Sailing into the record books

Lymington’s Jeanne Socrates is the oldest person to sail around the world solo and unaided – but her adventures aren’t over yet

Breaking records wasn’t something which Lymington sailor Jeanne Socrates set out to do when she took early retirement. In fact, she had never sailed before. She started with dinghy sailing and windsurfing before finally completing a Competent Crew yacht course in the Solent in 1994. It didn’t take long for Jeanne to be well and truly bitten by the sailing bug and soon she and husband George had taken delivery of their own boat, Nereida.

Spain and Portugal were swiftly swapped for shores further afield and their adventures over the next few years saw them land in New York, sail to Nova Scotia and explore the Caribbean. Not even George’s cancer diagnosis in 2001 deterred them and, following treatment, George was back on board on Nereida with plans to head for Venezuela in May 2002. By December, they had reached the Venezuelan archipelagos of Los Roques and Las Aves but this was to be George’s last voyage. Many might have given up at this point and started for home but despite the loss of her husband and the prospect of sailing solo, Jeanne remained determined to carry on the adventures she and George had begun together.

“I definitely adopted the motto ‘Life is precious – make the most of it’ after George died,” Jeanne says. “A friend of ours who was supposed to come on the boat and enjoy it with us also died of cancer unexpectedly. Cancer can take people and suddenly they no longer have the life to enjoy as they thought they would. We’re lucky to have life.

We should make the most of it.”