Ms. Brauer may only be 5-foot-2 and weigh a little over 100 lbs but she just spent four months racing around the globe to come in second in the ‘Global Solo Challenge’ — making her the first woman to achieve racing around the globe alone.
The grueling 30,000-mile journey took 130 days for the determined 29-year-old sailor.
A tough race that saw half of the competitors drop out midway through, Brauer kept her support crew and fans up to date, including when she badly bruised her rib when she was thrown across the cabin by huge waves.
Another time, her U.S.-based team had to explain to her how to insert an IV into her own arm due to dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea
On her 40-foot racing boat ‘First Light,’ Brauer faced steep challenges, such as navigating around South America’s Cape Horn, where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet, which is often called a ‘graveyard for ships.’
In a scare caught on camera, she badly injured her rib near the halfway point of the event. At another point, her team in the U.S. directed Brauer to insert an IV into her own arm due to dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea.
The New York native pulled into A Coruña, Spain, and thanking family and friends who were waiting to spray her with champagne.
“This is really cool and so overwhelming in every sense of the word,” she exclaimed while sipping Champagne from her trophy.
“It would be amazing if there was just one girl that saw me and said, ‘Oh, I can do that too,’” Brauer said of her history-making sail.