Read from Chapter 3, "The First Sail", of Pacific Lady: The First Woman to Sail Solo across the World’s Largest Ocean by Sharon Sites Adams with Karen J. Coates:
"In the final days of preparation, my dearest friends threw me a party, and I would learn weeks later that I needed their memory to survive. I could subsist on the sheer words of people who believed in my voyage. Their thoughts would push me through the roughest waters. I would read and reread and reread again all those messages in my logbook: "Our love and best wishes, our pride and our prayers ride with you," they told me. "Some people have mountains that need climbing—you happen to have an ocean that needs crossing," they encouraged. "You really are the captain of your ship and the master of your soul." They made me laugh, too: "I said it to Christopher, I said it to Wilbur and Orville, now I say it to you—take up stamp collecting!"
Continue reading “Off the Shelf: Pacific Lady by Sharon Sites Adams with Karen J. Coates”