Round-the-world yachtswoman Jeanne Socrates, 83, docks in Albany on her journey circumnavigating Australia

Docking in Albany to see the Lighting the Sound installation brought back memories for round-the-world solo sailor Jeanne Socrates.

The oldest woman to have single-handedly circumnavigated the globe, Socrates, 83, has been sailing around Australia, mirroring a trip she made in a campervan when COVID hit six years ago.

Unable to leave when the borders closed due to the pandemic, she travelled around WA for three months before she was able to get to Cairns — where she was stuck again for 21 months.

Having landed in Australia in February 2020, she eventually left in March 2022 having been around the block, unusually for her, on four wheels and not under sail.

Her address on land is in Lymington in England, but it’s on her yacht Nereida that she is most at home, having learned to sail aged 50 and rarely leaving the water for long since.

She said she dropped into Albany to see the bicentenary celebrations and to visit a cousin she had never met before.

“I moved to Lymington from London to be nearer the sea in 2015 and I have pretty much ventured out ever since,” she said.

“I saw the lights from the Peace Park, and they were pretty good; I was worried it might just be mood lighting but as I came in the previous night I saw the green lights in the distance.

“I think the low cloud made it; it was an enjoyable event.”

She left Albany just ahead of the arrival of tropical cyclone Narelle, aiming for Augusta, Fremantle and then the Kimberley.

“There’s no rush, I’m just going to get around the country and back to Cairns,” she said.

She was briefly the oldest person to have sailed solo around the world when she completed the job aged 77 in 2019.

But 81-year-old Bill Hatfield grabbed the record in 2020, though Socrates remains the only person to have done it single-handedly, unassisted and non-stop via the Five Great Capes — Cape Horn (South America), Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), Cape Leeuwin (WA), South-East Cape of Tasmania and the South-West Cape of New Zealand.

Hatfield did not sail south of Tasmania or New Zealand.

She lost her husband, with whom she had sailed across the Atlantic, in 2006 but is content with a solo life aboard Nereida.

“I’ll probably be the oldest woman to sail around Australia by the time I get back to Cairns, but that’s not why I’m doing it,” she said.

“I just love meeting with people and when I’m on the boat I chat a lot on the radio.

“I have radio friends I’ve never met but they give me some perspective and keep me sociable.

“I am so pleased to have seen Australia in the van because I think I would have missed a lot just seeing it from the ocean.”

It’s not simply a matter of jumping in the boat and sailing into the sunset, she said.

“There’s a lot of preparation, taking into account the tides, the wind and any bar crossings just to make sure I stay safe, and there are some countries I would worry about visiting as a solo woman sailor.”

So, is there anywhere left on her bucket list?

“I’d love to get to Japan but the sea can be extremely rough around there, so I’ll go at some point, though probably not in the boat.”