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Jeanne Socrates heads out .... again!

Jeanne called the other night to say she was ready to head out. Her tone was as though she was just going down to the store or something. I asked if she was planning to go the same route again and she said NO - she didn't want to come into those ports like she had to last time!

She asked that I greet all of you for her.
 
No, she meant that she hoped her route wouldn't include any stops this time.
 
Jeanne visited aboard WILDFLOWER for an afternoon at the recent Port Townsend Wooden Boat Fest. She was there to give a presentation on her voyages.

I asked Jeanne some pointed questions. The first was what caused her boom to break near Cape Horn. She replied that she was under third reef on a beam reach, and a large breaking sea came aboard, filling the main with water. And the weight of the water in the mainsail caused the breakage.

She said she had ultimately replaced the boom with an identical model. I asked her what she intended to do to prevent a similar situation. Jeanne said she would use different tactics and understood the danger of beam reaching in big seas. I asked what those tactics might be. She said she would heave to with the jib (staysail) aback balancing the reefed main.

I mentioned to Jeanne that I know several boats that have gotten in trouble hove to (the Pardeys excepted). The problem these boats encountered when hove to was a breaking wave coming from forward of abeam that would push them backward, snapping off the rudder. Two of these boats with broken rudders had been riding to a sea anchor.

Heaving to works. But not for all boats or all crew. Given the uncertainties, heaving to is a hard thing to practice in extreme conditions. Jeanne is right. It is the weight of a breaking wave, not the wind force, that can hurt.

A good example of a boat well hove to is the 2 minute video of Bernard Stamm on the VELUX 5 Oceans. His boat is a 60 footer with a deep reef in the main. He is trying not to lose ground to leeward, otherwise he would be going the other direction. Clearly this was something he had practiced. But even at the 1:54 mark his boat goes from forereaching to briefly making sternway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RuZHD0O_bg
 
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Jeanne was just a few days away from another attempt at being the oldest person (she's already the oldest woman) to solo circumnavigate but she has suffered a fall. Her boat was on the hard at a marina in Sidney, BC. Jeanne was climbing down a ladder with one hand full of gear and she fell the entire distance. She suffered 8 broken ribs and a fracture to a vertebra and internal bruising. She expects full recovery, but it will be several months. She is currently at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria if any of you want to send your best wishes.

With something like 150,000 solo blue water miles, including 3 1/2 circumnavigations, Jeanne is listed as one of the top 13 female sailors in the world. She has already achieved the incredible. Next up is the impossible.
..
 
OH NO!! This is awful. I hope she keeps her spirits up and recovers quickly. That was a seriously bad fall.
 
Yeah, really sad. She is still in the hospital in a serious neck brace. Looks like she will have to wait for next year. She was literally planing on leaving this week.
 
Oh no - Andy, do you go in and visit Jeanne? If so, please let her know that Tiger Beetle/Rob is hoping for a swift recovery and are terribly sad to hear of what happened.

Thanks so much.

- rob/Tiger Beetle
 
Thanks Rob. I saw her Monday and yesterday evening. She is making short walks around the hospital floor; her new version of a circumnavigation (that's her own words, not mine.) Her ribs are not hurting, but her neck is. She expects to be in the hospital for a few more days at least. I will pass on your best wishes. She is getting messages from around the world.

Latitude 38 article and photo here http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2017-10-02#Story2
 
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