Female Sailor Finds Safe Port In Australia

American Karen Thorndike, sleepless for three nights and thankful she survived “appalling” weather conditions across the Pacific, sailed into Hobart on Thursday on her solo round-the-world trip.

“I’ve never had so many horrible weather conditions,” Thorndike, 55, of Snohomish, Wash., said shortly after her arrival on her yacht “Amelia.”

“Every other day it blew a gale, and when the storms weren’t predicted, they’d come anyway. I’m not looking forward to leaving here.”

Thorndike, who left San Diego in August 1996, estimated she’ll spend two weeks in Hobart before continuing her trip to Tahiti. She hopes to be back in the United States by July or August.

“How long I stay will depend on the weather,” said Thorndike, “what the window is and how to maximize it. But I’ve come this far, so I’m going to enjoy it for a while.”

Thorndike was met outside Hobart by a Tasmanian police launch and three officers who escorted her into port among a collection of tall ships in Hobart for a festival.

“I’m really happy to be here,” she said. “It was beautiful to see the tall ships and I’m moored among them.”

She saw land mid-morning Wednesday, the first time she sighted anything but the ocean since leaving the Argentinean coast.

“I hadn’t slept for three days, so it was the most lovely thing I’d seen,” said Thorndike. “It looked like a dirty old rock from out there, but it was beautiful.”

In late December, Thorndike passed the halfway point of her 30,000-mile sail around the world. She was in the Indian Ocean, about 6,300 miles east of Mar del Plata, Argentina, where she recuperated from health problems and waited out the Southern Hemisphere winter.

Only seven women have successfully circumnavigated the world alone.

On May 5, 1997, after eight years of sailing, Illinois sailor Pat Henry became the first U.S. woman to accomplish the feat when she arrived in Acapulco, Mexico.