There is a woman right now, rowing across the Pacific Ocean… Tom has been following her progress with great interest. You can too, at rozsavage.com. But the really exciting thing is that today I met the first woman to sail solo across the Pacific. There we were, Mother, the stidkid (#1) and I, walking into the local Borders store to get a calendar I wanted and a latte…

And there was Sharon Sites Adams, sitting at the entrance with a small sign, pictures and books. Curious, I wandered over (my paternal unit having built boats and enjoyed sailing and other boating for decades)… and we spent probably ten minutes speaking with her in the process of getting books signed. One for the paternal unit, one for the stidkid.

What an amazing woman! She had just been a little north of here, visiting the boat she had taken on her journey from San Diego to Hawaii… and she had with her the same flag she flew when she sailed from Japan to the mainland U.S. The flag was little tattered, but so would you be if you had sailed thousands of miles!

She, however, was far from tattered. No taller than I am — a little older than my mother, she wore the prettiest pink jacket (and signs her books in pink as well), and is still so energetic. She was so gracious and kind, asking the stidkid what he likes. And when I remarked (after she signed his book and commented she wanted to hear more of his own journeys) that he would have to write to her… she gave him her business card!

So he will have to write to her. Especially since he got his copy of the book today — and the book doesn’t come out officially until September! She put today’s date down when she signed his book…

And I am so inspired. If she could sail across the ocean and deal with storms and isolation (no internet or satellite communites or GPS in 1969) and doldrums… surely I can achieve some of my own dreams! I can get through school, I can be a teacher. I can certainly do the small things I have planned — though not as spectacular and inspiring as her adventures.

Oh — and information about her book!

Pacific Lady
The First Woman to Sail Solo across the World’s Largest Ocean
Sharon Sites Adams with Karen J. Coates
Foreword by Randall Reeves

hardcover
2008. 240 pp.
978-0-8032-1138-4
$24.95

Publisher’s website: Nebraska University Press.

Some pages from 1969 (and thereabouts) when the big trip occurred: Mariner Yachts.

I will try to post a review of this book once I have read it!

War stinks. If I haven’t said it often enough or loudly enough…

WAR STINKS

I just spoke on the phone with a dear friend in Tbilisi. How can one convey the desperation? They are giving shelter to refugees. They are worried about how family members outside the country will make it home. They are isolated, alone, afraid.

I can’t help.

I can’t travel there, and what would I do once I arrived? I have no skills that they need.

I don’t have much money — everything we had extra was “pre-sunk” into the garden improvements and my education earlier this summer.

My sense of use-less-ness, the sheer magnitude of frustration is so enormous I think I may implode.

One way to help

I know that the International Red Cross is trying to help people in both South Ossetia and in Georgia proper… people can donate directly to this relief effort.

Caucasus Emergency is the choice that allows you to send a little something.

WAR STINKS

I don’t care who starts them… I just want them stopped.

PEACE. NOW.

Here is stidkid#1, without braces for the first time in over two years.

I think he’s happy about this..

I know he’s enjoying being able to play his trumpet with ease.