Helmswoman

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  Skippering s/v INTUITION up the St. Mary’s River, Chesapeake Bay. She is a Holland 50 and my favorite boat ever! We had just cleared a fog bank and were bound for Solomons Island, Maryland for our first race season.  Spring 1989.  Picture by Claire Liston.

   

  My name is Gretchen.  I haven’t always liked my name.  My Mom didn’t want to give me a name that could be shortened…she wanted to name me Katherine, but knew many would be compelled to call me Kathy, so then she decided on Lorraine, but my Dad was elated he could call me ‘Lorrie’ and well, that assured that my middle name would be Lorraine.   I have been called ‘Gretch-the-Grouch’, Gretch-the-Wretch, Gretch-Metch, but my friends just call me ‘Gretch’…I now appreciate being one of many few named Gretchen…it suits me…I just had to grow into it, and I am grateful my Mom had faith I would from the very beginning.

  I am a sailor, a rower, an aspiring poet and writer.  I am a bodyworker, and massage therapist.  I taught myself to play the flute, and want to learn to play my guitar.  I am practicing living my life based in wonder and curiosity, not one ruled by fear and convention.  I can’t say that it is easy every day, but it is refreshing and satisfying.

  I grew up in Annapolis, Maryland at the end of the Severn River.   Growing up on the Chesapeake Bay nurtured a magical childhood; filled with swimming, boating, crabbing, fishing, and living close to Nature.  I was an only child then, and played for hours in the woods near my house, with my German Shepherd, Shadow and my West Highland White Terrier, Samantha.

  I attended St. Mary’s College of Maryland where I learned to think for myself, scout out resources, write, row, and race on big sailboats.  It was three and half years of pure delight.  I am grateful for the friends I made, and the professors who taught me.  The St. Mary’s River feeds illumination.

  After many years of working in multiple capacities and in various environments, I decided, with my husband, Chris, that it was time to sell our twenty-eight hundred square foot house, the majority of its contents, and move aboard a thirty-five foot sailboat.  We decided to go Cruising.  It has been a very long and involved process, but in the Fall of 2011, we finally departed the dock for the Bahamas sailing from Beaufort, N.C.

  Our initial six month cruise was filled with a lot of magic and wonder, and of course the challenges of keeping a boat running and a crew fed.  It was worth every bit of the work and planning required.

  My intention with creating this blog is to share my story through words and pictures and show what the experience has been like, both figuratively and literally.  It has required that we give up a whole lot of things, bolster our trust in each other, and in my case, tackle some fear of the unknown.  The process has lent to living a more minimalist life style.  I can say in the last year that I have truly ‘LIVED’ my life to the Fullest and I am proud of that.  I hope that through this blog I may inspire others to pursue what it is that they love and are passionate about, and to truly Live all the Life out of Life…

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