Some moments in life are special and never forgotten. When I graduated from high school, my Mom got me the greatest gift I could ever have imagined – she signed me up for a three week sailing school in Germany, Chiemsee Yachtschule, by the lake Chiemsee in south Germany.
See http://www.dhh.de/segelschule-yachtschule-chiemsee.html
I was nineteen when I arrived alone at the school, knowing no one else there. But the prospect of learning to sail boats was so exciting, so I had no anxiety about anything, I was filled with anticipation. And the daily life was as I had hoped for – in the morning we attended classes on the theory of sailing with pictures and graphs and discussions; and in the afternoons we were out sailing in teams of three or four, with excellent instructors teaching us. For me personally, an added challenge was that all instruction was in German language. I had studied German a couple of years in school, but now I was driven to absorb lots of new vocabulary every day, every hour, so I learned sailing and German at the same time.
The days were fun filled and time went fast. We were in the last week when we were told there would be a rowing competition. Most of the people were big men in their twenties and thirties and some in their forties, professionals on vacation, and a smaller number of women were also at the school. I was the youngest person of all, and there was only one other woman my age, a German girl who had also just finished school. She was taller than I, though. I am saying this so you can admire me even more for coming out as number six in the rowing competition, and that in fairly rough weather with good size waves. As a kid and teenager I had been rowing boats a lot, with my siblings and neighbor kids, and I had learned how to negotiate the waves for maximum advantage. We had also done a fair amount of sailing during our summers on the Swedish west coast (Stockevik on Skafto).
The director of the school announced that those who came out at the top in the rowing competition would be assigned to be captains on the boats in the regatta – the sailing race on the last day, that would mark the completion of the course. When the names were announced my name was on the list. Now a bit of protesting broke out in the crowd – several of the more mature men said out loud that such a young girl should not be captain. They asked the director to move me off the list. But the director did not, he said these are our rules, she has qualified so that is that.
As the boats were different sizes, we had several groupings or classes of boats competing. My boat was one of the smaller ones. On the day of the race, two men that seemed twice my age were assigned to crew on my boat. The signal blew and we were off in our boats. The men on my crew were cooperating perfectly and I was steering the boat with only one thought in mind – I wanted to win. We had to round various buoys and steer clear of other boats. And yes, – our boat won our class with good margin! Yeah!
At the final dinner we had a ceremony and I was one of the ones who received a trophy, and cheers and applause. I carried my trophy back to Sweden with joy, grateful to my mother who had enabled me to have this awesome learning experience.
And surely, all my life I have loved sailing. Living on the coast in Washington State I have been fortunate to crew on sailboats for a number of years, thanks to friends, and in particular to Mike, who let me join him on many great sailing trips around the San Juan Islands.
Leadership knowledge 