The
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“I was never one to just ‘ride the boat.’ I always
wanted to ‘do the boat,’” she says. Seattle-area
resident Linda Lewis, 66, is a rare and talented
individual who truly loves to share her interest in,
and knowledge of, boating. She is driven by
curiosity, but it’s her ability to relay to others
what she has learned that deserves our attention.
Her résumé is more than impressive. She has
over 40 years of active sailing and powerboating
experience, is a coxswain in the Coast Guard
Auxiliary, has her USCG 100-ton master’s
license, teaches a variety of boating classes (both
public and private), edited the latest Douglass
boating guide, Exploring Southeast Alaska, and is
perfectly capable of singlehanding her 45-foot
trawler. She gives seminars on traveling to
Alaska, interpreting charts, understanding
currents, maximizing enjoyment while boating,
feeling the fear and doing it anyway, sharing the
helm with your spouse (co-instructed with her
husband, David), and one with an intriguing title:
“The Captain Is Missing.”
After reading her 2007 Alaskan trip blog
at fineedge.com—all 37 segments of it,
each enriched with captivating photos—I
momentarily wondered why I was writing this
article and not her. Linda’s keen sense of
observation shines throughout. But I can give
her accolades she wouldn’t give herself.
Linda has come a fair distance since she began her
boating career in 1963 with her 12-foot sailboat. She
stuck to sail until 1999, enjoying her own boat, charters,
friends’ boats, and educational experiences in vessels
ranging from 32 to 50 feet. She acted as captain, crew,
navigator, and student. Then along came power, and
the one- or two-week sails began to expand into twoto
four-month cruises. The Seattle-to-Alaska route,
a cruise she made for seven years running, became
as comfortable and familiar as a pair of well-worn
deck shoes.
TAKING TIME
Today, in addition to carrying out extensive Auxiliary
patrols and teaching, Linda does find time for pleasure
cruising, often with her husband, David Parker, a.k.a. Mr.
Lewis or “that guy with Captain Linda.”
They purchased their 1978 45-foot Kha Shing trawler,
Royal Sounder, in 2000.
Loosely translated, Kha Shing means “great trust.”
“Kha shing” also isn’t far from that clanking sound made
by coins dropping into a cash register. Most anyone who
loves their boat like Linda and Dave do can identify with
either definition. But Linda appreciates Royal Sounder’s
solidness and her big, flared bow, which resists green water. She also favors the smart interior teak
cabinetry and door carvings.
The captain’s hat changes heads annually,
giving Linda and David each a chance at the
boss role. But they take turns docking so that
each can maintain his or her skills. They also
trade two-hour helm watches to keep them
both fresh. And they deal well with preferences.
“I gravitate towards navigation, so I do most of
it,” Linda says. “He likes to anchor, so he usually
directs that process.” David does most of the
repairs and updates, and he also built their 18-
foot plywood-and-fiberglass skiff.
Linda’s least favorite onboard duties are
cooking and changing oil. Culinary efforts she
leaves to the better chef, David. She handles
the systems checks to thank him for that.
David sees Linda’s navigation skills as her
strongest asset. Without her, he’d still be back
with his sextant and compass. He’s long
maintained that “your two most important navigation
tools lie on either side of your nose,” but Linda now has
him combining his oculars and binoculars with 21stcentury
gadgets.
A recent addition was a new autopilot linked to
electronic charting, an item about which David wasn’t
enthusiastic. Linda said he claimed he would never let a
computer run the boat on his watch. “Guess how long
that lasted?” she asks. “One day.”
David has numerous fond memories of on-the-water
time with Linda. He recalls one side-tie in Port McNeil,
British Columbia, that was just another day at the office
for Linda but impressed everyone else. At season’s close,
a crowd of 50-foot seiners rolled in, surrounding them
like flies on fruit. “With only several feet forward, aft, and
a very narrow fairway, she carefully kicked the boat off
the dock using a spring line and backed several hundred
feet through the fishing fleet,” he says. Dave smiled to
himself as he listened to passing comments. “A buxom
redhead on the flybridge obviously was not something
commercial fishermen were used to seeing during such a
difficult maneuver.”
Linda rarely gets flustered when afloat, a fact she
attributes to her vast safety education and general
boating experience. Events that might frighten others
usually rate in the “challenge” category for her. She
does remember a disconcerting occurrence on a 1991
bareboat charter with her then-19-year-old daughter,
Julie. They were in British Columbia’s Desolation
Sound, and it was Linda’s first trip as captain without
any skilled onboard backup.
Julie rowed to shore to get the stern tie while Linda
began warming up the engine. Looking back at the boat,
Julie saw her mother, barely visible in a cloud of what
looked like thick smoke. “For all I knew, you were on
fire!” Julie later said. Linda quickly cut engine power,
and the cloud dissipated.
Wanting to figure this out themselves, Linda
positioned Julie in the cockpit while she stayed inside,
standing close enough to the open forward hatch to
escape if needed. Fire extinguishers in hand: check.
Open engine compartment and start engine: check.
Linda immediately saw it wasn’t smoke, but steam. A
slipped raw-water hose was spraying the hot engine.
She knew the fix.
It was a proud moment for Linda, and a memorable
mother-daughter adventure. This trip proved to her she
could handle being the brain behind the boat.
PASSING IT FORWARD
Linda has long been an advocate of women’s rights
and backs up her strong beliefs by building women’s
self-confidence through education. (Linda even rode a
bus with Betty Friedan from Peoria to Chicago for an
ERA rally—back when—so this is not a new concept
with her.)
Besides belonging to several women’s boating
groups and leading the Pacific Northwest chapter of
Women Aboard for three years, she has instructed a
wide range of boating classes geared to women and
has given private and group on-the-water training.
This love may stem from her role in medicine as an
R.N. with a Ph.D. in nursing. She has had a specific
interest in women’s wellness and has taught various
aspects of medicine and nursing as an associate
professor at the University of Washington. One of her
favorite aspects of medicine was emergency room care.
“In the crowded, frenzied environment, I learned to
lower my voice to almost a whisper to really get
someone’s attention.” That carries over to her ability
to hold her cool as an instructor and in challenging
boating situations.
And she works equally well with men. A fellow
Auxiliarist, Chuck Olson, has known Linda since she
joined the Coast Guard group in 2001. “My first
impression was that she didn’t need the Auxiliary and
probably wouldn’t contribute much to our flotilla,” says
Chuck. “I was dead wrong.” Chuck and Linda instruct
public sector and Auxiliary students aboard his
Tollycraft. “She can do about anything she sets her
mind to…and do it well.”
One particular story stuck in my head, because it
illustrates how Linda is ever the teacher, even as she
adds to her own wealth of knowledge. In 2006 she
spent two months cruising from Seattle to Bella Bella,
British Columbia, and back with a variety of crew, or
none at all.
Friend Vivian Strolis helped with one leg of the
adventure and said they had the time of their lives.
Vivian was capable of docking her own boat and had
taken a number of Linda’s classes, but her on-the-water
experience had involved mostly day trips. On this voyage,
Linda worked with her on navigation and other skills.
“Linda is extremely smart, and you easily can trust
anything she tells you on boating,” Vivian says.
They did have a memorable experience in the
Broughton Islands, north of Johnstone Strait. Vivian
was at the helm, with Linda on the bow scouting an
anchorage. Not liking the space, they turned around,
stirring the water. Suddenly, the boat came to a jerky
stop, the oil-pressure gauge squealed, and the engine
died. It didn’t take long to locate the problem: a halfinch
poly line wrapped around the port shaft. Linda
grabbed a boathook and snagged the loose end, but
the other end was solidly attached to something on the
seafloor. “We were caught like a big fish,” Linda says.
She knew she had to cut the line, but “I also knew
the piece had to be long enough for me to attach to
the swim platform so it couldn’t swing over and catch
the other shaft.” Thinking like a mother of girls, she
saw the line as a braid, with three plies that could be
separated. Soon she had three small pieces long
enough to tie together and duct tape to the platform.Glad to have solved the problem and thankful to have
twin engines, they were able to putter on to where they
could get a diver to free the prop.
Linda invited Auxiliary colleague Gina Gollischewski
to join her for the trip’s last leg, from Port McNeill on
the northeast side of Vancouver Island to Anacortes,
Washington. This time, Linda looked for a third woman
to join them. When Gina’s 12-year-old daughter, Jessica,
got wind of the plans, she responded with, “I’m a
woman! Why can’t I go?” Linda liked her attitude, and
go she did.
Jessica wasn’t a total novice, having cruised on her parents’ Bayliner and taken a 13-week boating safety
course, but she took to Linda’s training like a barnacle to
a hull. The week was a good test, with bad weather,
rough seas, narrows to navigate, an active military testing
area to avoid, and a bona fide towing demonstration (see
the Web Extras at passagemaker.com for details).
Linda trained Jessica on anchoring, lines, knots, and
paper and electronic charts. Jessica loved it all, and her
fascination with charts earned her the nickname “Ms.
NIT” (navigator in training). Each evening, Jessica would
labor over plotting the next day’s course.
Jessica took the helm when appropriate, and the linehandling
lessons paid off when she crewed for a tricky
docking. Linda was so impressed that she put her young
charge to the next test. Jessica would do all the planning
for their transit of the challenging Seymour Narrows and,
as the ultimate assessment of her newly acquired skills,
she would be the helmswoman to take them through.
Talk about pressure!
By calculating distance, Jessica determined they should
leave at 0915 to catch slack at 1246. They arrived about
45 minutes ahead of schedule and decided to take on
the Narrows early. The 2- to 3-knot turbulence, plus a
pickup in winds, kept the young helmswoman at work.
Watching a tug and tow that had entered from the other
direction a little too early could have been unsettling, as
the tug transited the entire Narrows sideways. But Jessica
handled the situation perfectly.
Jessica and Gina appreciated that everything was a
three-way decision. “And we were never made to feel
stupid if we forgot something,” says Jessica, her confident
smile showing off her gorgeous white teeth.
In spite of tough conditions, the all-girl crew still found
time for fun and laughter. Jessica even invented a board
game called “The Big Trip.” What would be the player’s
next draw? Maybe, “You missed slack tide. Go back to
Campbell River!”
Linda loved Jessica’s willing attitude and the reward of
watching her skills grow by leaps and bounds. “Little did
I know what a woman I would get in Jessica,” Linda
says. Never underestimate a young person’s ability to
learn. But the success says as much about the trainer as
about the student.
SINGLEHANDING
On this same trip, Linda spent a week alone in the
Broughton Islands. As she waved goodbye to her
previous crew, she says, “I had a grin as wide as the
channel.” She wanted to stick to areas with which she
was familiar, but she also wanted to challenge herself. “I
remember almost being startled with how absolutely
natural everything felt.”
As always, she was methodical in her planning,
choosing to cruise no more than four hours a day. At
her first marina stop, she chatted with others, finding
out who would be heading for the same bay she was.
“I asked if they would keep an eye on me during my
anchoring” in case of any difficulties, Linda says.
Deploying the anchor on Royal Sounder is easy, but
weighing it requires repetitious steps to keep everything
in order.
She spent one night alone in a bay, so she had to
anchor without a watchful eye. “It was the only thing
my husband had some trepidation about,” she says,
considering this as perhaps a singlehander’s most
vulnerable time.
All week she wore her life jacket when outside the
cabin and took great caution not to injure herself in any
way. The nurse in her saw to it that she stayed well
hydrated and well rested. “I also rigged a boarding ladder
that I could deploy from the water in case I went
overboard with no one else around.” She lashed the top
end of a simple plastic-and-rope ladder to a stern deck
cleat and piled the ladder on top, then rigged a line to
the ladder’s bottom that snaked over the toerail and
hung down the boat’s side. Large, monkey-fist-type
knots in the end added weight. Testing showed she
could reach the line, pull down the ladder, and hoist
herself up and over to the swim step if needed. She
was aware this makeshift rigging wouldn’t work in all
circumstances, but if the boat was not under power
and she was alone, it would give her a chance.
Linda recommends a better alternative: a solid metal
ladder permanently affixed to the underside of the swim
platform. When needed, it pulls out horizontally, with
steps dropping into the water for access.
Her oneness with nature during this week seemed
magical, and she was fortunate to have good weather. “I
loved floating out there in my own little cocoon in the
midst of my glorious surroundings,” she says. “When
you’re really watching, tide change reveals things you
didn’t know about a few hours earlier.”
Linda says that week was about her internal passage
as a skilled boater. No loneliness or fright for her; rather,
pride and empowerment. And the total eight-week trip
as captain lent meaning to her unwritten résumé for
herself. “Everyone has their version of grabbing the
golden ring. This was my version.”
COUPLES CULTIVATION
The most challenging aspect of boating for Linda,
but one that comes with much enjoyment, pits her
with David. Two strong, knowledgeable people. Two
personalities. Two brains that don’t always come to the same conclusion on how to operate one boat. Although
they’ll occasionally argue about how something should
be done, David says it’s never at a volatile time, such as
during dicey weather conditions or difficult dockings.
They’ve worked it out as well as most any couple can.
First, there’s the annual captain trade. Second, they stick
to that, but not rigidly, allowing opinions to be voiced.
Yes, some opinions are louder than others. “We both
have been known to use the phrase we picked up from
another boater: ‘My half of the boat is not going there!’”
Linda says.
Seattle-area residents Ron Ferguson, 61, and Kathryn
Parks, “a bit younger,” have spent a fair amount of time
on the water during their 31 years of marriage. What is
uncommon about their sea time is that Kathryn has been
the captain and navigator, mainly from sailing skills she
picked up over many years. In 2007 they planned an
ambitious two-month cruise as far north as Sullivan Bay off Queen Charlotte Strait in their 42-foot Nordic
Tug—ambitious because they had a new boat and
only Kathryn had much boating experience. Kathryn
handled most of the educational preparation for the
trip; Ron was happy being line tender, cook, and
cleanup crew. Lacking experience and confidence, in
two months they spent only three nights at anchor.
Ron figures he had maybe an hour of helm time.
When they planned a three-month trip to Southeast
Alaska in 2008, they knew they needed guidance. “I
would have been quite happy if our next cruise was like
the last, with Kathryn as skipper and me as first mate,”
Ron says.
While listening to Linda lecture at the Seattle Boat
Show, however, Ron was awakened. She said if you’re a
couple cruising alone, you don’t have a safe boat unless
both of you are qualified to handle the vessel, including knowing how to plan a course, navigate, and interpret
a radar screen. “She said it so forcefully and with so
much authority that it really sank in,” says Ron. Linda
later agreed to instruct both of them.
As the student is ready, so will the teacher apply
herself. “I begin with a learner-identified needs
assessment,” says Linda. “I also do a skills assessment
and begin crafting a layered learning plan that’s tailored
to them individually.” It’s not about what Linda wants
to teach, but what her students want to learn. “My
style is to think in terms of being a backup brain, a
safety net, a reinforcer, a cheerleader.”
For Ron and Kathryn, Linda suggested beginning
with four four-hour in-home classes. Ron expected some
subjects to be “dull as dirt.” But he soon found out that
Linda made learning fun and interesting. Each class
sped by, and he could hardly wait for the next one.
Kathryn also appreciated Linda’s depth of knowledge
and how it filled in gaps in her own understanding.
Then they moved onto the water in their Nordic
Tug, mainly for eight- to 10-hour days of intense
training. “Boating is an applied skill, much like nursing,
so I am a believer that real-world practicing is the most
critical piece of learning,” says Linda. She coached each
of them in turn on various aspects of boat handling,
navigation, and Rules of the Road.
Linda has learned about safe margins: when she
can let a student experiment with his or her skills, and
when she needs to step in and correct. “I call moments
that can be identified as a ‘safe mistake’ not a mistake
at all, but rather the best kind of learning opportunity.”
And remember, quiet voice. “Yelling deafens.
Whispering works.” It’s also why she favors headsets
for boaters.
Prior to each week’s training, Linda emailed
homework to Ron and Kathryn. It amounted to three
to four hours of work they were to do independently
of each other, and later compare results.
“After our 40 hours with Linda, I feel much more
confident we can safely cruise to Southeast Alaska,
with us being co-skippers,” says Ron.
As a boating couple, Linda found Ron and Kathryn
to be out of the norm. Self-assured Ron had no problem
giving up control, something other men often will
struggle with.
Linda has learned that, in general, men are more
willing to risk and seem to have more of a need to be
right. They are less likely to ask questions or show they
don’t understand. “I am more likely to ask very specific
questions or ask for actions that will let me know where
they are,” she says. “And instead of offering my view as
the way to do it, I’ll offer it as an alternative view.”
Again, in general, she finds women more instinctive
and more open to trying things. “They seem to be able
to live within the state of not knowing, but growing,
better than men.” She also finds women to be more
tentative, which alerts her to help them build self-trust
and confidence. “It’s a real revelation for women to
discover for themselves that operating a boat is not
rocket science, but a knowledge base and a set of skills
they can readily attain.” (Women: read that last sentence
again. It may be the most important one in this article.)
Although Linda has witnessed progress with more
women becoming cocaptains and/or taking over
navigation duties, she doesn’t see a whole lot of women
powerboaters as true captains. As long as she’s teaching,
though, I have no doubt the percentages will increase.
EMBRACING DISCOVERY
One word used three ways sums up Linda’s favorite
part of boating: discovery. There’s the discovery she
relishes on each trip as she finds a special bay to explore,
spots wildlife along shore, or photographs a prized
sunset. (Did I mention how well versed she is in
photography?) Then there’s the discovery of her
own personal growth as each adventure adds to her
competency and confidence as a knowledgeable boater.
She’ll tell you she travels two Inside Passages when
she’s on Royal Sounder: “The one outside my windows
that reveals glories of this great cruising ground, and
the one inside me that revels in my constantly growing
boating abilities.”
Then there’s the discovery she can pass along to
others. Linda is like a compass pointer, always directed
toward her students’ needs, knowledge, ability to learn,
and method of learning. Anyone talking to her knows
they have her attention. She understands how to
sincerely build confidence, and if one’s attitude gets
tumbled by a wave, she can bring it upright in no time.
Linda senses how to take strengths and expand them,
work with weaknesses, and make herself progressively
unnecessary in her students’ boating lives.
Even though she is in constant learning mode
herself, Linda leads students not to her wisdom, but
to their own.
Visit the Web Extras for this issue at passagemaker.com
to read about Linda’s experience towing a disabled Grand
Banks into port, as well as a navigation training exercise
she practices.
If you have, or know of, a worthy boating story with
an emphasis on the people involved, please email Sally
at sallybee@boaternw.com.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2009 © Dominion Enterprises (888.487.2953) www.passagemaker.com
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