I receive Southern Boating and Yachting Magazine in my inbox for free. It’s another source of good boating-related articles if you’re interested.
This months issue had an article on pet-related ideas for boaters that may be useful for many of you. Here’s a link
Giving back to the community is enriching, allows you to gain a new perspective and truly makes the world a better place! No matter how tough our lives may be, there are always those who are facing steeper challenges and this month’s program shows how our love for and knowledge of boating can make a huge difference in someone’s life.
Gratitude Sailing Northwest, (www.gratitudesailingnw.org) a Kirkland-based nonprofit organization, provides a healing respite for those under extreme stress from illness, incapacity and/or a major life event. The ‘nautical environment’, and specifically, “sailing,” has healing, transforming and refreshing properties according to “Sailing for Rehabilitation of Patients with Severe Mental Disorders” – US National Library of Medicine. The objective of Gratitude Sailing Northwest is to offer various types of outings to promote the well-being of patients and caregivers by introducing them to the diverse aspects of sailing and the sea.
According to Stephen Lamson, founder of Gratitude Sailing NW, “We know Heeling is Healing, and we welcome your support to continue helping those suffering from an ongoing or once in a lifetime crisis that sailing can help. All monies raised fund our operations such as, moorage, insurance, fuel, food and soft drinks for the guests and any small routine repairs. We do not charge for our services to the public. We rely on funding by our donors, angels and organizational fundraisers like our recent auction at the Seattle Yacht Club.”
Stephen L. Lamson, President & Gratitude Sailing’s primary founder, grew up sailing, racing, and cruising all over the San Juan Islands. His passion for helping others through difficult situations is the driving force behind the organization. He chose the name “Gratitude” as a theme for the organization based on being thankful and appreciative regardless of circumstance. “When you can truly be thankful or grateful, and convey this to others or the world around you, amazing positive things begin to happen to a person. This is not new science but a practice too often ignored.” Lamson is also a co-founder of the initial start-up of two other non-profits, namely Mama’s Hands, and the RMH Holiday Cruise, both of which are established 501 C3 organizations now in their 3rd decade of conducting business.
James Nolan is English and has been in the leisure marine industry for over 30 years. He is a member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club and raced for New Zealand in the One Ton World Championships in 1974. He started as a volunteer for Gratitude Sailing two years ago and currently serves as their Vice President.
Date: Monday, June 19th 2017
Time: 7:00pm – till 9:00 pm or so (Hors d oeuvres, snacks, wine, etc. are welcomed but not required. We enjoy socializing after the presentation.)
Location: 1900 N Northlake Way, #233 Seattle, WA 98103
We meet at the Northwest Marine Trade Association conference room, 1900 N. Northlake Way, #233. Park at Fisheries Supply and go into the courtyard beside Fisheries Supply and up the stairs, turn right and we are the furthest door on the left. (Located in the courtyard beside Fisheries Supply – UP THE STAIRS AND DOWN THE WALKWAY)
Please RSVP to Vivian at nwwbviv@gmail.com or Marilyn at lkunion@aol.com
June is here and boaters are returning more actively to Northwest waters. They can’t, though, be lumped… There are those who are in love with the rush of water close to the rail as they race past competitors. You can see them all over in Elliot Bay on Wednesday night races or on Lake Union in Tuesday night’s iconic Duck Dodge… There are boaters who enjoy the social life and more communal boating of yacht clubs. There are clubs in Seattle that appeal to all personalities from the more formal Seattle Yacht Club to those focused on more active racing like Corinthian Yacht Club… There are boaters who enjoy gunkholing; slowly checking out local waters and the towns on the edge, through weekends at Poulsbo enjoying “the bakery” or a trip to LaConner to experience the slough and the shops… There’s a small crowd who spend their days enjoying the personalities and unique activities of the dockside lifestyle where they’ve made their boats their homes… There are folks who spend many hours restoring classic boats of a bygone era sharing knowledge with like-minded friends and celebrating the Northwest’s historical love of boating at gatherings… There are boaters who revel in the sport of fishing, competing and just enjoying the seafood bounty available… There are boaters preparing charts and electronics for some serious regional adventures cruising up the Inside Passage to Alaska or discovering Vancouver Island with it’s opportunity to experience Northwest native culture and some Blue Water passages… And there are a few who are bringing a life-changing dream to fruition working hard at preparing their boats and boating skills for long-range cruising down the coast and beyond.
Wherever your boating activities fall within that diverse community we thank you for being a follower of Northwest Women in Boating and hope you will share about our organization with other women you meet out there as you journey up the dock or down the coast. Boating will offer you many things but, as we shared in our opening comments to those attending this year’s NWWB panel at the Seattle Boat Show, there is one thing we would like you to keep in mind.
“As a boater you can be a ROLE MODEL of a confident woman in a traditionally male dominated aspect of society. You can help promote equality. All aspects of boating have had reputations as bastions of male domination. I once submitted, to a boating magazine, an article about how chauvinism in boating could be a safety issue limiting a woman’s preparedness. It was titled, Who’s On The Helm? I got an unprecedented 3-page rejection letter from a male editor saying basically, ‘I loved your article, it’s really important info, some of my best friends are women BUT I can’t publish this because the men who mostly read my magazine might be upset.’ ”
As an engaged and informed woman boater, you are helping to change another aspect of society where treating women as second class and limiting their opportunities has been rampant. Boating can be an equalizer. BE STRONG, BE CONFIDENT and REACH OUT TO OTHER WOMAN. Even through boating you can be a revolutionary improving society for women.
Penny Braden Paschall has lost her husband, Ben. Penny is an original member and enthusiastic supporter of NWWB. She and Ben enjoyed cruising in their Skookum 53. Together since 1983 they enjoyed skiing, hiking, traveling, cruising, RVing, flying in their 1947 Republic SeaBee amphibious airplane, as well as regional cruising.
There will be a graveside service Thursday, June 8 at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent at 10 AM, followed by a reception at The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge, 36005 SE Ridge St., Snoqualmie at 12-3 PM.
For Penny’s contact information email lkunion@aol.com
SEATTLE – On Sunday, May 21, 2017, at 7:49 p.m., firefighters were dispatched to the 5100 block of Shilshole Ave. NW for multiple boats on fire inside of a boat house on Salmon Bay…….
Fire Investigation Unit members ruled the fire as accidental and determined the cause was spontaneous combustion from improperly discarded staining rags (with an oil-based product). The fire started in the structure itself, and spread to the boats inside the structure.
Link to full story
Life moves along and, amidst our members, some major life changes have recently occurred. Member, Cindy Faw, recently lost her husband Edward W. Sweetnam, Jr. who spent 53 years as a master architect partnering with Cindy in their architectural work, an avid sailor and a WWII veteran. As her husband had aged, Cindy impressively took over more of the boating skills so her husband could continue to enjoy being on the water. Cindy will hold a memorial in August at their marina.
Our thoughts are with Cindy as she makes this transition in her life.
A shipwreck might end a dream of circumnavigating the globe. Not for the Wilcox family.
With years invested in saving money, preparing the boat, and learning to navigate by the stars, parents Chuck and Dawn refuse to give up. Fourteen-year-old Garth is determined to continue, while eleven-year-old Linda never wanted to go in the first place. Can they overcome the emotional, physical and financial challenges to transform from castaways into circumnavigators?
To triumph, they must rebuild their boat on a remote Pacific island. Damage sustained on the reef and a lack of resources haunt them the rest of the way around the world as they face daunting obstacles, including wild weather, pirates, gun boats, mines and thieves, plus pesky bureaucrats and cockroaches as stubborn as the family. Without a working engine and no way to communicate with the outside world, they struggle to reach home before their broken rig comes crashing down and they run out of food in a trial that tests them to their limits.
Wendy Hinman is a freelance writer with an insatiable curiosity and a natural inclination to share her discoveries. She loves stories: telling them, writing them, reading them and editing them. And she has plenty of engaging stories to tell, some serious, some not-so-serious. After years trotting the globe for business and vacation travel, she instigated a waterborne adventure, sailing 34,000 miles over seven years with her husband on a 31-foot boat. She even managed to return sane (or so she thinks), still married and innocent of plotting murder. Along the way, she shared many of their (mis)adventures online and in magazines. Yet many still remained untold. Her hit book, Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven-Year Pacific Odyssey, details her seven year adventure afloat. Her second book, Sea Trials, is now on sale. You can order it here. Wendy’s books will also be available for purchase at the meeting.
