ADVENTURE-77 AND SOLO NON-STOP AROUND THE WORLD

Jeanne Socrates battled equipment failure during her record circumnavigation. She tells Katy Stickland how she overcame adversity

- Katy Stickland

‘The further I got, the less likely it was that I’d give up,’ explained 77-year-old Jeanne Socrates, ‘Not that I was ever likely to if I could help it!’

Sailing non-stop around the world solo and without assistance pushes the limits of any sailor. Throw endless equipment failure into the mix and you begin to understand what a special kind of sailor Socrates is. Resourceful, yes. Determined, definitely.

During 339 days at sea in her Najad 380, Nereida, the British skipper, who now holds the record for the oldest person to sail solo around the world non-stop and unassisted, had to endure periods becalmed and problems with many of her instruments, including the chart plotter and autopilot. Broken reefing lines and lazy jacks, badly damaged wind vane steering, and a shredded genoa also had to be overcome, as well as a badly torn mainsail which took months to repair. While some might balk at these sorts of trials, Socrates seems to thrive on them, even though they added four months to her voyage.

‘The challenge of managing to keep the boat going all the way around successfully and dealing with any number of unknown problems that were sure to crop up – that was the attraction, with the record resulting from my age being by-the-by,’ she explained.