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Nereida Closes the Loop

Around 11 a.m. GMT on May 6, Jeanne Socrates officially completed a full circuit around the globe aboard her Najad 380 Nereida. "We sailed over our track down to Cape Town from Lanzarote, made on December 2, 2009," she wrote last week.

Readers will recall that Socrates was just 85 miles from crossing her track out of Zihuatanejo when she lost her previous Nereida on a Mexican beach on June 19, 2008. After having a new Nereida built to her exacting specifications, Socrates set off on a planned nonstop circumnavigation from the Canary Islands in October ’09, but engine troubles forced an extended stopover in Cape Town. Leaving last March, Socrates continued on to New Zealand and then Hawaii to greet the Singlehanded TransPac fleet (of which she’d planned to be a member, but couldn’t make the start). She continued on to the Pacific Northwest and started her second attempt at a nonstop circuit on October 25 when she left Victoria, B.C., but a knockdown at Cape Horn forced her into port once more.

Jeanne Socrates, 68, has officially completed her first solo circumnavigation (but unofficially, her second) and has safely pulled into Cape Town.

Nereida
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC

But the intrepid British grandmother wouldn’t let a little thing like a busted boom stop her from continuing with her voyage. She spent two months in Ushuaia effecting repairs, and then took off again. At 5:10 p.m. on Wednesday, Nereida pulled into the Royal Cape YC in Cape Town, South Africa, after a frustratingly long passage from the Falklands. "Big celebrations all last evening, well past midnight," she told us. "I don’t remember getting back to the boat, although I clearly did!"

Socrates says she has no firm plans other than continuing with repairs that couldn’t be made during her stay in Ushuaia, as well as figuring out what’s wrong with the engine that was replaced during her last stay in Cape Town. Big congratulations to one amazing lady! You can keep up with her plans on her website www.svnereida.com.

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