70-Year-Old Woman About to Complete Solo “Five Cape” Circumnavigation

Nothing can stop her now! Amazing 70-year-old Jeanne Socrates is due to create multiple world records when she reaches Victoria, British Columbia on the west coast of Canada this week. She will be the oldest woman (by far) to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world by sailing south of the Five Great Capes of the Southern Ocean. But, because it was not non-stop it’s not good enough for her.

The five capes are: Cape Horn (South America), Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), Cape Leeuwin (West Australia), South East Cape of Tasmania, South West Cape of New Zealand.

The last two Capes were rounded by her on this present set of passages for the first time. Being so far south, well into the Southern Ocean, they can be difficult to round. Weather in that area is often nasty, especially coming into winter, so Jeanne was happy to have done so safely despite the time of year.

Jeanne is expected to “close the circle” on Wednesday, August 1st when she reaches Tatoosh Island, near Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. She will make landfall later that same day in Victoria, B.C., after about 20 days of passage on her final leg from Hawaii.

She will have sailed over 28,800 miles, with just over 250 days at sea, on this circumnavigation, but not nonstop, as she had hoped when she left Victoria in October 2010. So naturally, she’s planning to re-start her nonstop attempt in October!

She says, “I felt decidedly cheated when I was knocked down in January last year while trying to play safe by heaving-to in bad weather before rounding Cape Horn. If that hadn’t happened, I’m convinced I’d have completed my nonstop attempt by May/June of last year, so I’m going to give it one last try. If that doesn’t work out, it clearly wasn’t meant to be & I’ll go back to relaxed cruising in company with friends.”

Courtesy of www.sail-world.com