Sail Like a Girl…

While this phrase inspires Girl Power on it’s own, in this case I’m referring to the all-girl winning crew of the 2018 Race to Alaska (R2AK). The spirit of these courageous and tenacious ladies was an inspirational force aboard Awesome and will surely endure in the mind of our little 5 year old. She followed their progress from Victoria via the r2ak.com tracker with eager delight and met her new-found superheros in person here in Ketchikan.

Consider this context: Matthew has been a devout R2AK follower since its inception, digesting a myriad of details each year like a baseball statistician, and, once the race is on, listening to daily webcasts as play-by-plays with religious consistency. He’s in the boating business, so you could argue that it’s due diligence for him to keep up on this quintessentially PNW race; however, in reality, he has such a deep love of all things boating, multihulls in particular, that I know he’d be just as dedicated a fan were he a butcher, a baker, or a candlestick maker.

This is not to suggest that Matthew has been the only R2AK fan in our household before now.

I have also been greatly entertained by the brilliantly comedic write-ups, the run down of triumphs and challenges along the race course, and colorful back stories, but, as a full-time (and soooo beyond) working mom AND cruiser with a 5 year old, my time and attentions are carefully metered. And herein lies the call and mystique of the Sail Like a Girl crew…

It’s a no-brainer that winning a 7+day long, 750 mile human/wind power-only race is an incredible feat – doesn’t matter who you are! But then factor in the multilevel multitasking lives that women especially tend to wrap themselves up in and you get full jaw dropping wh-a-a-at?!? Just read the R2AK blurb about this team and you can immediately see how these amazing women are doing it all, plus winning a marathon of a sail race. The opening line in their team description speaks volumes:

Life pulling them in a million directions, 8 women seek R2AK bid as a breather. 

Now, I don’t know these admirable women personally, but among these sailors are those with careers in law, public health, occupational therapy, and marine electronics. Those running businesses, serving as consultants, and advocating for expanded access to cancer care. And those who are also moms…arguably one of the hardest and most rewarding titles on the planet, especially when layered on top of the excellence demanded of each of us in this constantly-connected world.

Work-life balance and the expectation for awesomeness in all arenas is a daily mountain to climb. It blows my mind that these women also added an epic sail race to their daily To-Do List. I don’t know this for certain, but I have a hunch that each of these ladies, while solidly nailing their dominating 750-mile win, also organized a little something for Father’s Day (the day of the Stage 2 start out of Victoria), checked/handled their inboxes en-route, responded to texts, managed their social media, orchestrated the delivery of bottled water or cut oranges to their kids’ Track and Field Day back home, coordinated a late pick-up from doggie daycare, etc, using only the fleeting internet signals of the Inside Passage. In essence, cutting down the million different directions of the usual day-to-day to a mere handful via the blessed freedom of the wind and waves.

I’m joking of course. But only a little [insert strained chuckle].

Without being a racer, I know exactly what they’re talking about. Sailing is a breather. As the dock lines cast off, so does the background white noise and underpinning anxieties. The singular focus of the wind, waves, and sail trim immediately mutes everything else previously competing for attention. The unconscious tension permanently held in your neck and shoulders releases like setting down a bag of bricks you didn’t realize you were carrying. Sailing is rhythmic. It’s calming. It’s full-sensory. It’s real. The sailing head space ties you to waters of the ancient past and the distant future and frees your mind to quietly chew on the bigger questions of life like: where am I heading? Is this my road? Can I do better at [fill in the blank worry]? How about that Bucket List? When should I take a pee break?

The love of sailing is easy to share, but role modeling the charge of a ship and crew for a girl remains a rarity. Sure, many summers in my childhood were spent sailing with my family on the Puget Sound aboard our San Juan 21′, but skippering is MUCH different than being good crew. Before buying my own 27′ sloop as a single girl, I devoured books on solo women circumnavigators, attended local women’s only sailing seminars and Seattle Windworks classes, poured over Chapman’s, and cajoled my fellow sail-loving girlfriends into fun weekend excursions through the Ballard Locks to Blake Island, Eagle Harbor, and beyond. My focus on single-handing or rallying up a girls-only crew was not a symbolic act of male exclusion nor a verse of, I am woman, hear me roar. Rather, it was a private, critical journey of strength. Learning to skipper my own boat was a personal proving ground that I have what it takes to be at the helm, to rely on my own knowledge, preparation, and instincts, and to be mindful and masterful about protecting souls onboard, no matter what unexpected challenges the sea or the boat guaranteed to pass my way. (Knock on wood and with all due respect to Neptune, to whom I give all my first sips…) Really, it doesn’t matter who you are – the learning curve for captaining is stressful and formidable – but once you know you can take the helm alone, sailing becomes empowerment incarnate and the whole world is your oyster.

Despite this rich reward, images of famous women successfully navigating these waters are not so easy to conjure. Love it or not, Disney’s Moana was a very accessible icon for my daughter on this very concept, yet nowhere near a real-world picture of our PNW boating lives. Enter Sail Like a Girl. The timing could not have been more perfect. I’m sure our little girl is already absorbing oceans of boater knowledge (pun intended) via our family life on the water, but the Sail Like a Girl team and their gracious embrace of our daughter’s enthusiasm, plants a seed of intangible, powerful possibilities for her own future to be reaped down the road, in whatever form it blooms.