The Women and Cruising Blog

Lin Pardey  interviews 11 cruising couples fresh from their first major crossing – and finds out what they worried about and what they learned.  We are publishing this chapter from Lin’s book “Capable Cruiser” in 2 parts. Part 1 describes worries about bad weather and gear failures. Here, in part 2, Lin Pardey writes about other common worries as well as suggestions for those preparing to set sail.

Predeparture worries (cont.)

Handling medical issues

• Jack and Marcia Spiess had owned their 44-foot cutter Tracen J for four years before they set sail. They had been cruising off and on since 1988, but this was their first foray across oceans.

“Handling medical issues, heart attack, fractures, and major injuries. That is what concerned me,” said Marcia. But Marcia and her crew, like all of those with whom we spoke, had not had any serious medical troubles.

None had heard of any other voyagers mentioning problems other than two cases of tropical infections caused by cuts that were not treated properly. …Read more

As we begin a new series on Women and Cruising discussing fear and how we deal with it, we asked Lin Pardey for her thoughts. As she is overwhelmed with repairs following the flooding in New Zealand as well as preparing for her March USA seminars, she is sharing a relevant chapter from her book “Capable Cruiser“. In this chapter, Lin  asked 11 pairs of willing volunteers to share their thoughts on predeparture worries, the gear that worked, failures that occurred, and thoughts they wanted to share with those waiting to set sail. We are publishing this chapter in two parts. Part 2 will appear next week.

Arriving in Apia, Samoa

It felt wonderful, no concerns about a wind shift turning our anchorage into a lee shore, no rattle of anchor chain across coral heads, the boat lying still enough to use long-stemmed glasses instead of tumblers for our wine.

Even better, arriving in Apia, Samoa, meant we had woven our way past the hurricane belt between Hawaii and Mexico, through the doldrums and south of the equator. Now we’d completed the longest passages of our voyage from Ventura, California, through the Line Islands and back to our home base in New Zealand.

As Larry and I savored this latest landfall in our 42 years and 185,000 miles of wandering together, I mentioned my sense of relief at arriving here. “If you feel so good about it,” Larry commented, “can you imagine how pleased some of these first-time voyagers must feel?”

I already had some idea. In only a few hours alongside in the first marina we’d seen in several months, I’d met half a dozen of these newest voyagers and enjoyed their excitement at having made the break from life ashore and safely crossing a major ocean. …Read more