Meeting a legend….  Wednesday, 01/05/2024

Early Monday afternoon, having just done a load of washing, I had an amazing experience. There was a light knock on the hull. I stuck my head out of the companionway to find a small, slight, elderly woman. She said “I thought I’d just stop by and say hello”. 

Jeanne Socrates, the sailing legend who I mentioned in my blog post of 25th January this year! She’s moored three places along from Manuka. To recap what I wrote then: “Jeanne Socrates is legendary for continuing to sail alone, even though she is now 81. She started sailing back in 1994 – when she was already in her fifties. Her start was the same as mine: she did the Royal Yacht Association’s Competent Crew course. She and her husband then bought a yacht in 1997 and sailed it down to the Canaries and then on to the Caribbean and the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. He was then diagnosed with cancer, and died in 2003. But she didn’t stop sailing: she went on, eventually to become the oldest woman to circumnavigate single-handed, as well as the only woman to have circumnavigated solo nonstop from North America.”

Well, we had a long chat and discovered some wonderful coincidences. She asked where home was. I said London. Which part? Ealing. Which road? Dudley Gardens. She then said: Incredible! I lived just around the corner on Lavington Road for years! It turns out that her daughter attended the same girls’ high school as both of my daughters: Notting Hill & Ealing, although many years earlier of course. In fact, Jeanne had actually taught there for a few months as a temporary physics teacher – they were suddenly desperate for someone, and knowing that she had a physics degree the head badgered her into helping out. 

How often it’s said that it’s a small world! What a great demonstration of that. Jeanne sold her Ealing house four years ago and bought a house in Lymington, down on the south coast, saying that when she eventually retires she wants to be beside the sea. Like mine, her house is rented out – as she says, they are our theoretical homes while we live on boats on the other side of the world.

Jeanne came back today to say that she forgot to ask: she had been told by someone that I hadn’t had much sailing experience when I set out. I laughed and confirmed that – less than two years. She said her start was similar: she and her husband had little experience when they decided to sail across the Atlantic. Our conversation turned to the subject of “learning by doing”, as opposed to endless theory. You might struggle a bit, but ultimately you are actively engaged and getting the best possible instruction there is. I think that applies to many things in life.

That took me back to 2019. After doing my Competent Crew course, I did a few “mile builder” trips, a week here, a few days there. Typically, the other people on the boat were preparing to do their Yachtmaster exam, for which they needed a certain minimum of miles and nights at sea. By paying close attention to what they were learning and asking a lot of questions (even though officially it didn’t concern me – I was just there as a crew hand), I realise I got a lot out of that. One trip was seven days out of Oban, on the west coast of Scotland. Generally rough conditions. Because I showed great interest in what three guys on board were doing to prepare for their Yachtmaster exam, the captain/trainer said one evening: I’ve decided to make you captain tomorrow. I had to plan the route the old fashioned way – pencil and paper charts (the first time I had ever done any navigation) – and then take charge for the whole day, sailing through various offshore islands. His idea was that the more experienced guys would then critique what I’d done, which would be good learning for them. He told me quietly afterwards that I’d done good. So I think that I gained a lot, just by being actively interested, which meant that the captains bent over backwards to share their knowledge with me. As far as I could make out from watching others, the biggest handicap to progress was a lack of confidence, failing to seize control. At the end of that year, all I did was the Day Skipper course, meant just for those sailing a few miles along the coast and back in a day. It contained navigation, coverage of the collision regulations and other important things – enough. If I’d continued, I would then have done the Coastal Skipper (longer trips, overnight) and then Yachtmaster Offshore followed by Yachtmaster Ocean. Instead, on the basis of the Day Skipper, I sailed alone across the Atlantic and have since made it down to New Zealand…

Jeanne had done similar. We laughed at the fact that we’d since learned so much on our travels. Especially her of course. But as she says: every voyage is different to the last one, so you’re always learning. She feels that strongly, which is what keeps her going.