Solo Circumnavigators and the trouble they get into - Jeanne Socrates

by Nancy Knudsen on 13 Mar 2010 Jeanne Socrates, 60-something, and the female answer to Japan's eight-time-circumnavigator and 76-year-old Minoru Saito, has been forced to postpone her bid to sail solo around the world non-stop after being hit by engine problems. Jeanne is no stranger to disappointment, nor to triumph. Since she started sailing in 1990, she's had 'a bit of everything'

In June, 2008, just as she was 60 miles and a half-day sail from the completion of a circumnavigation of the world she was shipwrecked off the coast of Mexico, waking in the middle of the night to find her yacht Nereida beached on the shore of Playa Michigan, near Acapulco.

The extraordinary thing about Jeanne is that she didn't begin to learn to sail until 1990, when she was in her forties, and then cruised with her husband for many years until he lost a struggle with cancer in 2003. Not wanting to give up her new cruising life, Jeanne began to learn all the skills she needed to be a single-handed sailor, and contintued to sail, racking up thousands of miles crossing oceans.

In the current voyage, the former maths teacher set sail from Hamble in June. She then commenced her non-stop attempt, a 25,000-mile journey which was to take her south of all the great southern capes, from Lanzarote in September.

But after more than 60 days at sea Jeanne was forced to pull into Cape Town in South Africa after water got into the engine of her 38ft yacht Nereida.

The engine problems were more disappointing because this Nereida was a new boat, a Najad 380, the updated, re-designed, faster version of her previous Najad 361. The new Nereida had been converted to a cutter, a rig found by many short-handed sailors ideal for long range cruising.

However, Jeanne, who is raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Care in memory of her late husband George and never one to give up, has vowed to re-start the voyage in October this year from Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

Jeanne said recently: “I expected my non-stop circumnavigation to take around seven months and to be quite a challenge but I never expected to have to deal with quite so many problems as I did on the way down the south Atlantic.

“With a new engine installed in Cape Town and other repairs also completed, I’m now ready to continue heading east from South Africa, to pass south of Cape Leeuwin, Australia, towards Tasmania. I’ll then head up west of New Zealand and on to Hawaii.

“If the timing looks good, I’ll continue to San Francisco to start the Singlehanded TransPac Race in mid-June.”

... just something to keep her busy until she departs for her next solo non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation.

Sail-World Cruising will be following Jeanne's amazing adventures, so keep reading for updates.