Third time lucky?
The indomitable Jeanne Socrates has set off once again on an attempt to sail round the world single-handed, non-stop. Socrates, 76, a former maths lecturer who took up solo voyaging after losing her husband to cancer, is on her third attempt to become the oldest person to circumnavigate alone non-stop. She already has three solo circumnavigations behind her.
Socrates is sailing her Najad
380, Nereida. She left from Vancouver in October and hopes to round Cape Horn by Christmas and return to Canada in May. The record she is hunting is currently held by Minoru Saito of Japan.
Socrates, a winner of the prestigious Cruising Club of America Blue Water Medal, was hoping to leave earlier this year but had to shelve plans after falling from a ladder while working on her boat, and fracturing her neck. The accident has left her with restricted range of movement in her neck, but she says: “I’m pleased to say my bad accident last year seems not to have affected my ability to sail Nereida. I was very lucky to end up intact, or nearly so.”
“I’m trying for the oldest person record since I already have the oldest female but, to be honest, that’s just an excuse for some longdistance sailing which also gives me a chance to try to support the work of the RNLI,” she told us. “I’ve made excellent speed south so far, apart from an initial couple of days stuck in a storm.”
More info: www.svnereida.com