Welcome to my Journeys
My new departure date from Victoria B.C. is 3rd October 2018
Jeanne’s circumnavigation attempts in 2016 ran into problems…. Her sights were then set on starting again on 5th October 2017 but an unfortunate accident meant postponing that attempt to 2018.
Two attempts to start off down the Pacific from Victoria, B.C. - on 19th October and on 13th November - were thwarted in 2016. This was planned to be a fourth solo circumnavigation and a second sail nonstop and unassisted around the world but stormy weather twice caused damage, firstly requiring a return to Victoria for repairs and the next time forcing her to pull in to San Diego for further work.
She was all set to re-start on 5th October 2017 from Victoria, B.C. but she suffered a nasty fall from a ladder at deck-level onto the hard just a week before her planned departure. She's now recuperating well, despite several broken bones, but has had to postpone this attempt to October 2018.
(Unexpected high medical expenses, as a result of her fall, have now been incurred, adding to costs of recent repairs needed to gooseneck and small generator, which were over and above the cost of preparing the boat for such an attempt over several months, including re-rigging (ready for exposure to heavy weather), replacing worn items, provisioning for that length of time, etc. Those costs have been very expensive, so if you’d like to help by contributing however little towards her costs, it would be very much appreciated - there’s a Paypal link here.)
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The UK’s RNLI is independent of government funding and the crews of the RNLI lifeboats are all volunteers. They need our support to keep them well-trained and their equipment up to date if they're to be able to launch safely and succeed in their lifesaving efforts night and day.
Please donate what you can, using the 'Lifeboats' link, to show your support for my efforts to complete a circuit around the globe single-handed, via Cape Horn, under sail alone and without setting foot on land until I finish.
I expect to be at sea for around 7-8 months nonstop, hoping to get safely around the Five Great Capes of the Southern Ocean and back to my starting point without any outside help and without using my motor (which will be sealed).
I'll post daily blogs to my website and I'll be talking each day to people on land around the world using my HF/SSB radio, which I use for emails and weather info as well - so I shan't be quite alone!
If any problems arise (and they usually do!), I'll have to deal with them using tools & spares I'll carry onboard ... and 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 water-maker (desalinator) working 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 backup generator to help on windless, overcast days and/or when I’ve used the radio a lot.
I'll do my own weather routing using my radio to get the information - 'grib' weather files will come as email attachments and weather faxes will come direct from onshore transmitters located beside whichever sea area I happen to be in.
It's useful to know when a storm is expected - they're very frequent over a good part of my route - and in planning my route I'll try to stay out of both calms and storms and in favourable wind as much as possible.
I'm hoping to use my sextant to practise navigation skills made rusty from frequent use of GPS. The Southern Ocean is often overcast so taking regular sights won't always be possible - but when well offshore, in the middle of an ocean, that's not a problem!
This will be my fourth solo circumnavigation and, I hope, my second successful nonstop one - your support will mean a lot to me and help me to succeed. When I finish, I'll become the oldest person to have sailed around the world nonstop, solo and unassisted.
Jeanne Socrates, aboard S/V Nereida, successfully completed a nonstop, single-handed, unassisted sail around the world at 2:26 a.m. on Monday 8th July 2013, when she passed Ogden Point at the entrance to Victoria Harbour, 259 days after leaving Victoria in October 2012.
She became the first woman to sail solo nonstop around the world from North America and the oldest woman to sail solo nonstop around the world (a record noted in the Guinness Book of Records)
This was her third attempt to circumnavigate solo, nonstop and unassisted - eastabout via Cape Horn and the Southern Ocean - all attempts made without the help of a shore-based support team .... "My team is simply 'Nereida' and me!"
She received the Ocean Cruising Club's Special Award on landfall and, in April 2014, their Barton Cup. On 7th March 2014, she was presented with the Cruising Club of America's 'Blue Water Medal' and, in April, with the Royal Cruising Club's 'Seamanship Medal'. She was short-listed both for the 'Yachtsman of the Year Award' (U.K.) and also for the 'Yachtworld Hero of the Year Award' (U.S.A.).
Previous awards received have been the "Duchess of Kent Trophy" (January 2012, from the Cruising Association) and the Award of Merit (2011) and Rose Medal (2009) (both from the Ocean Cruising Club).
In August 2012, she became the oldest woman to have circumnavigated solo via the Five Great Capes of the Southern Ocean.
She had previously, March 2007- June 2008, circumnavigated solo westabout via the Panama Canal to within 60 miles of her original starting point - the final leg of that circumnavigation eventually being completed in June 2016 (see below).
(See 'Travels' for an overview of her solo passages and for maps showing her position as she sailed around the world from 2004 onward. See her complete Diary/Web Log here and see 'Articles and Interviews' for some magazine, TV and radio reports.)
Where are Jeanne and "Nereida" now? ..... Click here to find out
Jeanne Socrates’ single-handed circumnavigations from 2007 onward…
1) - from Mexico on 25th March 2007, heading westabout back to Mexico, mainly through the Tropics, pausing in many of the well-known cruising haunts;
2) - 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, ending in the Strait of Juan de Fuca;
3)- second nonstop attempt, from Victoria (B.C.) in October 2010, with a knockdown in January 2011, west of Cape Horn, ending her nonstop plan… But by continuing eastabout to the Falklands, S. Africa, Tasmania, New Zealand and then on to Tahiti and Hawaii, she completed a solo circumnavigation rounding the Five Great Capes of the Southern Ocean, finally reaching the Strait of Juan de Fuca on 1st August 2012.
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)
4) - third nonstop attempt ... started 22nd October 2012 from Victoria, B.C., and returned to Victoria in the early darkness hours of 8th July 2013, after well over 25,700 n.ml. and almost 260 days of sailing singlehanded, nonstop, unassisted around the globe, with well over three months being spent in the Southern Ocean, where Cape Horn was successfully rounded (without major incident this time) early in January.
