Wonder Woman of the Week: Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz

Born in 1936 in Warsaw, Poland, Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz grew up in a country where the sea seemed far removed from everyday life. Yet her path eventually led toward the horizon. She studied engineering at Gdańsk University of Technology, graduating in 1962 with a degree in shipbuilding. In the coastal city of Gdańsk, the Baltic Sea became more than scenery: it offered a doorway into a world of ships, navigation, and exploration.

Her engineering education shaped a practical understanding of vessels that would later prove invaluable offshore. Chojnowska-Liskiewicz worked as a ship designer and engineer, developing technical knowledge alongside a growing passion for sailing. She learned to handle yachts and gradually accumulated experience on the Baltic and beyond. Sailing demanded patience and precision, qualities familiar from engineering, but the open ocean added another dimension: weather, isolation, and the constant need to make decisions far from shore.

In 1976, Chojnowska-Liskiewicz embarked on the voyage that would place her name in maritime history. Aboard the 31-foot yacht Mazurek, she sailed from the Canary Islands on February 28, 1976, beginning an eastward journey around the globe. She crossed the Atlantic and Indian oceans, rounded the southern reaches of Australia, and entered the Pacific. After months at sea, she returned to the Canary Islands on April 21, 1978, completing the circumnavigation and becoming the first woman to sail solo around the world. Her achievement came after more than two years of demanding ocean passages, technical challenges, and long stretches of solitude.

Chojnowska-Liskiewicz's voyage was more than a record marked on a chart. It demonstrated that ocean exploration was not exclusively a man's domain and helped expand public ideas about what women could accomplish in demanding technical and adventurous fields. Her story has endured through generations of sailors, engineers, and young women drawn toward the sea. In the wake of Mazurek, the horizon became a little wider—a place where determination, preparation, and courage could carry anyone willing to follow it.