What a marvelous subject, and the raising of a class to all of these phenominal ladies of the seas.
Many of us have our own lady hero, though unsung, and not worldly known, they are admired and loved by us, and those who know them.
32 years ago, I met Erica, she was one of my sailing and
navigation students and a
member of the
Newport Sailing Club. she owned a new Pacific Sea Craft
Crealock 37, that she had in
charter with the sailing club. She also sailed our fleet of boats on up to the
Morgan 46.
She fell in love with sailing and dedicated herself to everything about sailing and took all of of our 42 hours of
sailing lessons, plus coastal piloting and
navigation,
Marine weather, Signal Lights and Day Shapes,
Celestial Navigation, the North U Fast Course for
racing sail trim. She was
skipper on our sailing club flotilas, and on many
Catalina and Channel Islands and Coastal Sailing Cruises.
She skippered a 42 foot sailing vessel in the
BVI, and I was on a 32 foot beneateau . Both of our first times sailing internationally. Our relation began grow at that time, and we have been together for 32 years.
We have delivered boats from Cabo,
Mexico to Los Angeles Harbor, and she can be counted on in all conditions, good and bad. We weathered near
hurricane force winds in St. Barts, Sailed in zero visibiltiy
fog that overtook us mid channel returning on one of the older sailing club boats to newport to
catalina. No
loran or
GPS, no
knot meter, no
depth sounder and a
compass that had a varying deviation of 40 to 60 degrees. We normally would have used the
depth sounder when intercepting the 100 foot sounding along the Newport coast, to the Newport Channel Sea Buoy. Not posssible.
We used my hand bearing compass, and estimated our speed, and listened to the temp reports on the
VHF. It was warm on shore and the
fog burned off at the channel entrance. After 26 miles, we were only about a 1/4 mile from the sea buoy when the fog lifted.
She sailed a lot on her own, and when Phalarope had an
engine problem, she was already skilled in
docking the sailing club boats under sail, taking pride in not using the
engine.
Docking the
Crealock under sail was not a big deal.
Together we have also sailed ( bareboated ) The Whitsunday Is, off
Queensland Australia, the Kingdom of
Tonga and four different
Tahiti trips.
The tip of Baha to L.A
delivery, plus the Abacos,
Bahamas; fourteen
BVI sailing vacations; the French West Indies; the Windwards and Grenadines, and a
motor vessel, two different two week trips up the Shannon River in
Ireland, from portumna to carrick on shannon and beyond. Also, we acted as crew sailing the
Greek Islands. On all of these sailing Erica, stood
helm watches, anchored, moored, docked, trimmed
sails, reefed, navigated, and could be counted on in all different
weather and sea conditions.
My marvelous lady , and I share other adventures, she is a licensed pilot and aerobatic pilot, sky diver,
SCUBA diver up thru
Rescue Diver, Snow Skier, long trek hiker, kayaker, snorkeler, and loves nature and good times.
We share or shared all of these things, with the exception of her sky
diving.
I was a professional pilot, flight instructor,,
charter pilot, corporate pilot, and have 17 years as instructor pilot for air combat
usa, flying fighters in 5 ad 6 G dogfights. Always wore a chute for those 2500 missions, but never had to bail out.
This lady is my personal hero, and also my personal M.D. Wonderful life of 32 years together, and still going strong. Dont know what I would do without her. Lots of love and pride for this lady.
Hope this post is not out of line, but just wanted to share a lady hero tale of a personal aspect.
Thank You
Denny and Erica.