A voyage of discovery, nature and untold histories - in the vein of Clare Wright, Edmund de Waal and Helen Macdonald. When the first woman to circumnavigate the world completed her journey in 1775, she returned home without any fanfare at all. Jeanne Barret, an impoverished peasant from Burgundy, disguised herself as a man and sailed on the 1766 Bougainville voyage as the naturalist's assistant. For over two centuries, the story of who this young woman was, why she left her home to undertake such a perilous journey and what happened when she returned has been shrouded in uncertainty. Biologist and award-winning author Danielle Clode embarks on a journey to solve the mysteries surrounding Jeanne Barret. From archives, herbariums and museums to untouched forests and open oceans, Clode's mission takes her from France and Mauritius to the Pacific Islands and New Guinea to reveal the previously untold full story of Jeanne's life as well as the achievements and challenges of her famous voyage. This book is an ode to the sea, to science and to one remarkable woman who, like all explorers, charted her own course for others to follow. SHORTLISTED FOR THE ADELAIDE FESTIVAL AWARDS FOR LITERATURE NON-FICTION AWARD 2022 PRAISE FOR IN SEARCH OF THE WOMAN SAILED THE WORLD 'Clode conjures a spellbinding tale of gender, empire, natural history - and the lure of the ocean.' Yves Rees 'Seamlessly weaving together memoir, history and science ... a fascinating and deeply affecting exploration of voyaging, women's lives, and the stories we tell and the stories we don't.' James Bradley 'Biologist, historian, writer, Clode once again demonstrates the connectedness of everything - animals, land, people, plants, sea, sky - at a time when, more than ever, we should be acutely aware of it.' Gay Lynch 'A joy to read, simple yet elegant, it whispers in your ear like the sea murmuring from within a shell.' Kristin Weidenbach 'Danielle Clode unties the knots of myth and weaves a fascinating story of discovery; Jeanne Barret is one of history's most enigmatic explorers.' Nick Brodie 'Clode brings a scientific rigour and a celebration of natural history to the biography of this important woman.' Stephanie Parkyn

When the first woman to circumnavigate the world completed her journey in 1775, she returned home without any fanfare at all. Jeanne Barret, an impoverished peasant from Burgundy, disguised herself as a man and sailed on the 1766 Bougainville voyage as the naturalist's assistant. For over two centuries, the story of who this young woman was, why she left her home to undertake such a perilous journey and what happened when she returned has been shrouded in uncertainty. Author Danielle Clode embarks on a journey to solve the mysteries surrounding Jeanne Barret. From archives, herbariums and museums to untouched forests and open oceans, Clode's mission takes her from France and Mauritius to the Pacific Islands and New Guinea to reveal the previously untold full story of Jeanne's life as well as the achievements and challenges of her famous voyage.

When the first woman to circumnavigate the world completed her journey in 1775, she returned home without any fanfare at all. Jeanne Barret, an impoverished peasant from Burgundy, disguised herself as a man and sailed on the 1766 Bougainville voyage as the naturalist's assistant. For over two centuries, the story of who this young woman was, why she left her home to undertake such a perilous journey and what happened when she returned has been shrouded in uncertainty.

It was an age without GPS and the Internet, without high-tech monitoring and instantaneous reporting. And it was a time when women simply didn t do such things. None of this deterred Sharon Sites Adams. In June 1965 Adams made history as the first woman to sail solo from the mainland United States to Hawaii. Four years later, just as Neil Armstrong very publicly stepped onto the moon, the diminutive Adams, alone and unobserved, finally sighted Point Arguello, California, after seventy-four days sailing a thirty-one-foot ketch from Japan, across the violent and unpredictable Pacific. She was the first woman to do so, setting another world record. Inspiring and exciting, Adams s memoir recounts the personal path leading to her historic achievements: a tomboy childhood in the Oregon high desert, an early marriage and painful divorce, and a second marriage that ended when her husband died of cancer. In the wake of his death and almost by accident, Adams discovered sailing. Six weeks after her first sailing lesson she bought a boat, and within eight months she set out to achieve her first world record. Pacific Lady recounts the inward journey that paralleled her sailing feats, as Adams drew on every scrap of courage and navigational skill she could muster to overcome the seasickness, exhaustion, and loneliness that marked her harrowing crossings.

At only 16 years of age Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail solo, unassisted and non-stop around the world. In her very own words, she tells us about her childhood, her influences, her years of planning and her incredible journey. She shares how she battled with sleep deprivation, gale-force winds, mountainous seas, whales and icebergs and what it was liek to hold firm against the solitude of 210 says at sea.

What begins as the sheer desire for adventure turns into a spiritual quest as a young woman comes to terms with her family, her dreams, and her first love. Tania Aebi was an unambitious eighteen-year-old, a bicycle messenger in New York City by day, a Lower East Side barfly at night. In short, she was going nowhere—until her father offered her a challenge: Tania could choose either a college education or a twenty-six-foot sloop. The only catch was that if she chose the sailboat, she’d have to sail around the world—alone. She chose the boat, and for the next two and a half years and 27,000 miles, it was her home. With only her cat as companion, she discovered the wondrous beauties of the Great Barrier Reef and the death-dealing horrors of the Red Sea. She suffered through a terrifying collision with a tanker in the Mediterranean and a lightning storm off the coast of Gibraltar. And, ultimately, what began with the sheer desire for adventure turned into a spiritual quest as Tania came to terms with her troubled family life, fell in love for the first time, and—most of all—confronted her own needs, desires, dreams, and goals…

When the first woman to circumnavigate the world completed her journey in 1776, she returned home without any fanfare at all. Jeanne Barret, an impoverished peasant from Burgundy, disguised herself as a man and sailed on the 1766 Bougainville voyage as the naturalist’s assistant. For over two centuries, the story of who this young woman was, why she left her home to undertake such a perilous journey and what happened when she returned has been shrouded in uncertainty. Biologist and award-winning author Danielle Clode embarks on a journey to solve the mysteries surrounding Jeanne Barret. The result is an ode to the sea, to science and to one remarkable woman who, like all explorers, charted her own course for others to follow.