Home is the sailor ... almost, nearly, just about

The extraordinary lady sailor Jeanne Socrates, a mere 77-year-old, has come to the end of here astonishing lonesome voyage right round the world, 336 day

out there without so much as seeing another human in all that time ... almost.

She was a mere 80 miles away yesterday, much less than a normal day's sail.

Yet thanks to cruel Fate and a disobliging wind, she is still a little under 20 miles away from the finishing mark in Victoria, British Columbia.

20 miles!

Twenty miles! Most of us could row that distant in probably no more than three hours.

Jeanne's ambition to be the oldest woman to sail solo nonstop unassisted around the world , and the first of her gender to sail solo nonstop unassisted around the world from North America is about to be realised.

I know the frustration you must feel for when I came to the end of my solo circumnavigation, hungry for the sight of the South Coast and the entrance into Plymouth, thick fog descended.

Just to spot the foremast of Spirit of Pentax from the cockpit took some straining.

I'll never forget the sight, or the non-sighting of the English coast then.

Should amnesia take a hold, my book of the voyage, Loner (Hodder and Stoughton) is here to remind me ...

Fog, thick, but I think I know where we are. I can feel a population nearby. Soon I'll be back in civilisation.

Dawn chorus, wind in tall green trees, grass and wildflowers. People. I'll be able to go to Boots in the morning, to become urban man. I'll smile at the assistant and pick up a deodorant from the choice of exactly 117 types. Yes, I'll be back in the world. ….
Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventuring book, Sailing to Purgatory, at
http://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/439-home-is-the-sailor-almost-nearly-just-about