"I'm only doing this for myself, not for any record," says Joanna Pajkowska two days before her departure. On Sunday evening, the Polish single-handed sailor (nicknamed "Asia") set off from Plymouth on her ambitious voyage: she wants to sail around the world, non-stop and alone.
The 60-year-old's boat is not an unfamiliar one: Pajkowska sails the 40-foot aluminium yacht "Fanfan!" owned by Berlin-based Uwe Röttgering, who sailed around the world single-handed from 2001 to 2003 on a rather unusual route.
Pajkowska and Röttgering are friends and sailed and won the Twostar double-handed race across the Atlantic on the Class 40 "Rote 66" in 2017. But Pajkowska's real passion is single-handed sailing.
The skipper had already completed a round-the-world trip on a Mantra 28 in 2008/09. This trip was supposed to be non-stop, but she had to call at a harbour in South Africa. Now the plan is to sail non-stop around the world on "Fanfan!", which Röttgering is making available to her for the trip. "Hopefully I can now realise my dream with this ship," says the Polish woman, who has experience on the high seas.
If Asia Pajkowska manages to circumnavigate the globe without a stopover in the coming months, she would be the first Polish single-handed sailor to do so. And the "Fanfan!" would have another impressive journey in its wake.
You can read a portrait of the skipper in YACHT 22/2018, which will be published on 18 October.
