I am never bored and always busy. Being able to multitask was for me a must and required good organisational skills.

I was sometimes ...Read more]]> This is the second half of a 2-part article first published in the South African Sailing magazine of April and May 2014.
You can read part 1 here.

Multitasking

I am never bored and always busy. Being able to multitask was for me a must and required good organisational skills.

I was sometimes cooking and teaching the kids and had to suddenly leave everything because my help was needed on deck or in the bilges.

I became a skipper, a baker, a teacher, a translator, a communication officer, a navigator, a trip advisor, a medical officer, a hairdresser, a mechanic apprentice and a weather router.

So don’t be afraid of discovering new skills!

Navigation

I like reading other sailing blogs, sailing books and magazines then imagining new places where we could be by ourselves, visit a city, do a good shop, enjoy a nice beach, explore some water falls or go diving. I was the one planning the routes and then we’d discuss it together.

It is useful to have reading material on board to guide you with your routes and what to see and do once you reach your destination.

On the other hand, going to places without knowing much about them pushes you to explore with a new eye and you might be surprised by your discoveries and encounters.

While we were doing navigation by sight, I was the one at the bow checking for coral heads, while Gregory was happy steering. I liked the responsibility of checking the water and giving indications where to go.

Overnight

A few people asked us if we were sleeping at night while sailing. Being only 2 adults most of the time meant watches were shared.

In fact we were doing 3-hour watches. From 12:00am and 3:00am, I would knead the dough, prepare yoghurts, enjoy my quiet time watching the stars and listening to some music. I was woken up around 6:00am with the smell of the freshly baked bread. After breakfast, I would start school with the kids and usually didn’t go back to sleep at 9:00am. Lunch was followed by some fiddling around, playing family games, reading a lot and enjoying our sail till 3:00pm. Around 6:00pm we would all watch the sunset, have dinner in the cockpit, read stories to the kids and start my new night of sailing.

I liked sailing at night. I felt empowered being the one in charge. With the darkness, all my senses were in on high alert. The sound of the water was reassuring, I felt protected by the stars and I was feeling the energy of Merlin going forward. My hearing was the most aware of changes. Even when I wasn’t on watch I would wake up because the sound of the waves had changed and I wanted to understand the reason for the change.

Passages

First I thought that P could be for pumps such as water pump, bilge pump, shower pump, sea water motor pump, watermaker pump, hydraulic auto helm pump… They are so many on board and they are so important for your general happiness. You could associate them with Patience when they don’t work properly! However, I left Gregory worry about the pumps.

So P is for passages.

As we fear a storm or a breakage, long passages can appear frightening. It is important to trust yourself, your partner and your boat and be well prepared. The technology is so good nowadays that anywhere anytime the weather can be checked (we used grib files via our e-mail system). Study and learn the minimum about the weather because it will be so much part of your life and decision making. Even squalls can be avoided if detected with the radar.

Leave only when you feel ready to leave and when all the conditions seem fine to you. Your boat should be well maintained, so in case of gear failure you only have to deal with a new problem not 5 at once. Remember you should have enough spare parts on board.

Frightful events can happen and their impact will be amplified by the fact you are by yourself and must work it out with what you have on board.

I panicked once during our Atlantic crossing when our DC to DC convertor fuse blew leaving us at night in the complete darkness without sailing instrument and a smell of burnt plastic. The other time was during our longest crossing from the Galapagos to the Marquises when I found a trickle of sea water in the starboard passage. In fact, we had a cross swell that we haven’t had before and a tiny pilot hole under the sink was letting some water in. On both occasions Gregory found the cause of the problem and fixed them, proving to me again that I had the right sailing partner.

Problems can happen but they are not a norm.

Overall passages are fantastic. You are by yourself on an open deep blue ocean, you have the most wonderful skies, you see green flashes, you feel so small in the middle of a beautiful environment. You are amazed by a flying visitor and you cheer proudly when you catch a fish.

Then you realise you are living something special.

Questions

It all started when one day, I asked my husband “how about going sailing around the world?”

I wasn’t scared of the answer because it was what I dreamt of doing since I was a teenager. It was suddenly clear for both of us that we wanted to do it. We had to go cruising and preferably with our kids still being young, which meant soon. This simple question quickly multiplied into hundreds of others. Every thought turned into a when, a how and a where.

If you are motivated, inspired and willing to throw the lines to live your dream, you will find the answers to make it possible. We even met people who weren’t even sailors a few months before their departure, some with very small budgets and others with small and simple boats.

The cruising life is open to all. There is no right answer, but there will be one or a few that will suit you. There are also some delayed answers and lots of changes that will happen along the way and the questions will never stopped coming.

Repairs

Having a new boat we did have some fine tuning to do. With proper maintenance we were able to cut down on the time and money spent on repairs. However, a boat will always keep you busy and TLC is always on the agenda.

I left the more technical side of the repairs to Gregory simply because he enjoys fiddling with tools and spares more than me. Again we didn’t plan our man/woman jobs division. It came naturally.

Rough seas

We didn’t have really bad conditions during our travels.

When we left Cape Town in November, the winds were strong and seas high. It took us a few days to find our sea legs and once we were in the trade winds it became much smoother. We had 15ft seas during our passage from Brazil to the Caribbean but the swell was regular and we got used to it.

Generally you try to sail when it is pleasant, with the wind in the right direction and during the right season so conditions should be good. You are out there to have fun not to prove anything.

Safety

My husband thinks that usually women worry more than men. He might be right on that one!

Safety is a very important issue for us and I made sure, for example, Gregory was wearing his man overboard tag and strobe when he took over the night watch. I made sure he was also wearing his life jacket/harness and was hooked on with the life line when he had to go on deck for manoeuvres at night or during rough weather.

The safety gear on board will help you feel secure. However, your behaviour should be the first thing to be on the safe side.

Tip

Have enough handholds around your boat.

School

Sailing with school age children meant we had to home school our three kids.

Growing up in a bilingual family, our kids followed a French correspondence system, which has been in place for more than 50 years. At the start of each school year, we received all our books and tutor guides. The children followed the appropriate curriculum and were sending an evaluation every 3 weeks, which were then marked by the teachers.

As it was in French, I was the one wearing the teacher’s hat every morning for a few hours. We met a few boats where teaching was a shared exercise between the two parents, but it seemed that most of the time it was more of a maternal occupation. Having done some teaching before, it seemed logical for us to proceed that way.

Our school time wasn’t all fun and I gained a few grey hairs but it was part of our sailing project.

Storage

Space could be limited so try not to take too much. Remember it is not just because there is more room that you need to carry more stuff. Think of your waterline!

My great grandmother used to tell me “Everything has its place and every place has a thing”. It stayed with me. I don’t like clutter and I prefer order. I use boxes and plastic bags and I try to be very organised.

Gregory does the same with the tools and the spares. In case of emergency it would be a great help to know instantly where things are. For food or clothes, Merlin offers enough storage.

Storing could also mean packing away for a long time. I stored some basic food like flour, oats, and sugar in vacuum-packed bags and then packed them away in our big lockers. As this is a great way to avoid bugs I wish I had done the same with rice and pasta. If you want to keep your storage areas free of bugs do not allow cardboard and other packages on board.

Tips

• Buy lots of bags for your vacuum pack machine as you might not find them again on route.
• It is now easy to find big vacuum-packed bags for out-of-season clothes and bedding. I didn’t think of them when we left Cape Town and then I couldn’t find any. We left our duvets in some lockers in normal plastic bags but had bad surprise when we next wanted to use them. These bags will need a vacuum to take the air out but they are really practical.
• We have few hard drives on board to store all our photos, music and movies. The photos are saved at least twice, kept in two different spots and in a dry bag in a safe place.

Terrific travels

Travelling is stimulating, but it could bring excitement mixed with fears. Will I catch my plane, how about my visa, where will I sleep, how long will I need to get over jet-lag, etc.?

Cruising different: different excitement and worries. Travelling with a boat is a very gentle way to go from place to place (no jet lag as you change time hour by hour over a few days), discover new countries and meet new people and new cultures.

We travelled with European passports and never needed visas but like any travellers the customs office was our first stop when arriving in a new country. You will get used to the customs formalities for yourself and for your boat. It might take some time but it is usually a stress-free obligation.

As you are travelling with your home, you will always sleep in the same bed. You don’t have to pack, unpack and acclimatise to a new space every time. You are self-sufficient. In fact, you are not the typical tourist. That will make you a different tourist once ashore and can add to your terrific memories.

Underwater

Water will be your new world.

Before leaving I didn’t think I would spend so much time with the water and didn’t prepare well enough for swimming costumes, sun protection and fins. However, I found some along the way.

Try as often as you can to explore the underwater world. If you sail in the tropics, the water temperature will be just perfect. The diversity of the corals, the colours and shapes of the fish, the feeling of being so close to sharks or manta rays, the silence, the pleasure of swimming all five together are a few of the wonders of the underwater world. In a few places we had better memories from our swims than our land discoveries. Exploring the sea life was something we really enjoyed.

Tip

If you like snorkelling or diving then it is worth investing in a good underwater camera and flash.

Victory

On a daily basis, there are so many little victories bringing a feeling of pride and achievement.

It is not only about making a safe journey. Victories can be as simple as finishing home-schooling early and smoothly, catching a fish, having our clearance finalised, buying a spare part that we were searching for, or we anchoring before darkness, etc.

These little victories are enjoyable because they prove you are capable of things which were so unknown before.

Vegies

Whenever possible we were buying fresh vegies and fruits, especially before longer crossings or when we knew we would need to be self-sufficient for a while.

Like most of the cruising boats, we had small nets to hang the vegies, hammock style, in the cockpit. Potatoes, onions, pumpkins, apples and oranges were stored in our “shop” (our spacious pantry) in two big plastic boxes with holes for ventilation. Fresh products were kept a long time that way.

Wind/Water and washing/Winch/Worries

They are all part of your daily cruising life.

Wind will dry your hair and will push your boat forward. Wind will take away some of your badly pegged clothes. Wind could scare you but will also blow away the bad weather.

We have a watermaker on board so water wasn’t an issue. However, we are still quite water conscious and try to save as much as possible. We were doing our dishes with sea water and only the final rinse was done with fresh water. We had some water saving features on our taps, especially those used often.

We bought a garden spray container which was a great way to get wet before applying soap. I could even “shower” 3 kids with only 2 liters of water! We were showering every day and rinsing after each swim.

I was doing a wash with our big washing machine (9kg) at least once a week.

The big deck brush was also out with every strong rain and once the boat was cleaned, we collected extra water to add to our tanks.

Tips

1. If you can have one, an electric winch is great. It helps me to winch Gregory up the mast without too much sweat. It helps me hoist the main sail by myself. It helps us lift our dinghy and motor on deck before a long passage. It reassures me as I know that my strength is not a limitation in my sailing.
2. Worries are natural but try to control them as much as you can.

Xmas

We had 4 Xmases on board.

After the first one we realised that Christmas and birthdays needs to be planned well ahead of time. You don’t easily find presents on remote islands, especially the gifts that your kids are dreaming of. The same applies if you would like a special meal.

We always tried to decorate our boat and it is a perfect occasion to keep the kids busy with craft activities.

For me it is also a great time to keep up my family traditions. So even if the weather is humid and hot, we have the oven on for a few hours baking Christmas biscuits and we have been very inventive with our Advent calendar.

Every December, Merlin is decorated and we don’t escape some obvious festive excitement.

Even if very simple we’ve had very memorable Christmases. It is good to feel that you don’t have to be part of the consumerism to have a perfect Christmas.

Yacht

Your boat is your companion and you should have confidence in her.

The type of boat doesn’t matter too much. It is more important to get out there. You don’t need to go fancy or big. Try to find the one which suits your needs and your budget, the one you think you can sail in heavy weather with and the one you can trust.

You will have the feeling that your yacht is never ready, which is normal. If the essentials (motor, batteries, rig, and instruments) are in good working order, you should be ready to start your new life. You’ll have plenty of time while sailing or during your stops to finalise some overdue jobs or find new ones to do. Your yacht will become part of the family and you will feel her soul.

Years

Life on board is not always a dream and it has a few challenges, but it is worth it.

Time seems to fly even faster on a boat and it is important to appreciate every minute of your adventure.

Zest

Sailing and particularly cruising is a good recipe if you are looking for a zest for life.

Even a short experience of it will open your eyes to so many possibilities and will start new dreams. One of my new dreams is to do it again!

If you have any questions contact me through our blog www.merlinsvoyage.net
I am looking forward to reading your cruising stories!

About Emmanuelle Buecher-Hall

Emmanuelle studied marine biology in France, then went to do some research on jellyfish in South Africa.

There, her life took a new course. After having built a catamaran, she went sailing with her family, crossing the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Merlin’s Voyage was inspired by this adventure. She is now living in Australia.

Her website (in French and English) is:
www.merlinsvoyage.net

Emmanuelle wrote Merlin’s Voyage, a children book mostly for children around 4-8 years-old. It is available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback, in French and in English.

Colour photos taken during the trip are the main illustrations.

At the end of the book, there is also a detailed index explaining nautical terminology and giving geographical information of the various stops.

Also on this website

• Part 1 of this article: A cruising wife’s A to Z – Part 1 (A to L)
• 12 Questions To 12 Sailing Families: the MERLIN family
• Merlin’s voyage: Living our dream for real!, by Emmanuelle Buecher-Hall

I’m a sucker for a well-told tale, and Swept: Love With a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche is just that.  Decades ago, sailing sagas were told by weathered men sailing solo on distant seas; today they are told by the women convinced to go along.

Not unlike Janna Cawrse Esarey’s Motion of the Ocean, Swept ...Read more]]>

I’m a sucker for a well-told tale, and Swept: Love With a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche is just that.  Decades ago, sailing sagas were told by weathered men sailing solo on distant seas; today they are told by the women convinced to go along.

Not unlike Janna Cawrse Esarey’s Motion of the Ocean, Swept is the true story of a young woman who falls for a guy who has a dream of sailing the world.  She doesn’t know he has the dream when she falls for him, and, when he falls for her, he doesn’t believe her when she confesses she is deathly afraid of the ocean.

Somehow love counterbalances terror just enough to get her aboard for passage to the South Pacific

Torre’s fears are realistic, and her experiences — good and bad — are as well.  This makes Swept a particularly timely recommendation for WomenandCruising.com readers as her experiences and insights partner perfectly our current feature collection addressing Fear.  She evokes vividly and accurately the worries of brand new sailors.

What is also realistic — and unfortunate — is the strategy the man in her life, Ivan, uses to persuade her aboard.  It’s the “I will do everything,” “nothing will happen, so “don’t worry about it” three-prong approach.  Torre is smart enough and has the right instincts not to buy into all that, but she has the bad luck not to find good mentors until she is well into her voyage.  Her trials and tribulations make for great drama, of course, but I found myself thinking over and over, “What a shame she didn’t find Women and Cruising to turn to!” and so smooth out a whole lot of the bumps!

On the other hand, her portrait of Ivan is even-handed and insightful into all the complexities that make Ivan the man he is.  He isn’t just a guy who read Moitessier’s sailing sagas and wanted that for himself; his motivations are more complex.  He’s no villain.  He just wants something so badly he sometimes overlooks practicalities and realities and jumps over important items on the To Do List in his eagerness to get going which results in some unnecessary crises.

Like all cruising sailors, Torre discovers the great magic of the lifestyle: that the wonderful times wipe away the memories of the tougher moments.  And, what is fun for newbies and old hands alike is Torre’s well-evoked sense of the Coconut Milk Run, the places, the characters, the cravings and the rewards, and, yes, the misadventures as well as the adventures.  An artist, Torre’s word pictures bring alive on the page scenes so many of us have experienced.

Swept: Love With a Chance of Drowning can be purchased in regular book or Kindle e-book format from Amazon.com through www.WomenandCruising.com. Remember, every item you purchase through our Amazon.com links benefits this website ….which gives newbies like Torre better resources for a smoother experience!

Read also on this website

• Relationships & Roles Aboard: 6 Mistakes men make in sharing their sailing passion (Lessons I learned the hard way), by Nick O’Kelly
• Women & Cruising’s feature articles on Fear
• Cruising Women’s Bookstore: Books that cruising women write about cruising.

More information (external links)

• Visit the ‘Swept’ website
• Visit Torre DeRoche’s blog: The Fearful Adventurer: Exploring the world one terrified step at a time 
• Buy Swept: Love With a Chance of Drowning in regular book or Kindle e-book format from Amazon.com

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

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

That is, have similar expectations, apprehensions and passions.

That fears they experience, the interests and dreams pursued and the skills obtained, would be generally the same.

So, I asked some questions.

In fact, I asked all the lady cruisers I had ...Read more]]>

I always thought that my fellow female cruisers experience the cruising lifestyle in a sort of similar way.

That is, have similar expectations, apprehensions and passions.

That fears they experience, the interests and dreams pursued and the skills obtained, would be generally the same.

So, I asked some questions.

In fact, I asked all the lady cruisers I had met during our 15 years cruising. In fact, I wrote a survey, resulting in a very detailed survey.

A raft of questions tumbled out.

What did I discover?

Well, I found that cruising women had a whole range of apprehensions and that some of these decreased over time but others surprisingly, increased.

I found that these women dealt with fears in diverse ways. I discovered a myriad of reasons why they started the adventure and many more that made them continue or discontinue.

There are some good ideas about their ideal boat and what made the journey all worthwhile. There are some interesting bits about relationships and, some wonderful tips for the beginning cruiser. I also received some insights into what happens next after you return from ‘the big trip’.

The Sample

Forty-two women responded .

Half the women came from Australia and New Zealand and the Northern Hemisphere was represented by Canada and USA with 36%, some from Europe and one from Hong Kong. Five boats cruised with their families.

What age group?

Three quarters are between 50 and 60 but of those remaining, over half were actually older with one over 70.

Two thirds of the ladies have sailed for over 15 years and over half of the whole group have sailed for over 20 years.

Most started sailing due to their partner being a sailor, a few couples started together and 6 women have sailed since they were kids. The idea to go cruising was initiated almost equally between ‘him’ alone and ‘as a couple.’ 47% to 40%.

Interestingly, about a quarter of women in the group suggested the idea first.

Once the idea of cruising blossomed, the enthusiasm of other established cruisers and, the practical information gleaned from books, gave most couples the confidence to make it a reality. Half of the group related that a single episode, like, sundowners on a friend’s boat, lit the spark.

Initial Plan

Nearly half the group had read enough and completed courses to want to do serious ocean cruising or a circumnavigation.

Most of the other half, including the family boats,preferred to be open to how they felt and let the journey evolve and — guess what — they all did some long distance ocean crossings with, three of the five family boats, circumnavigating.

Naturally the amount of time all this took varied with the infinite variations in people’s lives, but at least three quarters of the group have cruised for more than 5 years. A quarter of the group have been cruising for over 20 years. (They must have been younger when they started and loving the lifestyle.)

Over half the group changed their mind from their initial plan. This was mainly a result of, the journey just evolves; influences with the vagaries of weather; the people you meet; the places you love and the ever growing confidence and curiosity to venture that bit further.

The Boat

Now, let’s look at the boat.

Most people have had only one boat, three quarters being mono hulls, with the average length of all boats, between 30 and 40 feet.

99% of people were happy with their boats although the greatest ‘wish list’ change was having a larger living area which meant, extending the cockpit, adding dodgers and waterlines.

More efficient storage and multipurpose work spaces with increased ventilation are also very important.

Fanciful ‘nice to haves’ included:

• having all the labour saving mod cons e.g., washing machine, espresso bar,……..
• to unlimited money and water usage and,
• having more romantic candle–lit dinners under a star-flung sky with a zephyr breeze wafting the aroma of frangipani.

Cruising

The attraction

There was much agreement that the greatest attraction to this cruising lifestyle is the unique ability to stay in exotic places, experience diverse cultures whilst being able to stay in one’s own accommodation.

The peace and freedom to live like this is also unique.

However trying to keep contact with friends and family, whilst balancing a sea-land based existence was the biggest issue.

Attributes needed

Overwhelmingly, the kinds of attributes needed to happily cruise are firstly, adaptability to all those quick changes that occur.

These may include, changing destinations because of weather, flexibility in relation to socialising, jobs, touring and cultural challenges.

Secondly, having the initiative to maximise information for personal comfort or the task at hand is considered an important asset.

Being independent and having a sense of humour were also seen as important attributes.

Personal challenges and growth

Cruising can be about personal challenges and to this end many women stated that they experienced a positive growth in self awareness in relation to living in a restricted environment as well as their response to stress.

The development of skills, both mental and physical helped in “making me more courageous, physically stronger with an ‘I can do it’ attitude.”

What women learnt about their menfolk was an increased respect for their sailing skills in varied situations and their ability to operate under stress.

Big points for those partners who understood the ‘learning curve’ she was experiencing and his ability to ‘fix anything’.

What do you do all day?

For that question ’what do you do all day?’ ….

The favoured activity at anchor of course was socialising with other yachties and, touring ashore, while, reading was the number one activity on those long voyages.

The most enjoyable aspects on a long passage were being part of a team and sharing unique events of nature that occur at sea.

We all have some and will always remember them. Seasickness was the least enjoyable event, understandably so.

Fears

Any new activity invites an element of both fear and interest and the level of enjoyment depends upon a balance between the two.

By far the biggest fear was the lack of control of the elements, with high wind strengths, especially of 40+, however, with time and experience and weather planning, this fear definitely alleviated.

The fear that increased was that of losing contact with friends and family, as, the more time you are away the less contact you may have.

Of course, technology, with email etc can alleviate this to a certain extent.

Another big fear is your partner going overboard.

Using safety devices, e.g. a harness, is a good way of coping with this one and also practicing Man overboard drills.

In essence most of the fears alleviated with experience but remain in the background to be managed.

Personal Relationships

Regarding personal relationships on board, those that had issues with their partner worked out ways of working with the problem – except one who left the boat and changed partners!

Strategies that aided dealing with issues included, good relationship skills like, viewing yourselves as a team with technical and emotional responsibilities, having open discussions about any issue and viewing life with a tolerant, philosophical outlook.

The 5-minute ‘get angry and get over it’ strategy was a good one.

Post Long-term Cruising

The last group of questions referred to those long term cruisers who have returned home. There are 22 people in this group.

What comes next

Most had firm ideas about what they wanted to do. That is, stabilise the income by getting employment or looking at investments and real estate.

The aim of most of the group was then to continue cruising in some manner. This may be a more balanced compromise between part-time cruising and land travel, living and working lifestyle and grandchildren. Being closer to family was a driving force.

Immediately after returning, there exists an overriding feeling of the surreal, that they had actually journeyed so far, especially for those who had crossed many oceans.

There is a yearning for the community lifestyle of fellow cruisers and the need for a new challenge.

What they miss

Many miss the freedom of being outdoors and the diversity of cultures.

To satisfy this need, some have chosen to land travel in e.g., caravans, and have been particular where they choose to live, eg near water, open spaces, within a community but not in a big city.

Benefits of life ashore

Living ashore has great benefits in being able to pursue hobbies and interests.

Being able to have a good yarn to other yachties at the local club and keeping email and other contacts with cruising friends helps to process one’s cruising experiences.

Keeping the travel link also helps to avoid the consumer trap that pervades living on land.

One never fits back into the same life again nor would many want to.

Most find themselves more adaptable, curious and confident to take on whatever is happening now.

Their advice

Their advice to someone starting off is to:

• prepare well,
• know how to handle the boat,
• socialise and ask heaps of questions,
• cruise one step at a time,
• and most importantly, don’t aim too high or too expensively
• … so you can DO IT NOW.

This is a summary of the diversity of responses I received. If you have any comments or questions feel free to email.

Regards,
Karyn Ennor

About Karyn Ennor

I am 58 years old. I have been cruising for 16 years now and spent 12 years of that completing a circumnavigation.

I had never sailed before until I met my husband 20 years ago, but I have always enjoyed an outdoors life.

I learnt most of sailing skills from my very patient husband (Chris) and everything else from all the wonderful people we have met and the books that have been written.

My background is sociology and teaching English as a foreign language so, our cruising lifestyle provided fertile ground for all my interests.

We have been back in Australia for 3 years now and still live on our 34′ Catamaran MAGIC CARPET. After our years of cruising we have found it difficult to rejoin the suburban lifestyle and are long term Gypsies, I guess.

Chris and I have been writing articles about our journey and have been publishing in the Australian ‘Multihull World’ magazine for the last five years.

I find writing and attaching photographs of our travels a wonderful way to process our experiences. It makes it more real and we find we keep meeting our readership out on the water and so we get to share our experiences again, by answering their many questions and referring women to this website. It’s my version of ‘fame’ without the’ fortune’ but we feel pretty wealthy having so many friends and the time to spend with them.

Over the years, over coffee and a chat I have shared many ideas about cruising and I guess my idea for the ‘women’s survey’ came out of an interest in the commonality and diversity of experiences. There is also an interest to process and share/compare these experiences with other cruising women. I also wish to help those women who are just starting off to feel more confident about what they are doing.

Read also on this website

• The Admiral’s Angle complete archives (Karyn is one of Gwen’s Admirals.)

More info (external links)

• Multihull World Magazine, Australia

How have your experiences paralleled or differed from those of the women in Karyn’s survey? Let us know.
Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.