[2] After learning how to sail as a teenager, she began to race lasers and was a member of the twelve-foot skiff club.
[4] Her education was at Marist Sisters' College, Woolwich, an all girl secondary school in the suburbs of Sydney.
She said she once told her crew when they were absolutely exhausted, "If you don't try now and we lose that world record by one second, you will never forgive yourself but if you put everything into it, then you know you've done what could be done to complete it".
She has been the navigator on four line honours winners in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race including Wild Oats.
[5][6] Cahalan was awarded Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours for service to sailing.