THE LATITUDE 38 INTERVIEW
Jeanne Socrates
In this year's edition of Guinness World Records, the editors finally got around to acknowledging Victoria, BC-based British sailor Jeanne Socrates' 2013 achievement of becoming the oldest woman to sail solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world (then 70) via the Five Great Capes of the Southern Hemisphere. We were delighted to catch up with her in Mexico recently and have a long chat (excerpted below). Last month, she announced that she'll attempt another solo circumnavigation beginning in October. If successful, she will become the oldest person — male or female — to do so. And the Guinness editors will have to amend their list again. Latitude 38: You're a petite woman. Did a 38-ft boat work out well for you? Jeanne: I've probably shrunk in the last couple of weeks, but I'm about 5'4". For me, the important thing about the size of the boat is that it's not too big inside. After I lost my first boat, I looked at a 40-footer that was available. But when I went on her, I thought to myself that I wouldn't be able to grab onto anything to keep from being thrown to the other side of the boat if hit by a big wave. I didn't need the extra space, so I was happy with the 38-footer. As for the size of the boat being able to handle really big seas, I thought she was just fine. I might have been more comfortable in a 70-footer, but I couldn't singlehand something like that. (Laughter.) And what would I do with all the space? 38: Speaking of space, how did you find room for all the food you needed for your 259-day nonstop circumnavigation? Jeanne: Everyone asks that. I made a mock menu for two weeks of what I would likely cook, then extrapolated it for a year. Then I kept adding to it because I forgot this or that, or thought I would fancy something. I ended up with a lot of food at the end. In fact, I still have food on the boat from when I went around the trip before. I carried fresh stuff, like onions, potatoes and eggs. I got 10 dozen fresh eggs from chicken-keepers around the Victoria area. It was important that they hadn't been chilled, because the moment you chill them they start to go bad quickly. I kept them in bubble plastic and turned them over all at once every day. They lasted four months. 38: You mentioned that you ate less than normal during the circumnavigation. Jeanne: Yes, because a lot of time you're not expending that much energy. Storms come through every three or four days in the Southern Ocean, and you know they are coming, so you
"I might have been more comfortable in a 70-footer, but I couldn't singlehand something like that." do have to sail the boat. It's not like in tropics, where you can set the sails and go for days on end — and even get bored stiff. But I'd have my cereal in the morning, maybe have lunch, and then I'd cook in the evening. When a big storm was coming, I'd get the pressure cooker out and soak beans, lentils and peas, and open tins of ham or whatever I could find. I'd make a big stew that would last for four days. It was brilliant. It's cold in the Southern Ocean, usually in the low 40s, so it's always cold and damp and nothing ever dries. So I'd often Page 74 •
Latitude 38
• July, 2016
get in my bunk with all my clothes on to try to dry the clothes out. Lots of times I'd get in my bunk with my hot stew because it was warm in there. (Laughter.) 38: Were the weather forecasts very accurate in the Southern Ocean? Jeanne: Oh yeah. I'd get GRIB files that showed what to expect. Unfortunately, Cape Naval in South Africa wasn't working, and they were in charge of a big area I sailed through. For awhile I thought my weatherfax machine had gone down, but when I got past South Africa I started picking up La Luna from Australia. Later I got New Zealand, and just below the equator I was able to pick up Honolulu. 38: So weatherfax was a key? Jeanne: When the computers were working, I would get the GRIB files using my Pactor modem and save them on my computer. But when my computer monitors went down — it was the monitors, not the computers — weatherfax was vital because it was the only way I could get GRIB files. 38: Describe a typical front in the Southern Ocean. Jeanne: The wind was from astern, either from the west or northwest. I'd have the main up with a preventer and a staysail on a pole. Wing-on-wing with the staysail and a deeply reefed main worked really well. But I had to jibe regularly, going from northwest-ish to southwest-ish, and then back again. Yes, I loved my little poled-out staysail. (Laughter.) It was so good, and the pole was just a tiny aluminum thing. I thought about getting a carbon-fiber pole, but I was advised that the pole was so small that aluminum would be fine — and it was. 38: What was the most wind you saw? Jeanne: I tried to keep fairly north of the center of the lows going around the Southern Ocean, so I would be 43° or 45° South. I was often in reasonably strong wind — say 30+ — but between the lows I'd get really light wind. If I went up to 40° South, I'd get becalmed. But by staying a little north, I didn't get the worst of the fronts. Actually, the worst front I ever had was during my first trip around when I was passing Cape Town heading down toward the Southern Ocean. I didn't really know about fronts at that time because they don't show up on GRIB files. If you look for the little wiggle in the barometer lines you can deduce where they are, but they aren't obvious as they are on weatherfaxes where they are marked. As I'd been sailing around quite a bit, I thought I knew what I was doing and that weather fronts weren't really a problem. Then suddenly one night — my God, it was horrible! — a front came through, and in just seconds the wind went from out of the northwest to out of the southwest. This was in the middle of the night, of course, and the main was quickly backed. Plus the big swell I'd had from one direction was joined by a big swell from another direction. I had a major problem sorting things out. (Laughter.) I tried not to look at the windspeed, but I glanced at it once and saw
