She's a grandmother, a retired math teacher and a ham. And now, 70-year-old Jeanne Socrates, KC2IOV, can add solo circumnavigator to her resumé. On July 8, Socrates returned to Victoria, British Columbia aboard her 38-foot sailboat, Nereida, after a non-stop solo voyage around the world that began there last October 22. Ham radio was her main communications link during the nearly nine-month voyage.
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| The Nereida in Victoria Harbor at the end of KC2IOV's non-stop solo circumnavigation. (Photos courtesy svnereida.com) |
The ARRL Letter reports that Socrates also had a
satellite phone on board but it died a couple of months into the trip. Between
October and May, she used Winlink on the HF ham bands to send e-mails
and update her blog, at <www.svnereida.com>. But then her computer failed
as well, and her group of regular ham contacts used SSB to collect updates from
Jeanne and post them on the web. Socrates used the trip to raise funds for
Marie Curie Cancer Care, a UK-based group that provides free home-based care
for terminally-ill cancer patients.
In the words of N7LWF, who first brought this story to our
attention, the trip "not only highlights what a 70-year-old woman can do,
but also what ham radio can do."
