Welcome to my Journey
Jeanne Socrates’ single-handed circumnavigations from 2007 onward…
SPECIAL UPDATE: 10th May 2013
NOTE FROM JEANNE: My computer is non-functional and can not be fixed, so I am without direct email capability for the rest of the trip. My friends have set up an email-to-radio relay for me with an email address of my radio call sign (KC2IOV) at mv dot com. Please use this email address for any important messages but understand that everything gets relayed to me over the radio and so the capacity is very limited. I will reply to email as soon as I can but there may be long delays in replying and some messages may not be replied to until I make landfall at the end of my trip. But as of this date I am doing well! Note: Any Yahoo Group members' replies to my email will not have been received."
- from Mexico on 25th March 2007, heading westabout, pausing in all the usual cruising places;
- first nonstop attempt in 2009 from the Canaries, in the new Nereida, being forced to stop in Cape Town for repairs, then heading on eastabout to New Zealand and Hawaii;
- second nonstop attempt, from Victoria (B.C.) in October 2010, with a knockdown in January 2011 ending that attempt… But by continuing eastabout to the Falklands, S. Africa, Tasmania and on to Tahiti and Hawaii, I then managed the completion of a circumnavigation via the Five Great Capes of the Southern Ocean when I reached the Strait of Juan de Fuca on 1st August 2012.
My third nonstop attempt starts in October 2012 from Victoria (B.C.) and I hope to return there in May/June 2013 – see my daily log and position reports for news of my progress.
The Five Great Capes are: Cape Horn (Chile), Cape of Good Hope (S. Africa), Cape Leeuwin (Australia), S.E. Cape of Tasmania (Australia), S.W. Cape of Stewart Island (New Zealand)
Second Nonstop Attempt / Knockdown / Circumnavigation via the Five Great Capes: 25th Oct 2010 – 1st Aug 2012
My second nonstop attempt started from Victoria (B.C.) on 25th October 2010, but damage caused by a bad knockdown, over 100 miles west of Cape Horn on Day 72 (5th January 2011), ended the nonstop attempt. After rounding Cape Horn unassisted and making basic repairs in Ushuaia, I continued eastabout to the Falklands, Cape Town (S. Africa), Hobart (Tasmania) and on to Tahiti and Hawaii. I then managed to complete a single-handed circumnavigation via the Five Great Capes of the Southern Ocean when I reached the Strait of Juan de Fuca on 1st August 2012.
First Nonstop Attempt, started November 2009
The new Nereida was commissioned on the River Hamble, near Southampton Water, over April to June 2009, after being fitted out in Sweden at the beginning of the year. She's a Najad 380, which is the updated, re-designed version of my previous Najad 361. I've made many changes and additions, so she's not a 'standard' N380 (one obvious, major change being that she's cutter-rigged, not a sloop). (See 'Boat Details' )
My plan was to trial her thoroughly around the Solent and Guernsey, before setting off towards the Canaries in early August 2009, with a 12-day offshore passage in early September from St Peterport (Guernsey) down towards Puerto Calero in Isla Lanzarote (Canaries). There I checked/repaired everything thoroughly again, eventually leaving in early November – near the beginning of the Southern summer. Starting from the Atlantic, planning to sail east-about nonstop in higher latitudes, passing south of the Five Great Capes, which include Cape Horn, I expected the journey through the Southern Ocean back to the Canaries to take 6-7 months….
I headed down to South Africa.... but rigging and other problems forced me in to Cape Town and this turned into a three-month stop for an engine replacement with improved installation details. I changed my plans, entering the Single-handed TransPac race from San Francisco to Kauai (Hawaii) - but time ran out, with stormy weather encountered in the Great Australian Bight and around New Zealand, and I only managed, with difficulty, to reach Hanalei Bay in time for the SHTP Awards evening, by which time I’d decided to head for Port Townsend (WA, USA) to work on the boat with a view to re-starting my nonstop round-the-world attempt from Victoria (B.C., Canada) later that year.
My Previous Solo Circumnavigation, 26th March 2007 – 19th June 2008
On 15th August 2006, I completed a 'NE Pacific Loop' by sailing to Sitka from Hanalei Bay in Kauai after the finish of the Single-Handed Transpac Race to Hawaii from San Francisco (which I’d started on 24th June 2006).
I'd left Sitka the previous year (2005) as part of a cruise of SE Alaska, sailed down the Inside Passage to British Columbia and on to Puget Sound, where I was forced to stop for the winter months, and then on to San Francisco offshore in May 2006.
As a result of these ocean passages, and having to overcome the varied problems that cropped up en route, I gained in confidence tremendously and set my sights on sailing around the world.
I sailed down from Sitka in September '06 to San Diego, via the Inside Passage & the West coast of Vancouver Island, making the journey from Neah Bay singlehanded offshore to San Francisco for my third time in October '06. After some necessary work there, it was on to San Diego for a lot more work on the boat with my circumnavigation in mind. Then came a fast journey offshore down the Baja (Mexico) in February, ending eventually in Zihuatanejo (Mexico) from where my solo journey around the world finally started on Monday 26th March '07.
I reached Cairns (Australia) on 11th July '07, Richards Bay (South Africa) on 16th November '07 and left Trinidad for Panama on 1st May '08. After reaching the west coast of Mexico from Guatemala, I was making for San Francisco for the start of the 2008 Single-Handed TransPac Race but was then incredibly unlucky to lose "Nereida" on a steep surf beach north of Acapulco, less than twelve hours and about sixty miles short of completing my circumnavigation, on 19th June '08.
(See Travels page for more details of my route and for maps showing my position as I sailed around.)