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Cole Braugher’s adventures put her in the heart of some of the most isolated and dangerous places on earth and made her mark in the history books. Not to mention Instagram.
The 30,000-mile yacht voyage Brauer endured alone across the southern Atlantic and Pacific oceans faced the biggest waves and storms most people have ever seen. “It’s like going to Mars and hoping you can breathe,” Brauer said. This month, she became the first American woman to sail solo around the world without making any stops. “It’s not made for humans.”
She is now a celebrity among sailors, and more asked about underwater travel and surviving the perils of the deep than Jules Verne or Jacques Cousteau. That’s because Brauer now has a total of 500,000 followers on social media, and many are asking about her journey and how it’s progressed.
“With this newfound fame, I want to keep my feet on the ground,” said the 29-year-old Long Island native. She is charting a new course for herself in the sailing industry, which has historically been a bastion of elitism and exclusivity, she said.
During the voyage, Brauer used Starlink, a low-orbit satellite network owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, to receive internet signals and talk to his team and talk to his mother from the 40-foot boat. We were able to FaceTime and post videos to Instagram. Class 40 yacht, first light.
The ship set sail from A Coruña, Spain on October 29 and sailed for 130 days. She competed against 15 male sailors, eight of whom had to be eliminated. The sailors stagger their departures depending on the speed of the boat. Brauer finished the race in second place behind France’s Philippe Delamar.
Marco Nannini, who organized the Global Solo Challenge race, said: “Cole has put in a lot of effort to achieve this great result.”
Dangerous situation in the southern hemisphere
As Brauer traveled around the world in this race, he had to endure scorching temperatures near the equator and near-freezing temperatures in the world’s southern oceans, where the oceans are choppier and more dangerous to navigate. she said.
“I’ve always had respect for the ocean, but this was on a whole different level,” Brauer said. “It’s beautiful. It’s deserted. It’s just untouched by humans.”
Strong winds and underwater currents in the Indian, South Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans often react to form larger waves and “violent storms,” making these regions “some of the most dangerous places on Earth.” Yes, Brauer said.
Unlike the part of the Atlantic Ocean that stretches between North America and Europe, the southern ocean sees far less traffic, Brauer said. During the two months he sailed there, he saw only one other ship. The weather has become colder and grayer, and the nights are much shorter.
The scariest moment happened about two weeks after the race ended. In just a few days, another competitor had to abandon his boat as it began to sink, and another had to do the same after losing his boat. mast.
That made Brauer feel paranoid, she said, and she even imagined the noises coming from her boat, which was normal wear and tear.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen next?'” she said. “Will the ship break in two?”
Alone in the middle of the ocean, Brauer felt homesick and then began to practice Zen.
Mr. Brauer completed his circumnavigation of the world in the same way that sailors travel from one point to another. We made our way from one direction to the next, avoiding direct contact with the wind, until we finally reached our goal.
“I want to go straight, but I can’t,” she explained. “You can’t sail directly into the wind, you have to tack back and forth at a 45-degree angle. But there were many twists and turns.”
Brauer had to constantly check the weather and change the sails while maintaining the boat.
“Everything can break,” Brauer said.
Brauer slept for two to four hours at a time on bedding piled on the floor of the ship. She boiled water and took a bath using her warm washcloth. She packed 160 days worth of freeze-dried foods, including a mix of peaches and creamed oats that has become her favorite.
Despite the technical challenges of sailing around the world, she said the most difficult emotion Brauer had to endure during her months at sea was homesickness. In Spain, nightly family-style dinners with teammates and group outings in A Coruña before setting off for races created the deep personal bonds I longed for at sea.
“Suddenly I have a family of about 12 people and I’m very used to being surrounded by noisy, boisterous people,” she said.
But one evening, as Mr. Brauer was in the bow, watching the sunset colors ooze across the huge sails, something clicked.
“My body and mind are finally getting used to being outside and knowing this is kind of where I’m meant to be,” she said.
During the trip, Brauer said he saw dolphins, sea turtles, lots of fish and even a whale as big as his boat.
“It’s really magical,” she said.
The pitch-black night sky was also a highlight, Brauer said, especially when sailing through hot regions and darkness brings temperatures down.
Brauer documented every moment on Instagram
During the non-stop voyage, Brauer shared details of his trip with tens of thousands of followers on Instagram. At the start of the race, her Instagram account had 10,000 followers, but now she boasts nearly 500,000 followers.
By creating and posting more than 150 original videos from onboard, Brauer has been able to stay connected to others even in the middle of the ocean.
Many of Brauer’s videos show close-ups of her raw emotions, with one post from early in the race in which she rants about the moment she realized she had to repair some parts of the boat herself. I let it happen.
“Right now I just feel broken,” she said in the video.
That vulnerability, she said, is what allows Brauer to chart a new direction in the sailing industry.
“I’ve been showing the good parts of myself and giving my heart and soul, and I think a lot of people are really afraid to do that,” she told USA TODAY. “If you want to criticize me for changing or shaping you differently, you don’t have to follow me.”
Winning the race was a team effort.
Brauer was surrounded by a team of sailors and experts who helped him travel around the world by land. Medical staff, weather routers, specialist riggers, electronic systems managers, sailmakers, and many other team members supported Brower.
Next, Brauer and his behind-the-scenes team are preparing for the 2028 Vendée Globe. This is another round-the-world race with stricter rules and higher prize money. She took second place in the Global Her Solo Challenge and won 5,000 euros (approximately $5,430).
Brauer said the race would be much more difficult because sailors would have to race on their own and would not receive verbal assistance from teammates on land.
Almost two weeks after landing on land, Brouwer is now more anxious than ever to get out to sea, and when he can’t see water or look up to see a blank sky, He said he even felt pain. Fluffy clouds.
“When I was on a boat, the fear was about the boat. Now the fear is not there,” she said. “It’s not that I’m scared of the ocean, it’s that I’m scared of not being in the ocean.”
Her goal is to sail around the world?
“I did everything I needed to do to get here, and now I can reap the benefits,” she said. “I dreamed the biggest dream I could think of, and I made it happen.”
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