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Tag: SkillsA philosophy I picked up twenty years ago from a significant mentor has guided the way I’ve approached most everything since. I call it my Toolbox Theory. At issue at the time was taking my scuba instructor’s certification. An expensive, challenging, week-long course with a major practical test at the end, it was all daunting in [...] Bonjour, hola, buenos dias, malo lei lei, bula, g’day…..these are ways to “hello” from the Caribbean to Australia. Tackling foreign languages can be scary. There are the pitfalls of pronunciation, the embarrassments of using a wrong word, the confusion of word order, the mysteries of gender, and the maze of myriad verb tenses. But the [...] It’s not everyday you run across a woman who owns and sails her own boat. But it’s not all that uncommon either. People are inclined to make a big deal of it, but really why should they? There is nothing about boating that a woman can’t take on if she’s of a mind to and [...] Not every woman comes with a man attached to her hip. For some this is a good situation and for others not so good, but for women wanting to go cruising, it could be seen as a handicap. Certainly the majority of the cruising community is comprised of couples, but it is often surprising to [...] Recently I was asked, “What should cruising women know about their engine rooms?” It’s easy to answer, “As much as possible.” But there are plenty of ladies who would exclaim, “As little as possible!” Most of us did not grow up mucking about with motors, electricity, or plumbing projects, and so the engine room on [...] It’s hard to remember a time when starboard and port did not come instinctively, when I had to spin around and face forward and look at my right or left hand to know which term I wanted. These days fore and aft, bow and stern, topsides and below, hatch and companionway, galley and head, cabin [...] Women cruising are challenged in small ways nearly every day, but every once in a while a big challenge comes along, and whether we have the skills and the attitude needed to meet it determines whether or not there will be a happy ending. Has anyone tried to make you feel like some sort of black sheep for choosing to go cruising? My husband Don took a lot of grief from his family when he packed up his daughter, took his Catalina 25 in tow, and moved to Florida in search of year round-sailing. Don hails from a small town [...] An Achilles heel for many cruising women – even for some Admirals – is driving the dinghy. Hardly surprising since couples cruising – especially for the first time – are doing pretty much everything together, and, without any particular thought, the guy gets into the habit of driving. When they finally reach Georgetown or Trinidad [...] Vicki wasn’t sure she qualified as an Admiral. This surprised me because she’d spent years in the charter biz with her husband, and in 2002, while my husband and I were dallying in Mexico, they’d scooted right past us for the South Pacific on Firebird, an 84’ Palmer Johnson ketch. I would read the [...] |
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