonder what they’re getting all het up about.”
It may not quite be the lorry she would really like to drive, but MacArthur currently has a people carrier that is provided by her sponsor Renault.
“People don’t realise how much equipment we cart around with us when we’re going sailing,” she says. “I have a 21ft sailing boat which I can pull behind me on the trailer, and there are sails, there’s promotional material and even my dog Mac sometimes.
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“The Espace has this completely open roof so you can feel close to the stars when you’re driving along, which is similar to being out at sea.
I also like the fact that you’re sitting up high in the seat and can see out — it’s less claustrophobic.”
Her ambitions now rest with a 75ft trimaran being built specially for her in Australia. It should be ready to be launched in December and will be used to try to break a series of solo records. Near the top of the list will be the transatlantic and 24-hour record, held for eight years by Laurent Bourgnon, a Frenchman. Cars might be interesting, but the sea will clearly remain her passion.
As for her favourite journey, Ellen says: “It’s the one that takes me to the sea. The moment I drive over that last hill and catch my first glimpse of the sea is when I feel the excitement and pull of the ocean and think, ‘This is it, I’m off again’.”
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ON HER CD CHANGER
I like to listen to relaxing music when I'm on the road so my CD changer is stacked with a series of Ibiza 'chill out' songs.
Apart from that I am a scroller — I like to change radio stations constantly between Radio 2, 4 and Heart FM. The radio controls are on the steering wheel so I can play with the stations and be completely safe.