dropdown Ellen Smith was born on 8 July 1976 in Derbyshire, England. She is 38 years old. When she was eight years old, her aunt took her sailing and Ellen fell in love with the sea. She didn't live near the sea, so she couldn't learn to sail, but Ellen spent a lot of time reading stories and books about sailing. dropdown She saved all her money and bought a boat. When she was a child, Ellen wanted to work with animals. But when she was 17, she changed her mind and decided to become a sailor. When she was 18, Ellen sailed round Britain alone in her boat Iduna. dropdown Then, in 1997, when she was 20, Ellen went to France. She learned French, bought a boat called Le Poisson ('the fish') and did a lot of work on it. She sailed Le Poisson 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in the Mini Transat solo race and finished 17th. dropdown In 2005, Ellen became world-famous when she sailed her boat 27,000 miles around the world alone. The journey took 71 days, 14 hours and 18 minutes and she broke the world record. She said, she wasn't lonely during her journey . 'I never needed anyone,' she said. 'Sailing is my job and I get to do what I love every day.