I’m going to start off the Favorite Tips category on the Women and Cruising blog with a small project that we’ve found very useful aboard Hale Kai:
Like most cruisers I am superstitious: I figure if I have the all the Users, Service and Technical Manuals for the equipment aboard our boat, I probably won’t need to use them! The problem is that most equipment is shipped with bare-bones users manuals these days. However, these same companies often offer the same Users Manual PLUS Service, Technical and Troubleshooting Manuals in Adobe PDF format for FREE download on their websites.
This is a great service for us cruisers who will be maintaining our boats far from service centers.
I’ve spoken to women at boat shows around the country and in Canada about the joys of the cruising life.
I’ve advised thousands of women to take a look at whatever it is about cruising that they didn’t like, then examine their thoughts about that issue. Often a mere shift in attitude can make all the difference as far as our enjoyment of boating goes.
So imagine my dismay during the first three months of our current cruising adventure to discover that no matter how much I tried to adjust my attitude, I was not a happy sailor.
In fact, I pretty much hated everything about this lousy cruising life.
Did you know that you can read all 36 (and counting!) columns of Admiral’s Angleon the Women and Cruising site?
Gwen Hamlin has been writing this column monthly for Latitudes and Attitudesmagazine since September of 2006. Gwen has a group of women cruisers (Admirals) that she draws upon to discuss all sorts of topics that interest women cruisers. All past columns of Admiral’s Angle are now here on the Women and Cruising website, and they are searchable.
Thanks toCruising World, we will once again be giving the Women and Cruising Seminar at the Annapolis Boat Showthis Fall. It’s been a while since we have done the seminar so it will be a happy reunion for us – and for women and men who have attended the seminar in previous years and have told us they will be back again this year.
As a woman emailed us today: “I attended your seminar last year at the Annapolis Boat show and absolutely loved it. I plan on attending again this year.”
In the early 1990′s, I was a single, healthy and athletic woman, making a living in the health care industry. I had planned to retire when I hit 55, buy a cruising boat and sail away to somewhere for fun during the “golden years”.
My plans were changed when I got very ill with gangrene of my small intestine and almost died.
While I spent 51 days in the hospital, 41 where I couldn’t eat, I decided that if I got out of this crazy health jam I was in I would sell everything and buy a bigger boat and just go sailing! Wasn’t sure if I would even live until 55 or be healthy enough to sail then. …Read more
It only took about 40 years and two failed marriages for me to discover my passion is sailing. The question, “Would you like to go sailing?” was not one I could ever answer in the negative. My calendar revolves around regattas and racing schedules to this day.
As a young adult, I raced every weekend in Chicago, and later Annapolis. When the skipper bought a J-33 …Read more
Boating life progresses at a slower pace than life on land, making a sailboat a perfect place to nurture spiritual practice. In my case, my Christian faith is complemented and enhanced by ancient Zen Buddhist teachings and the practice of meditation.
As humans, our minds jump from topic to topic even when our bodies slow down. …Read more
Good news! Beth Leonard – circumnavigator, author, and Women and Cruising contributor - will be in the US this fall sharing her recent travels and cruising experience in a series of seminars. Here’s her schedule. – Kathy Parsons
September 25-27, 2009
Seven Seas Cruising Association Annapolis Gam Camp Letts, Edgewater, MD http://ssca.org
Cruising the Chilean Channels and Cape Horn
Stretching northward from Cape Horn along Chile’s west coast lies a 1,000-mile long archipelago of islands and channels, narrow sounds and glacier-studded fjords with only a handful of settlements. Cruising this magnificent area means braving gale- to storm-force winds on a weekly basis, facing hurricane-force williwaws capable of knocking a 50-foot boat flat and being totally self-sufficient for months at a time. Beth Leonard and her husband, Evans Starzinger, have spent a total of …Read more
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