Woman alone: Sailing solo across the Atlantic

Woman alone is a sailor’s story of courage and adventure. But Woman Alone is also a woman’s story–a dramatic account an epic voyage by a superb young British sailor. Standing five feet two and weighting little more than a hundred pounds, Clare Francis was one of four women competitors in the 1976 Singlehanded Transatlantic Race. This is her very personal account of that race, a greuling contest that boasted a record number of competitors, claimed two lives, and was sailed in “dirty weather” almost from shore to shore. Although 37 sailors were forced to retire, Clare Francis sailer her 38-foot sloop, Robertson’s Golly, from Plymouth, England, to Newport, Rhode Island, in 29 days, finishing thirteenth overall. During that passage, she survived mountainous seas and violent gales, two weeks’ contiunous fog, and a near-miss between two massive icebergs. Numbed with fatigue, she often wondered why she was there; Woman Alone goes a long way toward explaining why small-boat sailors, female or male, risk their lives on long ocean voyages.