Karen Thorndike

Karen Thorndike, born in Snohomish, Washington in 1942, holds the Guinness record as the first American woman to sail solo around the world without assistance. Her voyage was 33,000 miles, which she started at age 53 completed in 1998 in a 36-foot yacht named Amelia after Amelia Earhart. The trip took her two years and two weeks, but was not done continuously; for example, she had a three-month hospitalization for angina pectoris after her trip began. Thorndike took some sailing lessons, began racing and was soon delivering boats from Hawaii to Seattle. This is what qualified her for the Guinness. Tania Aebi had previously been recognized as the first American woman to sail around the world alone in 1987, but the recognition was unofficial. Guinness did not recognize her trip for two reasons: first, she went through the Panama Canal, which required assistance. Second, she sailed with a friend for eighty miles while in the South Pacific. In 1999 she was awarded the Cruising Club of America's Blue Water Medal. She also received a Guinness World Records certificate acknowledging her accomplishment.

Thorndike is still alive and resides in Washington State.