Traveler’s Journal
When: 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 9
Where: Sequim High School library, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
Cost: Suggested $5 donation (adults); 18 and younger, free
Presenter: Nancy Erley
Presentation: “One world, twice around”
Sailing around the world happens one leg at a time. Two five-year circumnavigations mean many legs and passages on an ever unfolding adventure. I will tell you the stories of these 10 years aboard Tethys with, in all, 65 different women crew as we learned our way across the oceans of the world.
At 30 the sea was calling to me and at 39 I found my way there by enticing other women to join the adventure. The first trip we were four partners in Tethys and a circumnavigation. The second, Tethys and I were an ocean sailing school for women.
Along the way it was often a comedy routine as we realized we had to figure out things as we went. For instance, I had read that to keep our eggs from going bad we needed to get eggs that had never been refrigerated and we could keep them in the bilge where it was cool since refrigerator space was limited. We should turn them every day so the yolk wouldn’t lay against the shell and start the egg going bad. Eight dozen farm fresh, never refrigerated eggs were in the bilge. They were not that easy to get, by the way since we lived in Seattle and this was before buying local was even a thought.
While underway, it seemed to me that the boat was jumping around so much there was plenty of motion to keep the yolk from sticking to the shell. Nevertheless, I dutifully put my head down in the bilge and without puking turned over each egg by hand every day.
And one day, near the end of that long 31-day passage someone said, “Hey, why don’t you just put a rubber band around the egg cartons and turn the whole carton over?”
We all had a great long laugh and realized how even with the smallest things we can help each other. I might otherwise still be turning those eggs one by one.
And then there was the time I was offered 40 camels by the Head of Immigration in Suakin, Sudan, for one of my quite charismatic crew to be his fourth wife.
We had character-building moments and vastly profound times. There were worries and fears, some valid and others needless. It was living life full out in all its uncertainty, color and absurdness. We had limited resources aboard, yet we found we had enough to share and even more. We had abundance.
Come to the presentation Feb. 9 and I will share these stories first-hand in an entertaining and insightful presentation.
About the presenter
Nancy Erley led two voyages from Seattle around the world aboard her Orca 38 sailboat Tethys.
“As the skipper of an all-woman crew, Nancy fashioned a circumnavigation that should go down in the record books as one of the soundest, most seamanlike journeys in the modern cruising era. Like all competent voyages, Tethys circumnavigation was notable for its lack of disasters.” — George Day, publisher Blue Water Sailing magazine
In 2006, Erley was presented with the Leadership in Women’s Sailing Award sponsored by BoatUS and the National Women’s Sailing Association. The award honors a male or female who has built a record of achievement in inspiring, educating and enriching the lives of women through sailing.
Erley holds her USCG 100-ton Master of Oceans license, is an Instructor Evaluator-Ocean for the International Sail and Power Association, a ham radio operator KI7DP and an advanced scuba diver and delivery skipper.
Based in Port Townsend, she teaches women aboard Tethys on live-aboard trips cruising the San Juan Islands and beyond.
About the presentations
Traveler’s Journal is a presentation of the Peninsula Trails Coalition. Money raised is used to buy project supplies and food for volunteers working on Olympic Discovery Trail projects. Shows start at 7 p.m. in the Sequim High School Library at 601 N. Sequim Ave. Suggested donation is $5 for adults; those 18 years old and younger are free. One selected photo enlargement will be given away each week as a door prize. For more, email Arvo Johnson at amjcgj@gmail.com.
