Jeanne Socrates: As Close as Possible

“Checking Weather to see if Friday afternoon is possible,” Jeanne Socrates wrote on her blog about the possible finish to her now 338-day circumnavigation. The 77-year-old Englishwoman — who’s  attempting to become the oldest person to sail alone, unassisted and nonstop around the world — has been hovering off the windless coast of Vancouver Island for several days now. Seventy-nine miles to go,” Socrates wrote on Wednesday. “Had to abandon Thursday’s attempted landfall, but possibility that Friday might have useful NW wind?”

It is a coast-to-a-stop finish to what has been a long, grueling lap of the world. We are champing at the bit, but Socrates seems infinitely patient as she essentially drifts with the tide off the Strait of Juan de Fuca between the US and Canada. On Wednesday, Socrates wrote, “10:30 p.m., [speed over ground] down to around 0.5kt — we’re making way through water fairly well, but ebb tide is effectively slowing us right down so we’re hardly making any real progress over the ground. Bright crescent moon over Cape Flattery — its light reflecting in the water, passing high mass of the Cape on our starboard beam, the string of lights of Neah Bay off to starboard ahead. Peaceful, quiet, gliding smoothly through the water. Occasional sound of a sea-lion exhaling.”

Optimists that we are, we want to say that we’ll have a full recap of Socrates’ epic circumnavigation on Monday. Superstitious as we are, though, we don’t want to jinx it. Please stay tuned to our Facebook page for more up-to-the-minute details.