It looks like this will be the week that Jeanne Socrates becomes the oldest person to sail solo nonstop around the world.
Socrates is getting closer to Victoria and is expected to arrive late Wednesday or early Thursday.
The 77-year-old Victoria sailor has been at sea for 334 days. She set sail from Victoria in early October 2018 aboard her 38-foot (12 metre) sailboat named Nereida.
“Her immediate obstacle is that she is about 150 miles off the entrance of Cape Flattery and the Strait of Juan de Fuca and she is in a bit of a wind hole,” John Green, past commodore of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club.
“There’s a very light northerly wind and she’s coming across it, slowly, which is creeping and crawling as far as a lot of us consider sailing. Once she gets into the Juan de Fuca, with any luck at all it’ll be a nice westerly, like we get in Swiftsure, and she can come back to Victoria, maybe Wednesday, maybe Thursday, you can not put a time table on it.”
Socrates has faced several obstacles over the better part of the year. Her mainsail ripped and took five months to repair. She also lost her solar panels in a storm and her friends say the challenges continue.
Green said many sailors are hoping to meet Socrates at Race Rocks, then welcome her home with bells and whistles at Ogden Point.
In 2013, Socrates became the oldest woman to single-handedly circumnavigate the world on a solo journey, which earned her a Guinness World Record.
Follow along on Socrates’ current journey by visiting her website.
CHEK News
