Praising solo sailing women

May’s a good month to recall the exploits of several inspiring solo-sailing women

- Marsali Taylor

After two years of teaching herself to sail - including sextant navigation - it was on 18 May that Ann Davison set sail from Plymouth in her 23ft, four-ton wooden sloop Felicity Ann. She'd been a pilot in the 1930s, and that was how she met her husband, Frank, a keen sailor.

After several years of farming, they bought a 70ft ketch, Reliance, to travel the world. Lack of money forced them to set off before their boat was ready; they were caught in rough weather in the English Channel, and Reliance was wrecked on rocks off Portland Bill. They launched their liferaft, but they were washed off it several times, and Frank was drowned. Ann wrote the story in her book Last Voyage, and the proceeds from that book funded her purchase of Felicity Ann.

Ann had several stop-overs before finally setting off across the Atlantic on 20 November 1952. She arrived in Dominica two months later, and spent time there before sailing up to Florida and reaching New York on 23 November 1953: the first woman to cross the Atlantic solo. She remained in America, settling finally in Florida, and died in 1992.