A trailblazing Maltese sailor will be launching a new book detailing her exploits as she and her husband sailed halfway around the world, with her in command.

Christina Gillgren is used to breaking frontiers: back in the 1970s, then Christina Gatt, she was the only woman among a few dozen people taking the RYA instructors course at the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

A keen dinghy sailor who had already represented Malta at championships in the Netherlands, she and her husband, Bjorn, had already travelled extensively, most notably to Iran, and lived abroad since 1982. Her husband’s job as an electronics engineer had eventually taken them to Australia, not a moment too soon for her.

A Little Bit of Mischief will be launched in Malta.A Little Bit of Mischief will be launched in Malta.

“Chernobyl had made us realise we wanted clean air. Europe felt so tired,” she said.

But the years since took their toll. Her PhD in political science landed her a job as public policy advisor to the Premier of Western Australia. Her husband was head of the occupational health and safety authority. Both high stress jobs.

They first saw their dream boat, a Moody 425, in New Zealand in 2006 and realised it was the way to make their wish of sailing into the sunset come true. Their two children had by then grown up: it seemed that the stars were aligned.

They started kitting the boat out for the journey. They moved onto Mischief in December 2007 and, by April 2008 – when they were both 54 – were ready to cast off, bound for Malta.

It was not as difficult as you would think, she said, smiling, adding that the rental from their house in Perth financed the trip.

It took them one-and-a-half years to get to the Mediterranean Sea via the Red Sea and they then explored the native waters for four years before coming into Malta.

“It was a bit of a shock for some of the officials we came across,” she laughed, “because I was the captain of the boat. I am a qualified ocean yacht master but when they asked for the boat papers, they always assumed that Bjorn was the skipper. I wonder if I am the first female Maltese skipper to cross the Indian Ocean,” she pondered.

Of all the experiences, Ms Gillgren speaks most fondly of the friends they made, “bonds which transcend all others”.

“I also learned how little properties and possessions mean. I find it very difficult to remember why they were important at one time,” she says.

Family commitments meant they had to make a base in Malta but the boat could not be part of that base, she recalled, adding that its Australian flag and their Australian passports forced them to let Mischief go.

I wonder if I amthe first female Maltese skipper to cross the Indian Ocean

“It was a centre cockpit boat, which is not the best for the Mediterranean Sea,” she said, with more than a twinge of nostalgia.

It was the sort of trip bound to bring with it adventures, positive and negative, as they edged their way across the oceans.

During the voyage, Ms Gillgren wrote articles for the Australian media and also kept a blog, so a considerable amount of material had accumulated. It was the most natural thing to do to put it all together in a book, which she has called A Little Bit of Mischief, which will be launched in Malta.

What comes next? They plan to return to Australia at the end of the year and she intends to take up the activist role she had before she left. One thing that has roused her passion is the amount of rubbish in the sea.

“I had no idea of the situation until we saw barges loaded with rubbish in Indonesia just being tipped into the sea. Compared with the way things were in the 1970s, even the Mediterranean has become a tip,” she noted.

Funnily enough, the best shoreline was in Turkey, where they have really strict rules, even about pumping the ‘black’ water from a boat’s tanks.

“Being out there and seeing the plastic pollution for yourself makes you realise that we all need to be part of the solution and not part of the problem,” Ms Gillgren said.

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