I will be offering a SPANISH FOR CRUISERS webinar through Seven Seas U September 26 – October 17  (6 online evening classes on Mondays and Thursdays)!

If you are cruising to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba,  or Spain this season, this course will give you an excellent jump start on  Spanish.

You will [...]]]> ¡Hola!

I will be offering a SPANISH FOR CRUISERS webinar through Seven Seas U September 26 – October 17  (6 online evening classes on Mondays and Thursdays)!

If you are cruising to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba,  or Spain this season, this course will give you an excellent jump start on  Spanish.

You will arrive in country knowing the most important words and  phrases for the sorts of things we cruisers do – clear in and out, fix the  boat, shop the markets, travel inland, chat up the locals. Plus you will have  learned the building blocks that allow you to build your own sentences to meet  your needs.

Get what you want at the market		Talk with the authorities		Get boat parts fixed (Photo: Marcie Lynn)

Travel inland		Make friends (Photo: Ellen Sanpere)		Get what you want at the hardware shop (Photo: Marcie Lynn)

This webinar is an ideal format for us cruisers who are  spread all over the globe. All you need is Internet to attend.

• We will meet online for 6 evening classes (1.5 hours per class).
• If you can’t make every class, you can log on later and listen to the recording and then  meet me on Skype office hours to practice or ask questions.
•  Plus you will have  access to all audio files, handouts, flash cards and class recordings long  after the webinar is over so you can keep practicing and learning.

We offered this webinar for the first time in June-July and had students from the Canary Islands to Vancouver. It was a big success with total  beginners as well as cruisers who already knew some Spanish.

You can read  feedback from the first group of students on Seven Seas U. But this response  from one student will give you a feel:

“Thank you so  much for the wonderful classes. You’ve given us such a great start on learning  Spanish and we are determined to continue working with all the super helpful  materials you’ve provided.  

That last class was amazing – it’s like a  light bulb came on when you showed us how to put the verbs together with the  mini-conjugations we had already learned and open up a whole world of being  able to communicate in sentence form!”

Duration: 6 – 1.5 hour sessions
Date: Mon.-Sept. 26, Thurs-Sept. 29, Monday-Oct. 3, Mon.-Oct 10, Thurs.-Oct. 13, Mon.-Oct. 17 at 20:00 Eastern or 17:00 Pacific (GMT 00:00)
Instructor: Kathy Parsons
Course Fee: $90 – SSCA Members or with discount code Parsons15 (Regular price $105)

Want to learn more or sign up? Here is the link to the  course description and registration at Seven Seas U: Spanish for Cruisers: Language Skills for Boaters

Have  questions? Email me at kathy@forcruisers.com!

Buen viento y buena mar, (Fair winds and seas)

Kathy Parsons
Author, Spanish for Cruisers and French for Cruisers
La profesora

11 good reasons to learn Spanish:

What is this flamenco singer singing about? Answer: That she can’t get a baby sitter!

1. So you can find  the parts you need and fix your boat.
2. To make friends with local people.
3. So you aren’t relegated to the “local cruiser handlers”  who drive cruisers around in taxis, but can be a free-range cruiser and feel comfortable exploring on your own.
4. So you can eat and drink really well.
5. So you can travel inland on your own.
6. So you have enough Spanish to be courteous to people and don’t come across as abrupt or rude.
7. Because another language gives you another life:
   “One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” ‒Frank Smith
8. So you can solve mysteries:
   ‒”What are these people doing in a glass house in the middle of this esplanade of Santo Domingo?
   ‒They are filming a reality show for Spain.”
9. To get what you want.
10. To get help if you need it or to be able to help others.
11. Because you can!
    Becoming fluent isn’t easy, but learning enough to communicate and have fun is DOABLE with the right approach!

About Kathy Parsons

Kathy Parsons is author of the books Spanish for Cruisers and French for Cruisers – language guides used by thousands of boaters around the world to help them communicate as they sail in foreign countries.

Cruising experts including Jimmy Cornell, Beth Leonard and Bernadette and Douglas Bernon have called the books indispensable for world cruising.

A popular speaker and teacher, Kathy has given Spanish for Cruisers classes to boaters in ports from the United States to Venezuela. She developed a French for Cruisers class in conjunction with Alliance Française in Grenada. In 20+ years of live-aboard cruising, she has sailed the US, Bahamas, Caribbean, Central and South America aboard four cruising boats ranging from 30 to 42 feet, currently aboard the cutter Hale Kai.

Kathy is also founder of the Women and Cruising website and seminars.

Kathy loves to teach: She has organized adult literacy classes in Nicaragua, taught English to Nicaraguan high school students, and computers to businesses and government agencies including NASA. She has degrees from the Harvard Business School and the University of Texas, and served in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua.

Read also on this website

• Take your passion cruising: Kathy Parsons’ mission: learn the language (and teach it to cruisers)
• Women and Cruising seminars

More information (external links)

• Course description and registration at Seven Seas U
• Seven Seas University website
• Spanish for Cruisers website: Complete info on SPANISH FOR CRUISERS Second Edition – Features, Reviews, Sample Pages, Sales Info.

A Passion for the Sea is a bit hard to describe because the book is packed with stories, advice and tips from Cornell’s lifetime of cruising.

Not only does the author draw [...]]]> This is an excellent book and very different from Jimmy Cornell’s more well-known books World Cruising Routes and World Cruising Destinations.

A Passion for the Sea is a bit hard to describe because the book is packed with stories, advice and tips from Cornell’s lifetime of cruising.

Not only does the author draw on his experience from three circumnavigations and voyages to the Arctic and Antarctic, but he also shares lessons from some of cruising’s institutions which he founded: the Atlantic Rally for Cruising  (ARC), World Cruising Rallies and Noonsite.

It is a great book to pick up, open anywhere and read. And each time you open it, you will learn something new.

I certainly enjoy it for the stories – of voyages and ports, of cruising as a family, and of Jimmy Cornell’s early pre-sailing years in Romania and England. Jimmy Cornell’s life was excellent reading even before he first set sail, and even my non-boating family members and friends have been very moved by this section of the book. I particularly enjoyed reading about the preparations for and trip to Antarctica on Aventura III (great photos!).

But A Passion for the Sea is also filled with practical advice about all aspects of sailing and cruising.

Want to know how Cornell anchors? He tells you. What system of watches does he use when sailing with family or crew? He details what he does and why. What does he carry in his abandon ship bag? What does he do when he lays up the boat ashore or afloat? What gear does he consider essential? How did they educate their children aboard? What criteria has he used in choosing his boats?

I think it might take you years to fully absorb the full range of practical advice offered in A Passion for the Sea. Many chapters offer lists of Tips or To Dos for various situations.

Perhaps this might be the best way to describe A Passion for the Sea: It is as if you were invited to crew with Jimmy Cornell, learning as you traveled the many skills needed to be a successful world cruiser.

Jimmy Cornell is generous in sharing the experiences from 200,000 miles of cruising that inform his decisions. But there is always time aboard for great stories – the ones that inspire us to get out there and visit the many ports that he introduced us to.

Read also on Women and Cruising

• World Cruising Destinations, Jimmy Cornell’s new book!, a book review by Kathy Parsons
  
• An Admiral’s Reference Shelf (Admiral’s Angle #44): Onboard references for seamanship, voyaging, weather analysis, maintenance, fishing, guide books.
• Cruising Women’s Bookstore: Books that Women and Cruising contributors have found useful

More information (external links)

• A Passion for the Sea at Amazon.com
• World Cruising Destinations: An Inspirational Guide to All Sailing Destinations at Amazon.com
• World Cruising Routes: 1000 Routes from the South Seas to the Arctic at Amazon.com
• Atlantic Rally for Cruising  (ARC)
• World Cruising Rallies
• Noonsite, the global site for cruising sailors

If you have a book that like me you would like to review, let me know!

Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

The Women and Cruising Team — Kathy Parsons, Pam Wall & Gwen Hamlin — is going online LIVE for our first ever Women & Cruising Webinar, through the auspices of Seven Seas U, the online seminar project of SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association.)  The date is January 19 at [...]]]>

The Women and Cruising Team — Kathy Parsons, Pam Wall & Gwen Hamlin — is going online LIVE for our first ever Women & Cruising Webinar, through the auspices of Seven Seas U, the online seminar project of SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association.)  The date is January 19 at 2000 EDT (8pm East Coast time).

If you haven’t already participated in one of the Seven Seas U webinars, this amazing technology will bring all three of us right into your living room…or salon…or wherever your computer is set up.  And just like our live W&C seminars, you will be able to ask any questions you have about the cruising experience and hear responses from the point of view of three experienced cruising women — whose ideas are sometimes similar and sometimes quite different.    If we manage to keep all our ducks lined up onscreen we will even be able to include feedback from members of the audience just as we do in our live groups.Every time we’ve offered this seminar, the topics that come up are different, like an ongoing conversation. It’s all part of our philosophy that there is no one RIGHT way to do things, but many ways to work out what’s best for you from shared information.

Register to participate at www.SevenSeasU.com, and, while registering, take a look at some of the other courses being offered or available as recordings!  SSCA members receive a discount on every Seven Sea U webinar.  All you need is Internet and a desire to learn!

Can’t make the live webinar schedule?  All registered participants receive a link to the recording and instructors are available via email to take your questions.

We look forward to meeting you online! See you there!!!

More information

• Women and Cruising webinar at Seven Seas U
• Seven Seas U website
• What we discussed at the Women and Cruising seminar at the Annapolis Boat Show 2009

What are YOUR questions?

Let us know.

Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

Pam says: “These popular webinar presentations by Seven Seas Cruising Association are terrific because you can watch them from the comfort of your home or main saloon! All you [...]]]> Pam Wall, one of Women and Cruising‘s founders,  is presenting another webinar for Seven Seas University on Thursday, December 9 at 8PM Eastern Time.

Pam says: “These popular webinar presentations by Seven Seas Cruising Association are terrific because you can watch them from the comfort of your home or main saloon! All you need is your computer and internet, and there is a presentation right up close and personal!”

About Pam Wall

Pam sailed around the world in a 7-year adventure with her husband and young children before finding her important niche as West Marine’s Outfitting Manager.

In this role Pam has done much to support cruisers, both new and experienced, as she has through the many seminars she presents at boat shows across the country (including Women and Cruising Seminars) and the sailing she teaches annually at Women on the Water Week in the British Virgin Islands.

Read also on this website

• Pam WALL  Answers 12 Questions about Sailing as a Family aboard KANDARIK
• 12 Questions to 12 Sailing Families
• What Pam Wall likes Most about Cruising
• Galley Advice from Pam Wall

More information (external links)

• The Seven Seas University’s website
• The Seven Seas Cruising Association’s website
• Pam Wall’s website

Who would have thought it?!

But I certainly feel more competent and comfortable aboard as I have learned how to change oil, filters, impellers, [...]]]> Did you ever think that one day you would be saying: “Gee, I wish I knew more about diesel engines – and was competent with general engine maintenance and emergency repairs.” …?

Who would have thought it?!

But I certainly feel more competent and comfortable aboard as I have learned how to change oil, filters, impellers, zincs and belts, and have a basic understanding that helps me troubleshoot problems.  And I wish I knew more!

Well here is a great opportunity to learn about your boat’s engine in a two-day workshop sponsored by the NWSA (National Women’s Sailing Organization) and Mack Boring Diesel:

TROUBLESHOOT AND REPAIR:
DIESEL ENGINE WORKSHOP for WOMEN

January 8-9, 2011
at the Mack Boring Facility in Wilmington, North Carolina
Instructor: Larry Berlin
Participants: 7 minimum; 15 maximum

Note: Deadline to sign up is now December 9. They will need 7 confirmed attendees by that date to hold the workshop. So sign up soon!

WHAT IT COVERS

The two-day workshop will familiarize you with the proper methods of performing basic engine service and emergency repairs, with two-thirds of your time working on the engines yourself.

On Saturday, you’ll get an introduction to diesel engines and periodic maintenance with lots of opportunities to do some work yourself.

Sunday you’ll kick into high gear with hands-on work focusing on the diesel engine’s lubrication, fuel, cooling and electrical systems. So you don’t forget anything, a take-home manual is also included.

This excellent opportunity with Mack Boring is based on a minimum of seven and maximum of 15 women. Deadline to register is December 9. Sign up soon!

For more information

• Visit the National Women’s Sailing Association website (www.womensailing.org)
• Download the Diesel Engine Workshop flyer
• Read about past Diesel Engine workshops

About the National Women’s Sailing Association

This year had many highlights for me but one important one was speaking at the National Women’s Sailing Conference in Marblehead, Massachusetts this last June. It was such an inspiring weekend and I was honored to be in the presence of so many amazing women. I highly recommend checking out the National Women’s Sailing Association and getting involved with one of their events.

Read also on this website

• The Engine Room (Admiral’s Angle column #22)
• The Need to Know (Admiral’s Angle column #17)
• Joint Effort (Admiral’s Angle column #5)
• Boat Maintenance Tip: Download User and Service Manuals (Women and Cruising blog)
• Women and Cruising’s List of Maintenance-related Resources

Do you know of any great workshops for women who want to improve their sailing, cruising and maintenance skills?

Let us know.
Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

As a veteran dive instructor, Gwen has good ideas about how to prep your boat and yourselves for safely adding scuba and snorkeling to your voyage, and the Admirals [...]]]> We’ve just updated our collection of Gwen Hamlin’s Admirals’ Angle columns with the latest two being about cruisers’ relationship with the water that surrounds them.

As a veteran dive instructor, Gwen has good ideas about how to prep your boat and yourselves for safely adding scuba and snorkeling to your voyage, and the Admirals have contributed photos from around the world!

Diving In: Preparation & Gear There are two basic reasons cruisers jump over the side: because they want to or because they have to. The want-to department consists of snorkeling and scuba diving and hunting for seafood to spear or collect, but also … >> Read more
Water, Water Everywhere It’s an inescapable fact of cruising: we live surrounded by water. Often deep water. A landlubber might assume that everyone who chooses the cruising lifestyle has a natural affinity for water… >> Read more

Related articles (on this website)

• The Admiral’s Angle complete archives
• Diving In: Preparation & Gear (Admiral’s Angle column #47)
• Water, Water Everwhere (Admiral’s Angle Column #46)
• Fitness Resources (lists several scuba diving resources)
• Gwen took her SCUBA passion cruising (Women and Cruising blog)
• Laurie’s epic journey to conquer her hear of water (Women and Cruising blog)

Are swimming and diving a big part of your cruising life? Have you taken courses?
Do you carry dive gear aboard? Let us know.
Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

Wow!

I just got my copy of Jimmy Cornell’s new World Cruising Destinations this last week – and I am in love with it!

I’ve carried Jimmy Cornell’s books aboard my boat ever since I bought my first copy of World Cruising Routes in the late ‘80s.

When I was finally lucky enough to have [...]]]>

Wow!

I just got my copy of Jimmy Cornell’s new World Cruising Destinations this last week – and I am in love with it!

I’ve carried Jimmy Cornell’s books aboard my boat ever since I bought my first copy of World Cruising Routes in the late ‘80s.

When I was finally lucky enough to have my boat and wonder “OK, now how do I get to these places?” World Cruising Routes had the answer for me, laying out all the major routes for any crossing I might want to make.

World Cruising Destinations is a great companion to World Cruising Routes.

What World Cruising Destinations does is give you the WHOLE world through a boater’s eye, and of course, not just any boater’s eye, but with Jimmy Cornell’s decades of experience. It covers every significant cruising destination around the world – 184 of them to be exact.

Here is some of the information included for each destination:

• Country profile
• Map
• Climate
• Formalities and Ports of Entry
• Facilities (for repair, provisioning, etc)
• Cruising guides
• Charter areas and operators
• Websites
• Flag, time zones, buoyage, currency, electricity, communications codes, etc.
• Plus, and best of all, an understanding of where and how you cruise that area.

But I guess one reason that I LOVE the book is that it’s beautiful, enticing even!

The photos are gorgeous, and the layout makes it fun to just pick up the book and read … about Croatia, Spain, Cuba, the Falklands, Antarctica – the places I’ve been, the places I would love to go to in my own boat, the places where I might like to charter, or take a friend up on an offer to visit.

With cruising guides, I’ve always had the attitude, “Okay, I’ve got the book, so I now I have to go there!”

Note

World Cruising Destinations replaces Cornell’s 2001 World Cruising Handbook (which I also carried aboard).

More information (external links)

• World Cruising Destinations: An Inspirational Guide to All Sailing Destinations at Amazon.com
• World Cruising Routes: 1000 Routes from the South Seas to the Arctic at Amazon.com

Also on Women and Cruising

• Admiral’s Angle #44 – An Admiral’s Reference Shelf
• Women and Cruising’s Cruising Women’s Bookstore

We call it 12 Questions to 12 Sailing Families, and the first contribution – the story of sv New Life and the Echenard Family of three  from Switzerland — is already in place.

Rich with [...]]]> We are so excited!  A project in the making for almost a year is finally coming together!

We call it 12 Questions to 12 Sailing Families, and the first contribution – the story of sv New Life and the Echenard Family of three  from Switzerland — is already in place.

Rich with detailed information about why and how this family chose to go cruising and the rewards their choice has brought them, the story is studded with terrific photographs that will melt your heart!

Each of the 12 families answer 12 questions about the challenges of choosing this life, what they like best and least, how they handle family back home, schooling, safety, laundry, etc. Plus, they offer advice for other families pondering this life.

This was a tremendous amount of work for the participating families, canvassing opinions from each family member, collecting or taking illustrative photographs, and then arranging to email all this material to us, which as we cruisers know is not always an easy feat from out-of-the-way destinations.

The result, however, is hugely inspiring and honest and a great read for families who are considering going sailing as a family.

Unlike our previous big projects –  What I like most about cruising and the Galley articles — for which we held back and mounted all the contributions as one huge piece, we have decided for the Families project, because each story is so special, to put up one family’s story at a time and let the project build.

Each week, we will be publishing another family until we have all 12 online.

Next in line is sv Totem – an American family of  five, that we will publish July 24. We anticipate publishing family number 3, a week later on July 31.

The message these families offer is exciting. As Gwen Hamlin says:

“That the cruising dream can encompass families leaves landlubbers shaking their heads in wonder and late-in-life cruisers saying, ‘If only I’d known it could be done!’  The reality is that families from all over the world and from all economic levels choose the cruising life as a special gift to their children not just for the experience but for the quality time it gives parents and children together.’”

An early reviewer of the project, Sally Erdle of the Caribbean Compass, says that these stories are inspiring even  for cruisers without kids:

“I think ‘child-free’ people will be intrigued for sure… You can’t help but think,  if they can do it with kids, we can surely do it without them!”

The work flow on this project is sometimes mind-boggling:

In addition to the families’ efforts (and remember, for several of them, English is not their first language!), there is a tremendous amount of design, editing, coordination of photos, proofing, coding, etc.

For example, one day last week Sylvie Branton, our web designer in Grenada, posted her first draft of a French-speaking family’s material online in our “work area”. I, in a Texas  recording studio to produce a Spanish for Cruisers audio, would call Gwen (in Florida) on Skype every time we took a break in the studio. Together, we would proof and edit  the family’s page, four eyes always being better than two.

We were under some pressure because we knew the family was planning to leave Tahiti that night for Tonga and would be on passage and out of email range for several weeks. So as soon as we finished, we sent our draft back to Sylvie in Grenada, who made a few more changes and forwarded it that evening to Tahiti, (we had a little help with the time zone changes) where the family reviewed the draft, and emailed us with their feedback. Then they set sail for Tonga!

Meanwhile, since we include about 30 photos for each family’s page, Sylvie is hard at work back in Grenada laying out photos and captions and communicating via a flurry of emails between her Blackberry and our computers.

Links to the Sailing Families project

• 12 Questions to 12 Sailing Families
• New Life’s answers to 12 questions about sailing as a family