Record-breaker Jeanne Socrates is off again!
B ritish sailor Jeanne Socrates, 74, is preparing to attempt a fourth solo circumnavigation, starting this October.
Three years ago, Jeanne became the first woman to sail solo non-stop around the world from North America and the oldest woman to sail solo non-stop around the world (as noted in the Guinness Book of Records). The achievement in her Najad 380 yacht Nereida marked Jeanne’s third attempt to circumnavigate solo, nonstop and unassisted, east-about via Cape Horn and the Southern Ocean.
The first attempt resulted in the total loss of her boat, and during the second her yacht was knocked down off Cape Horn and Jeanne was forced to put into port for extensive repairs. Although she completed the circumnavigation, the non-stop challenge eluded her until 8 July 2013 when she arrived back at Victoria, BC, Canada after 258 days, 14 hours, 16 minutes and 36 seconds at sea.
Another successful circumnavigation would see Jeanne break the record of becoming the oldest person to have sailed around the world non-stop, solo, and unassisted.
New challenge
The forthcoming voyage is expected to take Jeanne seven to eight months, sailing around the Five Great Capes of the Southern Ocean and back to her starting point without any outside help and without using her motor (which will be sealed).
Jeanne, a grandmother from London, said: ‘If any problems arise, I’ll have to deal with them using tools and spares I’ll carry on board. All food for my time at sea will need to be with me from the start of my journey: fresh eggs turned daily should last several months, onions and potatoes most of the way, and I’ll also have canned and dried foods.
‘Drinking water will come from a watermaker running off my batteries, and I’ll have long-life milk and fruit juices as ballast! My batteries will be mainly powered by the sun and the wind, with a small backup generator.
‘I’ll do my own weather routing using my HF radio to get the information – and I’m hoping to use my sextant to practise navigation skills made rusty from frequent use of GPS.’
Jeanne, who learnt to sail in her late 40s, has been busy repairing and improving Nereida for the past two-and-a-half years. In 1997 she and her husband George commissioned the first Nereida and sailed from the UK across the Atlantic. After George’s death from cancer, Jeanne decided to carry on sailing single-handed. Her latest challenge is raising funds for the RNLI: www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/Jeanne-Socrates1. Follow Jeanne’s blog at www.svnereida.com.