Cole Brauer, a 29-year-old sailor from New York, arrived in Spain on Thursday after sailing nearly 30,000 miles in just over four months — making history as the first U.S. woman to race nonstop around the world by herself.
“Amazing finish!!!! So stoked,” the East Hampton-raised athlete said on social media after arriving in the northwestern Spanish city of A Coruña.
“Thank you to everyone that came together and made this process possible,” she wrote.
Brauer was the only woman and the youngest person among the more than a dozen sailors competing in the inaugural Global Solo Challenge, a circumnavigation race that started in A Coruña with sailors from 10 countries.
After taking off on Oct. 29 on her 40-foot racing yacht named “First Light,” the 5-foot-2, 100-pound skipper spent 130 days sailing through three oceans and battling dangerous conditions — including hurricane-force winds and 30-foot waves. She did it all while keeping in touch with her more than 470,000 fans around the world by posting daily updates on her journey to social media.
“To the end, it was a really tough situation,” Brauer said in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday, adding that seeing her family and friends at the finish line felt “just really emotional.”
According to her official profile, Brauer’s goal has always been “to be the first American woman to race around the world,” which she hoped would “show that this very male-dominated sport and community CAN become more open and less ‘traditional.’”
“This dream has become a reality,” she said Thursday.
After crossing the finish line, Bauer’s achievement was celebrated by her family and friends as she drank Champagne from her trophy, NBC News reported.
“This is really cool and so overwhelming in every sense of the word,” she said.
