After surviving a hideous car accident in which
a number of people died, Donna Lange, a 42-year-old former nurse and mother of three decided to learn to sail and later to sail alone round the world.
As this season’s fleet of Southern Ocean racers sailors headed north this lone woman rounded the Cape of Good Hope in February, heading towards New Zealand.

She is sailing a diminutive 28ft double-ender named Inspired Insanity and was
about 450 miles NNW of the Kerguelen Islands on 4 March. She left
Bristol, Rhode Island in November and has not stopped, and her plan is
to continue to New Zealand for the summer and a refit, and continue
round Cape Horn to the east coast of the US next season.

By coincidence, within the next week she should
pass north of the only other female solo circumnavigator out there. Until
yesterday, neither she nor Dee Caffari knew about each other.As well as
sharing the same tract of the Southern Indian Ocean, Dee and Donna may
be about to share the dilemma of how to tackle a tropical storm brewing
north of the Kerguelen Islands. If this slips south it will affect Dee;
if not, it will be in Donna’s path this weekend. (From Elaine Bunting)
For more info on Donna Lange, see www.donnalange.com