Ella Hibbert
At just 26, Ella Hibbert is attempting something no sailor has ever done: The first solo circumnavigation of the Arctic. Alone on her steel yacht Yeva, she will face storms, shifting pack ice, and months of isolation. There will be no support crew, no safety net, and no certainty of success, only relentless cold, risk, and the drive to keep going.
Ella’s preparation for this journey has already tested her to breaking point. During training sails she fought through flooding, broken systems, and pitch-black nights hand-steering into narrow harbors with exhaustion closing in. On shore, she endured years of rejection while chasing sponsors - hundreds of unanswered emails, doors closed, and setbacks that could have ended the project before it began.
Alone on her steel yacht Yeva, she will face storms, shifting pack ice, and months of isolation.
But her mission is bigger than records or personal glory. Through Ella in the Arctic, she shares her journey openly, inspiring conversations about climate change, sustainable choices, and human resilience. She invites schools, clubs, and communities into the story - proving that adventure can be a platform for change.
In this interview, Ella speaks about the foundations of mental strength, the crew she wishes she could bring with her, and the lessons she expects to take home from the top of the world.
The Expedition: Background & Preparation
I wouldn't be able to pinpoint one exact moment - the idea grew bit by bit. Iv’e always been fascinated by the arctic, and the more involved I got with sailing, the more I started imagining sailing as being a way of seeing the Arctic. So, I started looking into the possibility of completing the infamous Northwest passage. That led me to learn more and more about Arctic weather and sea ice, and the incredible sea ice decline we're currently witnessing. When I started to realise just how unaware of the effects of climate change in the Arctic I was, I knew I wanted to showcase it and highlight it to as many people as possible, and that's where the circumnavigation campaign started from.
I remember starting out in small dinghies on a lake in Ipswich as a young child - mostly I think as a way for my parents to keep me occupied during school holidays. When we moved to France, I was about 8/9 years old, and shortly after moving there, Dad purchased a Moody, and we used to sail the Mediterranean during school holidays as a familyl, with my mum and my brother. Dad sold the boat when I was barely a teenager, and I didn’t really get back into sailing after that until I was in my 20's. At 24 I did my Yachtmaster Offshore and my Cruising Instructor licenses, and at 25 I became one of the RYA's youngest-ever female Yachtmaster Instductors.
Teaching has been a wonderful career change for me, and I've done that full-time for the last 3 years, stopping only in April 2934 to be able to take Yeva off on our training sails over the summrr.
It's going to be an incredibly bittersweet record to set. If i achieve my goal of the first ever single-handed circumnavigation of the Arctic circle, it will be testament to how quickly we are losing such a wonderful yet fragile part of our planet. Whether you feel it or not at home, we wre intricately linked to the Arctic and to its survival, and the repercussions of losing summer sea ice will be felt around the world. If there’s one thing I would like people to take away from this, it would be for them to feel closer and more tied to the Arctic, such that they look at their day to day lives and make more climate-aware choices in their daily habits that will help us to preserve the future of the Arcitc Ocean.
I don’t know That I have found any “surprises” as such in the challenges of getting ready, but there certainly have been a large amount of challenges to face. The most obvious perhaps being raising the necessary sponsorships and funding - a feat which took over 3 years to ahcieve. I am profoundly greatful for my partners at Capital.com and each and every sponsor that has come aboard this project with me, but it took a lot of convincing and perserverance! The extent of my own training for this challenge has also been greater than I originally anticipated - going so far as to learn how to place a cannula in my own vein and do my own stitches, should I be injured out of reach of help. There are challenges both physical and mental, financial and political to overcome with an expedition of this geographical scale. But so far, hard work and asking politely had definitely paid off, and I've received tremedous amounts of
support throughout, which I am very thankful for!
Yes, the SES have been a wonderful support! They've helped me bring into the campaign a scientific purpose, which I always wanted to include. I’m going to be doing mircoplastics sampling and depth sounding the sea beds as we go, which I’m super excited about. I look forward to helping us better understand what's happening in the remote corners of the Arctic that so few people traverse. The SES also have a wealth of knowledge spread across the members of the club, and it’s wonderful to be able to tap into that resource, as well as to learn about so many other incredible expeditions, explorers and adventurers across the globe, all raising awareness and inspiring in their own fields. I’m very proud to be Endorsed by them!
I’ve always been quite good in my own company, and found this year in my training sails that I was able to stay calm even when things went wrong - like total steerage failure of the boat in the middle of the Barents Sea. The key to that is in the preparation - knowing that you have a back-up for every system, and knowing how to use them, like my Hyrdovane, which became my emergency tiller for the two days it took me to get Yeva into Longyearbyen after the steerage failed. There’s almost always something to do on board- cooking, tidying up, checking the deck and the rigging, adjusting sails as needed, and any moment you can, getting a 20 minute sleep. When there's ice around, I’ll be on look-out and high alert, which in itself is mental stimulation. I think if anything the bigger challenge will be achieving enough rest, rather than getting bored or concerned with my own solitude.
Unfortunately nothing very exciting! Predominantly pastas and freeze dried rations, with vitamin supplements, lots of dried fruits and nuts, and the necessary sweet treat / chocolate to perk me up when needed. I also don't drink tea or coffee, so I'll mainly be consuming water, and hot chocolate when cold. Hot chocolate is definitely a guilty pleasure / comfort of mine, and I've actually partnered with the Adventurer’s Drinks Company to produce our very own hot choccy, which is delicious!
I think the sail generator from Eclectic Energy is one of my favourite bits of kit from this summer, generating enough power when towed bhind Yeva under sail to allow me to keep the fridge, RADAR, navigational equipment and basically anything else fully charged. I’m looking forward next year to getting to use the water maker more, too, as I didn't need it much this summer since I was in port often, but that's going to play a huge role in enabling me to keep moving next year instead of having to pull into harbour.
Let’s talk contingencies: Have you prepped for some of the more extreme “what-if” scenarios?
Absolutely – a lot of the perparation is planning for the worst, and then making sure it doesn’t happen. Now, I can’t control the weather or the wildlife, but I can make sure Yeva and I are as ready as possible for any scenario. There is a very large amount of
spares on board – we’ve turned the whole bow cabin into shelving and storage to accommodate it all. I carry a spare for each sail and two storm jibs, as well as a sea anchor and over 200 metres of warp to tow if needed. I’ll be heading out into the English Channel in the spring to fine-tune my heavy weather tactics once Yeva’s had some shipyard time pre-Christmas. As for the wildlife, the plan is very much to only admire it from a very safe distance. If I have to drop anchor, I will have to maintain vigilance and keep look-out for potential polar bears, but the chances of an encounter whilst constantly moving are greatly reduced. I will be carrying additional flares to use as scare tactics also.
Foundations of Mental Strength
I think my awareness of how important mental strength would be came from watching and reading accounts of other sailors who have overcome huge obstacles in their own journeys – women like Pip Hare, Kristen Neuschafer, Deep Caffari, Jessica Watson.
What’s the most mentally challenging moment you’ve faced so far in preparing for this expedition, and how did you push through it?
The most mentally challenging moment so far occurred during my training sails last summer. I had left Shetland headed for Scotland’s north coast, and in the dead of night noticed Yeva had flooded to the floorboards – I needed to divert to safe haven. The nearest was in Fair Isle, a couple of hours away. The darkness that night was absolute, with howling winds and freezing cold sweeping rain driving hard down on the boat. The waves were too choppy for the autopilot to be any good, and I was hand-steering on deck, straining hard to find the lights to lead me into shelter. The entrance to the little bay was minute, a challenging approach in those conditions in the daylight, let alone in the dark, and then I had to drop sails inside whilst keeping Yeva off the shallows, unable to see the dock until some kind gentlemen came and braved the weather to turn the floodlights on and catch my lines.
As a one-off, this moment wouldn’t have had such an impact on me, but it was one of my last passages of the season, having fought to get Yeva home from Svalbard after losing steerage on the way there. She’d flooded more than once by this point, and although I knew what the issue was, it was a job only a lift-out and a weld could fix, and that’s what I was getting us back to the mainland for. The main reason this moment was so mentally challenging wasn’t just because of the repetitive nature of what had happened, but because of how exhausted I was when it occurred.
It just culminated in a feeling of complete despair – fatigue and exasperation fuelling my feelings. I managed to push through it by keeping busy – the boat almost always has demands of its crew. Secure her alongside, check fenders, add more fenders, engine off, tidy sails away, take off wet weather gear, put heating on, pump bilges dry, rewire broken bilge pump connections, dry floorboards.
As I worked through each of these jobs I didn’t have time to let the emotions take over, and once they were done, I had naturally calmed down. I could assess the situation for what it was, and reflect upon my handling of it. I could see that I had managed to safely get my boat into port, despite the challenges, and I could appreciate myself for that. Of course, having a nice warm bed to crawl into helped, and I managed a few hours much-needed sleep before setting off at the crack of dawn to head to the next destination again.
Can you describe a situation during your preparation where your mindset made the difference between giving up and moving forward?
I think there’s been a couple of moments when some might have thrown in the towel, but the first that comes to mind when asked that question is how I felt during the months and years of trying to find the financial backing the expedition needed. There’s only so many emails, phone calls, visits, and interviews you can get rejected from before you start wondering if it was ever going to happen. If it would be easier to give up instead of chasing this elusive partner that you’ve heard of but never met.
You see all the infamous sailors in the Vendée globe, sponsored for millions of pounds, and you know what you’re seeking is just a drop in the ocean compared to that, but you don’t have any contacts in large corporations and you have no idea how to write a good sponsorship pitch. I must have hundreds and hundreds of emails and pitches, and most of the time wouldn’t even
get a “no” as a response – I just wouldn’t get a response at all.
I am glad I kept pushing, even when it seemed like it would never happen. I chose to back myself, and luckily that risk paid off eventually.
Tools & Techniques for Mental Resilience
I am hoping to collect a little box full of letters and notes of encouragement from friends, sponsors, family and followers to take with me to open at certain milestones, or when I need a pick-me-up.
I love music, my Spotify playlists have well over 2 or 3000 songs now, for all sorts of moods and mindsets. I can't sing or dance to save my life, but I like to have an almost constant source of music on the go. I like to read as well, although more so in calmer seas. Most of the time sleep is the thing to prioritise, and rare are the days when I've had enough of it to read instead of napping, but I do bring downloaded movies and books to enjoy.
To be honest, something like a sweet treat is my go-to on bad days, when I need a boost. Celebrating small wins is usually done by just taking a breather. If the sun is out, I'll leave the hyrdovane taking care of steering, and I'll go and stretch out on the coach roof, admiring the scenery, and the serenity that comes with knowing that today was a particularly good day.
After something has gone wrong, getting into bed is the best reward for me. I tend not to rest until the issue is resolved. - whether that’s steering through a storm, or fixing broken equipment; which means I'm kitted up in all the wet weather gear and the
heavy duty boots. I associate my clothing and my environment with my feelings, so being able to give yourself the chance to take those wet, heavy layers off, and swap them for soft, cosy pyjamas and tuck up into a blanket, head up against a cool pillow, that really tells my mind and my body that it's OK now, the hard part's over, and it's okay to let go and rest. Those kind of naps are the best feeling!
I think being able to compartmentalise is a crucial skill for this kind of expedition. There is a mind-boggling amount of preparation to undertake, and without the ability to task-focus and prioritise, it would be easy to overlook and forget certain things. I'll very much be carrying that mentality into the expedition as well. I have ‘daily’, ‘weekly’ and ‘monthly’ checklists to complete on board which help me stay focused, as well as the ability to focus on one thing at a time when things aren't going to plan. Trying to do too much too fast is where mistakes are made, and we have to fight that natural urge to try and resolve an issue as fast as possible, in exchange for
I've mentioned briefly about the comfort of my bed - it's one area I won't skimp on. Mattress toppers and super soft blankets - I even have a silk pillowcase! I spend such a short amount of time in it every day that I love for it to feel so welcoming. It encourages me to fall asleep faster and to sleep better than a beanbag on the floor like the hard-core Vendee globe-rs. I also have some sentimental elements - the necklace I wear, and photos of my family on board.
Handling High Pressure & Unpredictability
How do you mentally prepare for the unknown and unpredictable challenges you might face?
Preparing for the unknown is one of the hardest tasks to imagine. I try and think of every single worst-case scenario and then plan not only how to avoid it from happening, but how I would react in every eventuality. I have back-ups for my back-ups, spares for my spares, and training for all potential worst cases, including medical training, fire fighting, sea survival, and fire arms training.
Leaving no stone unturned in the preparation gives you the mental confidence that you are as ready as you can be for whatever gets thrown at you. Then, it's a case of having faith in that skill set you have if thr time ever comes that you may need it.
I have back-ups for my back-ups, spares for my spares, and training for all potential worst cases
Of course, there will always be setbacks. Mostly unforseen. I like to remind myself that it happens when it's right, and if it's not right now, it's for a reason I can't see yet, but that will come to light later. We can't always control what happens to us, but we can always control our reaction to it. I will spring into action at a setback, figuring out how to proceed, instead of letting it knock me down or put me off. When there's a will.
Have you ever faced overwhelming doubt or fear in the preparation process? How do you manage and reframe those emotions?
I haven’t faced what I would call overwhelming doubt or fear, as I think to be overwhelmed would be synonymous to giving up. I have had doubts and fears but none that couldn’t be rationalised. I like to talk these through out loud, to friends or family. Even if they can’t help me find an answer right away, just hearing myself voice it can help me overcome it and find a way forwards.
