Jeanne Socrates was 76 in October 2018, when she set sail alone from Victoria, British Columbia, on her 38′ yacht Nereida. She returned to Victoria 339 days later, then 77, having sailed singlehanded non-stop around world, becoming the oldest sailor to do so.

Now, at 80, Socrates, currently in Mexico, is setting off again to sail solo across the Pacific. This will be a very different voyage, however, from her previous epic circumnavigations. Practical Boat Owner reports that unlike her last record-breaking voyage, this time Jeanne Socrates intends to cruise Nereida, stopping at islands along the way.

“It is about a cruise, although I will probably set another record as the oldest woman to cross the Pacific,” said Socrates, who is planning initially to sail to the Marquesas and then through the Pacific islands to Fiji and then reach New Zealand by the end of October.

“I want to go on Australia (where she spent 25 months circumnavigating the country by campervan during the COVID-19 pandemic), I want to get to New Caledonia on the way, as it is definitely a place to go cruising in. At the moment, my plan stops in Australia and then we will see. It should take me a couple of years.”

Jeanne Socrates is a grandmother of three, originally from Ealing, West London. She didn’t start sailing until she was 50.  Prior to setting the record as the oldest person ever to solo circumnavigate non-stop singlehanded she held the record as the oldest female to have circumnavigated the world single-handed, and the only woman to have circumnavigated solo nonstop from N. America.

She was awarded the Cruising Club of America’s Blue Water Medal in 2013. In 2019, she was honored by her home port of Victoria, BC by naming the dock in the Inner Harbor where Nereida is berthed after her. A plaque now identifies the commercial dock as the Jeanne Socrates Dock. In 2020, the city also installed a bronze plaque in her honor on Victoria’s Wall of History overlooking the Inner Harbour, to commemorate her epic voyages.