Should we be worried about Jeanne Socrates

TQA

TQA

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 Feb 2005
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Location
Carribbean currently Grenada
sailingonelephantschild.blogspot.com
She is behind her schedule and heading into an area known for bad weather.

Her badly torn mainsail is 10 years old and has already made multiple circumnavigations. She has it off and in her salon. Repairs involve Gorilla tape.

She has been on head sails only for the last few days.

After the last storm she was retrieving her drogue when it got caught in her Hydrovane and damaged it. She says it is beyond her ability to repair.
 
800 miles to Hobart followed by the bottom end of the Tasman in May with only an electronic autopilot ....?

I know what I would be doing....

Simple map for the next four days can be seen here http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/4day_col.shtml

Look at Windy.com for a real fright..... that behind you and the west coast of Tasmania followed by the west coast of South Island ahead of you would, I feel, lead to sleepless nights...
 
GHA said:
She's spent a lot more time down there than the rest of us...
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My last day job was 18 years on western Bass Strait, prior to that 1974/80 running Fremantle/Geelong....

My last ocean crossing ( summer 2016 ) saw us losing the lower bit of the wind vane self steerer half way from NZ to Chile and 2 of us having to hand steer for three weeks ( autopilot went walkabout) to Pto Montt..

She is not in a good place or situation....
 
Her Blog sounds positive. JSD being retrieved and repacked, weather status known and accounted for, yacht steering under autopilot and she has a spare ram.

It reads like she is prepared and knows what she is doing.
 
The problem is that she is 240 miles north of where she needs to be in a week's time to avoid running into Tasmania... and after the current weather system passes through there will be another one coming along close behind it.

If she isn't careful she will be obliged to steer SE with NW/SW winds and SW swell.

This may be of interest to some http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDT65014.shtml
 
Jeanne's right - the Hydrovane's knackered . . .

image45e01862dfdfe4197742b12281e99d5c.jpeg
 
I think the only sensible course for her now is the course to Adelaide......
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You guys really don't understand Jeanne at all. This is nothing but a mere inconvenience. You have to remember what she has already been through in her open ocean, singlehanded sailing life. Here are just a few things to wet your appetite:
Rolling her boat at Cape Horn
Destroying her boat on the rocks in Mexico
Falling off her boat onto a parking lot and breaking 8 ribs and her neck
Sailing half way around the world with her mainsail track bent, so she couldn't raise the main above the 2nd reef point.

And this is what, her 5th attempt at going around. A ripped mainsail and the odd southern ocean storm is nothing to a woman like Jeanne.
I've actually got her spare mainsail rolled up on my garage. If only I could set it floating down her way.
 
Foolish Muse said:
You guys really don't understand Jeanne at all. This is nothing but a mere inconvenience. You have to remember what she has already been through in her open ocean, singlehanded sailing life. Here are just a few things to wet your appetite:
Rolling her boat at Cape Horn
Destroying her boat on the rocks in Mexico
Falling off her boat onto a parking lot and breaking 8 ribs and her neck
Sailing half way around the world with her mainsail track bent, so she couldn't raise the main above the 2nd reef point.

And this is what, her 5th attempt at going around. A ripped mainsail and the odd southern ocean storm is nothing to a woman like Jeanne.
I've actually got her spare mainsail rolled up on my garage. If only I could set it floating down her way.
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:cool: :cool:
 
Foolish Muse said:
You guys really don't understand Jeanne at all.
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I don't think some people understand the Southern Ocean... coming into winter....

I think it is called 'pushing one's luck'....

When I met Jeanne in Stanley, F.I., in 2011 she was planning on laying up in Cape Town..... she said at the time
that she would not consider crossing the south Indian and south of Australia in winter......
 
In today's report I see she has autopilot problems. I've sent her an email asking if she remembers the bungee cord steering from my singlehanded book. I know she has a copy on board. If she has a bungee cord, she'll have no problems getting home.
 
How does your bungee cord system work with wheel steering (which I think is what Nereida has)?
Foolish Muse said:
In today's report I see she has autopilot problems. I've sent her an email asking if she remembers the bungee cord steering from my singlehanded book. I know she has a copy on board. If she has a bungee cord, she'll have no problems getting home.
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How does your bungee cord system work with wheel steering
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You connect the bungee cord and rope setup to the bottom spoke of the wheel (which moves in the same direction as a tiller). Somewhere in the middle of the spoke is a point where the movement of the wheel is equal to the movement of a tiller. You just connect to that point. Of course you can also use your emergency tiller if your boat has one.

I heard back from Jeanne. She is going to read through that chapter of my book while she is drifting under JSD over the next few hours.

Here is a photo of a fellow who used my methods to cross the Pacific to the South Pacific Islands, after his autopilot quit just a few days from the US west coast.
Josh Boat.jpg
 
Looking hopeful that autopilot data problems are now solved. Interesting on her blog how big a part of day to day life ham radio is. Few miles yet to get north again out of the southern Ocean.
 
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