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.

And Amanda Swan Neal has invited you all to the seminars she will be [...]]]> We’ve already announced here on the blog that Pam and I will giving two free Women and Cruising seminars at the Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show, at Jack London Square in Oakland, California on April 16 and 17.

And Amanda Swan Neal has invited you all to the seminars she will be offering at Strictly Sail.

But that’s not all. There will be over 100 seminars during the show and Women and Cruising contributors will be giving a number of them. Here are 7 more great seminars that Pam Wall, Janna Cawrse Esarey and I will be giving during the show.

Come meet us and let’s talk cruising!

(1) Cruising the French and Spanish-speaking Caribbean

Kathy Parsons Saturday April 17 – 2:15pm Room: Compass and Sunday April 18 – 2:15pm Room: Compass

The French and Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean provide rich and varied cruising opportunities: from Martinique and Guadeloupe’s French Creole cuisines, to inland travel through Central and South America, to the music and beauty of Cuba. Yet boaters often hesitate, faced with language and cultural differences.

With photos, hand-outs and personal stories from over a decade of travel throughout the Caribbean, author and cruiser Kathy Parsons shows how and why to fully explore these areas.

You will leave this seminar with a list of Caribbean destinations that you won’t want to miss and practical tips that will reduce cultural misunderstandings and make your travel more safe and enjoyable.

(2) Outfitting for Blue Water Cruising

Pam Wall Saturday April 17 – 11:45pm Room: Portside

Pam Wall has years of sailing and cruising experience. In this seminar she shares many good ideas on how to make your boat safer, more efficient, and therefore more fun.

See the many photos of good ideas on how to sail your boat efficiently, be safer, and a lot more.

(3) Family Sailing Around the World

Join Pam and Andy Wall and their two small children as they sail their 39 foot sloop around the world. This wonderful sailing family adventure took six years.

Enjoy the entertaining stories, and learn from the thrilling experiences of a family seeing the world from their own home, their boat KANDARIK.

(4) Cruising the Bahamas

Pam has been cruising the Bahamas for over 30 years. Come join Pam in a cruise around the Abacos in the Bahamas.

Get all kinds of good information on what to see, where to sail, and what to do in the lovely Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas.

(5) Sail the Transatlantic on the Four-Masted Bark Sea Cloud

Come and join the Trans Atlantic Passage of the lovely and historical yacht SEA CLOUD.  This beautiful 367 foot private yacht was built for Marjorie Merryweather Post and is now a charter yacht that works the Caribbean in the winter and the Mediterranean in the summer.

Pam Wall just recently sailed from the Canary Islands to Antigua and wants to share this wonderful 16 day passage aboard the bark SEA CLOUD.  Come and see what it is like to cross the Atlantic with the trade winds and enjoy the life aboard a square rigged sailing ship.

(6) The Motion of the Ocean: Funny Stories from a Salty Marriage

Janna Cawrse Esarey   Sunday April 18 – 1:00pm   Room: Regatta II

Janna Cawrse Esarey will show photos and read from her travel memoir, The Motion of the Ocean: 1 Small Boat, 2 Average Lovers, & a Woman’s Search for the Meaning of Wife (Simon & Schuster 2009).

It’s the humorous, true story of a couple that honeymoons across the Pacific on a beat-up, old boat—only to find that sailing 17,000 miles is easier than keeping their relationship off the rocks.

If you’re interested in blue-water cruising, boating as a couple, women aboard, or just want a good laugh, come join us!

(7) Keeping Your Onboard Relationship Off the Rocks

Janna Cawrse Esarey   Saturday April 17 – 4:45pm   Room: Regatta II

You love your spouse. You love your boat. Why can’t you three get along? Take heart, even the happiest union strains under onboard pressures; our friends call their boat the Divorce Machine.

This hands-on seminar will help you identify potential pitfalls and give you tools for boating better together. Topics include the Pink and the Blue, Boat Hygiene, Romance on Watch, Divorce Docking, and most importantly, What She’s Actually Thinking.

This seminar is intended for anyone—sailors, powerboaters, racers, cruisers, men, women—who would like to sail happily ever aboard with a loved one.

About Kathy Parsons

Kathy Parsons is author of the books, Spanish for Cruisers and French For Cruisers, popular language guides for boaters.  

Together with friends Pam Wall, Gwen Hamlin and Beth Leonard, Kathy conducts “Women and Cruising” seminars at boat shows, answering questions that women have about the cruising life.

She is the founder of this website, Women and Cruising, which provides advice, inspiration and resources for women cruisers.  

Kathy Parsons has spent much of the last twenty years living aboard and sailing the US, Bahamas, Caribbean and Central America. Along the way, she has pursued a number of passions: diving, hiking, and inland travel, and learning and teaching foreign languages.

Look for Kathy in the Author’s Corner at the Boat Show.

About Pam Wall

Pam Wall works for West Marine in Fort Lauderdale.  After many years of sailing around the world with her husband, Andy, and two small children, Pam has become a diplomat for West Marine by offering her knowledge to offshore cruisers.

She not only answers questions on anything to do with sailing, but can be of assistance in suggesting fun things to do, places to eat, foreign country checking in process, great places to anchor, and of course her specialty, what to take aboard your boat for safe, efficient, and fun sailing and cruising.

With many miles of cruising under her belt, Pam is a source of information for anyone to use.  Her lectures at boat shows take you all over the sailing globe and give everyone who attends the desire to be out there too!

Together with friends Kathy Parsons, Gwen Hamlin and Beth Leonard, Pam conducts “Women and Cruising” seminars at boat shows, answering questions that women have about the cruising life.

About Janna Cawrse Esarey

Janna Cawrse Esarey is a teacher by training, a writer by day, and a sailor by luck.

Her book, The Motion of the Ocean: 1 Small Boat, 2 Average Lovers, & a Woman’s Search for the Meaning of Wife (Simon & Schuster 2009), is the humorous true story of a couple that honeymoons across the Pacific on a beat-up, old boat—only to find that sailing 17,000 miles is easier than keeping their relationship off the rocks.

Janna’s work appears in sailing magazines, such as Cruising World, Blue Water Sailing, and 48 North, and travel anthologies, most recently More Sand in My Bra.

She blogs about work-life-love balance for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at “Happily Even After.” Janna was selected as a 2008 Jack Straw Writer and currently performs the juggling act of writer, mom, and wife—only dropping a few balls daily. Visit her at http://www.byjanna.com.

More info:

Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show
Jack London Square, Oakland, CA
Thurs, April 15 – Sun, Apr 18, 2010

• Visit the Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show website.
• View the complete seminar schedule.
• Get details on our Women and Cruising seminars.
• Read about Amanda Swan Neal’s seminars.

The Cruising Compass interviewed Pam Wall, Outfitting Manager for West Marine. Pam is an accomplished sailor who has sailed around the world with her husband, Andy of Andrew Wall [...]]]> Throughout the month of November both Blue Water Sailing Magazine and The Cruising Compass is focusing on Fitting Out For World Cruising.

The Cruising Compass interviewed Pam Wall, Outfitting Manager for West Marine. Pam is an accomplished sailor who has sailed around the world with her husband, Andy of Andrew Wall Rigging, and their young children. Pam and Andy have become Fort Lauderdale’s resident expert for all cruisers, motor or sail.

Pam outfits every kind of boat from small sailboats to mega-yachts. She also teaches sailing at the annual Bitter End Yacht Club’s “Women on the Water Week” in the British Virgin Islands. (Pam is also part of the Women and Cruising team, presenting our Women and Cruising seminars at boat shows.)

Here are links to the first three installments on the Blue Water Sailing website:

• Part 1. Rigging
• Part II: Ground Tackle
• Part III: Comfort and Safety Below Decks

Want to learn more?

Visit the Women and Cruising Outfitting Resources page where you can download Pam’s Outfitting Checklist.

Read the current issue of Cruising Compass or search the archives.

Read some of Pam’s contributions to Women and Cruising: What I like Most about Cruising, Galley Advice from 18 Cruising Women

We’ve received a number of emails asking about the Women and Cruising Seminar, so here are the details again:

Women and Cruising Seminar Sunday October 11, 2009 12:00 – 1:30pm Ballroom of the Annapolis Marriott Waterfront Hotel

Free, no advanced [...]]]> It’s less than a month away and we’re getting excited about the Annapolis Boat Show.

We’ve received a number of emails asking about the Women and Cruising Seminar, so here are the details again:

Women and Cruising Seminar
Sunday October 11, 2009
12:00 – 1:30pm
Ballroom of the Annapolis Marriott Waterfront Hotel

Free, no advanced reservation required – thanks to Cruising World!

Topics covered: About the Women and Cruising Seminar

Yes, the seminar is FREE and there is no advance registration. Just show up!

Pam Wall and I will be accompanied by several familiar faces from the Women and Cruising website at the seminar:

• Beth Leonard (circumnavigator, author of The Voyager’s Handbook and Blue Horizons)
• Plus Betsy Baillie, Ellen Sanpere, Debbie Leisure … and there will likely be even more joining us. Let us know if you’re coming!

Men are welcome too!

Actually, lots of men attend our Women and Cruising seminars – because we discuss a lot of useful topics, because they want to better understand women’s perspectives, because they want their wife or girlfriend to be happy aboard, … and some men come to meet women who like sailing.

 More info:

• Read more about the Women and Cruising Seminar.
• Download the complete Cruising World 2009 US Sailboat Show (Annapolis, MD) Seminars on Sailing Schedule.
• Visit the website of the US Sailboat Show, Annapolis, MD, October 8-12, 2009. This will be the 40th Anniversary of the show!
• Check out Beth Leonard’s 2009 Seminar Schedule.

Read Women and Cruising articles/posts of contributors who will be at the seminar:

• Kathy Parsons (Galley Advice from 18 Cruising Women, Favorite Tips: Boat Maintenance, What I Like Most About Cruising)
• Pam Wall (Galley Advice from 18 Cruising Women, What I Like Most About Cruising)
• Beth Leonard (What I Like Most About Cruising)
• Betsy Baillie (Galley Advice from 18 Cruising Women)
• Ellen Sanpere (Take Your Passion Cruising, What I Like Most About Cruising)
• Debbie Leisure (How We Learn, What I Like Most About Cruising)

I will be giving a seminar a day!  These seminars are about our family [...]]]> My favorite in-the-water boat show is coming up soon.  April 15 through April 19 is the Strictly Sail Boat Show in Oakland’s Jack London Square.  It is a lovely outdoor boat show that also features many really interesting and informative seminars.

I will be giving a seminar a day!  These seminars are about our family sailing around the world on our 39 foot sloop, of the delight of cruising in the Bahamas, what I think is appropriate for outfitting a blue water cruising boat, and last but not least, how we survived several hurricanes while in the Bahamas.

Come and visit with me at the show, and see me in the seminar rooms!  I always love to meet new women, and it is such fun to see  friends I have met around the world while cruising.

I hope you all can attend and not only enjoy the show itself, but take advantage of all the really good seminars that will be presented all during the show.

Here’s the link to the Strictly Sail Pacific website:

http://strictlysail.com/shows/pacific.asp?show=pa

See you there!

Pam Wall