Stormy waters as Jeanne takes on the Roaring Forties

Wondering where courageous Jeanne Socrates, 76, and her yacht Nereida might be? 

The good lady is sailing at this minute into the notorious Roaring Forties, that's where, on the singlehander's latest attempt to sail round Cape Horn for a second time.

She's just endured a series of calms but is underway again, and sliding into the region round the world that sobered experienced mariners back in the days of sailing ships.

Brave gal

They named it the Roaring Forties for a very good reason, as I learned on my way to and from the Horn.

However, brave gal that she is, Jeanne's latest blog entry tells of her work getting the yacht shipshape. 'Made good use of time while hove-to,' she writes in her latest blog.

'Moved some provisions into the galley area, checked my lashings around the mast and used the topping lift to raise the boom end some more.'

Weatherwise and experienced

Weatherwise and experienced mariner that she is, she reports that she has been repaired leaks in the cockpit windscreen.

 'We'll be having plenty of seas washing over them in the rough weather to come. I'm hoping to have stopped any leaks into the cockpit.'

The ship's log shows she is no newcomer to the heavy seas of the Southern Ocean, and leaves little to chance. Pouring over charts of the approach to the Horn itself, she found waypoints plotted on her previous rounding in December 2012.

Unlike most Brit circumnavigators, Jeanne began the voyage on America's Pacific coast which means that she is in the South Pacific now.

  Continues on the blogs for my ocean sailing adventure book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com