Circumnavigator granny Jeanne's hardly news ...

 It’s not the positive things that grandparents do that interests the population, it seems, but what Fate dishes out to them.

It’s as if Fate is the copy taster – the selector of what gets published – and Fate has a strong bias about oldies.

Or so it seems. For instance, an oldie who actually did make the headlines in the last few days was remarkable Alf Smith who achieved … an astonishing number years and now death.

111th birthday

What did the good fellow do to inspire people? He certainly reached a staggering 111 years. 

But, we might ask again, what did he do that earned him such public recognition? … 

I certainly don’t mean nor want to decry Alf’s happy and very sad news, and - of course, an enormous gap exists between 111 and 76 - but Jeanne Socrates at 76 is certainly part of the oldie bracket.

She’s not doddering around the shops, shuffling unsteadily between the tv and the bathroom.

Jeanne is achieving almost the impossible for one of granny years, yet excites astonishingly little interest from the media, and scant news coverage.

The good lady is sailing alone around the world, a l o n e, via Cape Horn. She should be back in her North American departure harbour probably by the end of the month.

She left on October 3. I’m no mathematician, but I’m pretty sure that equals 10 months of sailing alone, 24 hours a day, and virtually unhelped – give or take that brief breather in a New Zealand harbour.
Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventuring book, Sailing to Purgatory, at http://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/426-circumnavigator-granny-jeanne-s-hardly-news