Jenny Sails Solo Across the Globe

Speaker 1:

Honestly, it could have contributed to exactly everything in my life because I am a very big believer of things are not going to go the way you expect them in life. And it's all about how you perceive that and deal with it versus what's actually happening to you. And to just keep going for what you believe in and what you're trying to do. And that is what my parents did with a misdiagnosis and no one being able to help and kept pushing for me to find a way to be able to walk and live an independent life. And Shriners came in as that thing that they kept pushing for, that allowed it. And even throughout a lot of the journeys in my life, I've hit a lot of roadblocks even on this journey. This is so many years in the making so many things that I could have easily just quit.

But every bad thing that happened, I felt led me to exactly the right point where something good happened and made it achievable. And so whatever the route was that led my parents to Shriners, all of that was meant to happen. And then to maybe even have that diagnosis of cerebral palsy, to sit over the weekend and think about it, to keep pushing, to try to find an answer of what was wrong with me, or at least the solution to the problem. Problem. So I do all my own weather routing, I do all the navigation, obviously, all the sailing. The sailing part's probably the easiest. It's everything up to that, all the repairs. And so solo sailing, you're awake for endless hours. Your sleep deprived, your nutrition isn't great. The physical demand of moving all the time, even when you're sleeping, is just physically exhausting. You feel like you've been hit by a car most of the time you're on passage. And then cyclone seasons started early and a cyclone came in October. So instead of having six months to cross through the Pacific, I ended up with about three and then a cyclone hit where I was. And so I had to take the boat apart, all the sails off, chain it to the bottom. I'm in Bunda Marina in one of the safe cyclone pits in South Pacific, and so if I lose the boat in a cyclone, it's over. I can't financially go through much more with the boat.

So I decided to stay safe for the cyclone season because I'm in one of the safest places you can be hoping to be in the Atlantic by October of 25, which is still going to be very quick. I have the Indian Ocean.

Next, which is pretty unpredictable. Once I finish the Indian Ocean, I feel like I'll be able to breathe a little bit better. At this point, nothing's going to stop me. I've worked too hard, I've come too far, so that's awesome. I think it'll gain a lot of momentum once I get further.