At that point, she’ll become the first American woman to sail solo nonstop worldwide.
Friends, peers and sailing enthusiasts have been cheering Brauer on since last October, when she embarked on her more than four-month journey. Her boat First Light, a special model of racing sailboat called a Class40, is expected to return to the race’s starting point of A Coruña, Spain, on Thursday, according to organizers of the Global Solo Challenge.
Brauer said she anticipates arriving in Spain late Wednesday night or early Thursday.
“For the next two days or so it’s a completely moving target,” Brauer said in a video posted to her Instagram on Monday in the evening, her time.
The latest official race update on Brauer said she was off the west coast of the Azores on Saturday.
“Long anticipated Cole Brauer has been able to avoid the light winds of the Azores high and slingshot east,” race organizer Marco Nannini wrote online, adding, “She’s now sailing on course at constant speeds above 10 knots average.”
Nannini told USA TODAY he wanted to organize the Global Solo Challenge to “create a platform for sailors like Cole to showcase her skills and move on to a pro sailor career.”
Over the past several months, Brauer has been keeping her more than 400,000 Instagram followers updated − and entertained − with videos from onboard First Light. Brauer said in one December video that the trip has been extremely challenging and physically exhausting.
In the post, she describes how frustrated she felt when she had to fix and replace different parts of the boat.
“I don’t want you guys to think I’m like Superwoman or something,” Brauer said. “Right now I’ve been feeling just broken,” she added, describing how she had to fix the boat’s autopilot system after injuring her torso against the side of the boat’s hull amid intense waves.
According to usatoday.com. Source of photos: internet
