Plastic Classic Forum

Point of interest:
I caught a TV news-flash Sunday evening, telling of an English woman from London ... I assume they meant London England (she had a Brit accent) and not London ON Canada or some other country ... She was just then departing Victoria, BC Canada for a solo circumnavigation.
Apparently this is the third attempt she has made. The first one ended when she was wrecked on a shoreline, the second ended when her engine "gave up the ghost" becoming non-repairable. (???)
What is most interesting, this woman is a "senior" having recently celebrated her 67th birthday.
Apparently her late husband taught her to sail just a few years ago. Oh well ... good for her. I hope she realises her dream.
I only caught a split second look at her boat, it looked pretty nice (expensive) but I have no idea what make etc.

I googled up a news article - LINK, which inclued the address of her blog, at http://www.svnereida.com/.

Looks like a pretty fancy boat.

That's Jeannie Socrates. Cool woman, from what I have read. I don't read all of her logs but have read some. She's tough! I don't mean in a macho way, but just.... some of the passages and things she does.... I have a lot of respect for her. She has a really good attitude when things start to go pear shaped. Plus, it's just nice to see someone out doing it who is not 15. In fact, she kept her age on the QT until just recently because she feels that once people hear you are "a certain age" they think you have to start doddering.

If I remember correctly she and her husband were cruising together when he died "early." She decided to keep on cruising.

On her first circumnavigation she was coming up the Pacific coast of Mexico, I think less than 100 miles from crossing her outbound track, when her boat was wrecked on the beach. I think she took a nap and her autopilot went funky and took her in the "wrong" direction. I was not reading her blog then; just read the article in Latitude 38.

The reference to her engine keeping her from completing her second circumnavigation as planned is because she stopped in Cape Town with engine trouble and for some reason had to stay there three months, which put her out of season. Since she knew she could not finish that one anyway, she decided to zip over to Hawaii and meet the Single Handed Transpackers as they came in (she had raced it previously). That little side jaunt included a non-stop from New Zealand to Hawaii (gah!).

So, now she's decided to try a non-stop run from Victoria, BC. I think she's got a good chance of it. Good amount of grit and a good head on her shoulders. I'll have to start reading her blog again. Latitude 38 ('lectronic) just had a blurb about her leaving, and they mentioned that her engine is somehow wired for only neutral - and maybe reverse? And there are some sort of monitors somewhere on the boat, I think.

Rachel

Rachel ... you never cease to amaze with your abundance of knowledge and well written comments on so many things. Thanks for this, I think I'll follow up on this gutsy woman in order to satisfy the "armchair" sailor in me for this type of long distance voyaging.

The closest I'll ever come to doing something similar will be a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island ... if I ever get this boat in the water. Bob T.

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your nice words, but really, it's Latitude 38 and Jeannie's blog that provided the info. I think I'll start reading her blog too; it's always more fun for me when I get in on "the beginning" of a voyage.

On the Vancouver Island circumnavigation: You could do a lot worse than that! That is beautiful and challenging country (not that I need to tell you that of course since you live there).