doing one... "Old lady" --like old man-- being in the eye of the beholder, and in no way meant derogatorily...it just makes for a good eye-catching headline

Jeanne Socrates on SV Nereida is nearing Cape Town...she left the UK in October, hoping to do a solo nonstop circumnavigation...she must be in her late 50s, just my guess based on her picture on her site http://www.svnereida.com/index.php

Pretty impressive when you read between the terse lines of her log and realize what the conditions must be like...this woman has some serious sailing experience, and it's all amateur (she's not an ex-racer). Approaching South Africa (an unexpected stop on her planned 6-7 moth nonstop sail), after a few months at sea...she and her husband had taken off cruising some years ago, then he died in 2003, so she kept on going, alone...

April 24, 2010
"Recovering from Storm last night 14 hour steep 6 meter swell, wind 35-46kt, occasional lull to 28 kt."

This woman completed a solo circumnav (not nonstop) a year or so ago, and then lost her boat on a Mexican beach after her autopilot changed course in the middle of the night, or something like that…(as chronicled by Latitude 38 sailing mag on line)...then got and fitted out a new boat, and took off...

Vive les tough old broads! Serious impressive lady...not to be sexist, but it's a rather unusual thing for an older woman to do (crusty old farts, I mean men, sure, but not women)...so I'm pretty impressed...