On my 60th birthday, I started posting here about my experience of reporting (non-recent) rape and abuse. I’m a liveaboard sailor, and often during this time I felt the loneliness of being many miles away from family and friends. I reached out to sailing sisters in the Women Who Sail Facebook group, and was humbled by the waves of support and understanding I received.

I was reminded of the women I have met on the way, both sailing sisters and land friends, who have been facing their own #metoo situations. Because I work for a survivor organisation and am quite open about my experience, we have had those kind of conversations quite a lot, including a few times when a woman was in an unsafe situation on her boat, and needed to talk through her options. How important those conversations are.

It made me think about how hard it can be for a sailing sister, if something happens when you are far from home, and perhaps stuck with your abuser on a small boat. Or, as happened to one woman I met, abandoned by your captain in a remote area in a foreign land. Where can you go for help then? So I have started collecting links to different support agencies around the world (see below), to create a resource for #seatoo situations.

I will add to this over time and in response to suggestions. Please help by sending information from your country, and ideas of what other resources would be useful.

If you are facing a #seatoo or #metoo situation now, and would appreciate an understanding companion to walk beside you, please contact me. Wherever I am, I will respond as soon as I can, and can offer a listening ear, the empathy of shared experience and I hope a compassionate and loving heart to walk that thorny path with you. You are not alone.

All adult (16+) survivors, of all kinds of abuse and any gender, are welcome to join Survivors Voices, for peer support and survivor activism. Allies, supporters and professionals are welcome too.

International Support Agencies and Helplines

Pandora’s Project:
Rape support links
Global Women’s Organisations list
Global Network of Women’s Shelters
National Centre on Domestic & Sexual Violence (list of international links)

Befrienders Worldwide: you can search for listening services/helplines worldwide in any language

Find a Helpline: Directory of UK based helplines