I had to smile when I read your comment to the Women and Cruising Website. The smile came from hearing an echo of myself.

Some 20 years ago or so, when I bought my first sailboat – the 44-foot CSY Whisper – to go into charter as a dive sail charter yacht, I believed that my being a woman had nothing to do with my intentions to be a successful, relatively self-sufficient owner/operator, charter captain, and dive instructor. I believed, and still believe, it had to do with a can-do attitude about learning what needs to be learned to be in such a position of responsibility. Indeed the role aboard that gave me most pause was that of chef, which I had to be just as prepared to do depending on who my crew was.

Ironically, just the other evening over dinner with my good friend Diane, who was in those days also a woman charter captain in the Virgin Islands, we were reminiscing about a situation that came up back then that united us in our feelings about this. Capt. Fatty Goodlander, now a roving contributor for Cruising World but then the host of a local marine radio program, asked us independently if we would come on a show he was going to do with someone from the US who was putting together a program to support women getting into sailing. Independently, we each reacted the same way: we didn’t believe that women needed any special help to get involved if they were motivated, and we were uncomfortable making a big deal out of being women captains.

Obviously, my attitude has changed somewhat, since I have been writing my column Admiral’s Angle these past four years or so specifically to support women getting involved in cruising. I think, in large part, that’s because “cruising” is different than “sailing.” To me, sailing is the skill, practiced for sport or pleasure or challenge, but cruising is a “lifestyle” based on boats, where the simple fact that the boat is “home” is a truly fundamental part of the experience.

This does not diminish by any means my belief that women aboard should be full partners in the experience, the more competent in the skills required the better. But that belief of mine has come to recognize the importance of all the “domestic” things that must be done aboard as well, and indeed to recognize that the nature of cruising is actually a rather domestic experience. Even when I was chartering professionally, I came to recognize that I was not so divorced from the domestic when a guest asked me what was the most important attribute of my being a successful charter captain, and I realized in a stroke of clarity, that my success as a “woman” charter captain (and I was QUITE successful) came as much from the hostessing skills and instincts I had acquired from my mother as any of the more properly nautical skills I had pursued. I had BOTH; a lot of the guys didn’t!

When Kathy proposed that our second “article” for WomenandCruising.com be about galleys, I felt my old prejudices revive. I did not want the cruising woman’s role to be pigeon-holed as your “galley wench”. Already I was in my third year of writing the Admirals Angle column, and although I certainly had addressed some domestic issues, I had deliberately steered away from anything about the galley. However, as the contributions for the web article came in (including my own), I realized how foolish that reaction was. Not one of the contributing women could ever be dubbed “a galley wench,” but most every one of them understood the importance of the galley to the whole cruising experience…and took pleasure in it. Take a look at my Admiral’s Angle column #35 “The Cruising Galley” for more details on that perspective.

Our objective with womenandcruising.com and mine with Admirals’ Angle is to support all the aspects of the lifestyle that make it a wonderfully enriching experience for all the women who pursue it and to encourage the broadening of involvement and responsibility. I think we would love to have your story posted on the Blog as one more example of the possible courses women can take!

Gwen Hamlin

Look around our website and read what our 50+ contributors have shared about their experiences. Read the Admiral’s Angle columns. You will find singlehanders, couples, families, racer-cruisers, circumnavigators, and coastal sailors. You will find quite a few licensed captains and very experienced sailors and racers.

You will also find women (and men) who enjoy cooking aboard their boats. There are women who see cruising as a way to explore other cultures and other lands, exotic foods and music. And women (and men) who find that good meals and entertaining helps make their boat truly home for them.

The beauty of cruising is that you CAN make it uniquely your own – and so we present all these different women’s voices and stories. We want our readers to find women that they can identify with – that will help them find their own answers and inspiration.

We welcome you to contribute your story as well!

Again thanks!
Kathy Parsons