Jeanne Socrates has been sailing solo for five years on “Nereida”, a Najad 361 (Vist her website ) and is now undertaking a single-handed circumnavigation. She made landfall on 16th November in Richards Bay, north of Durban, South Africa, completing a 6,000 mile, two & a half month Indian Ocean crossing from Darwin, Australia.

This followed a 7,350 mile Pacific Ocean crossing, which started on 26th March ’07 from Zihuatanejo in Mexico and finished in Cairns, Australia, on 11th July.

“My aim is to complete my circumnavigation in just over a year, with lots of long passages but seeing plenty of places en route”, she said.

The conditions she experienced in the Indian Ocean were markedly different to those she met in the Pacific: “I really noticed the swell coming up from the Southern Ocean when on passage in the southern Indian Ocean, more so than in the Pacific, with frequent 3-4m waves from the SW adding in to the usual SE swell & knocking the boat about. But, despite that, my boatspeed was good in the 20-25knot SE Trades, with frequent 150-mile daily runs – not bad for a 36ft cruising boat!”

In 2006 Jeanne took part in the Single-Handed TransPac Race from San Francisco to Kauai, Hawaii, which was a major step for her. She said that it resulted in “vastly increased confidence in dealing with sailing in difficult conditions and coping with instrument failure & electrical problems. Sailing up to Sitka, Alaska, I then had to deal with major engine failure – I changed an injector for the first time! Since SHTP06, I’ve not been satisfied with speeds much under 7 knots.”

“I’ve had a lot of support from boat-friends and, more recently, from some major manufacturers who have helped me in preparing for my circumnavigation. With rigging now over ten years old, and having been exposed to several major passages over the last 2-3 years, I was delighted when Selden agreed to send parts from Sweden to help with my re-rigging in Cape Town in January, prior to my Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean in February.”

Keep up with her progress on her website.