This summer it felt like everyone was a Swiftie! Parents, children, grandparents – you name it, they were trading bracelets and sharing pics of their concert attendance. This week I got to have my own groupie experience, sailing style!
Cruisers University occurs twice each year in Annapolis during Boat Show Week. More than 75 classes are offered for sailors who have an interest in learning the fundamentals of blue water cruising. The classes are taught by experienced cruisers and sailing industry professionals. Some of those experienced cruisers have circumnavigated the globe, some more than once! As Bob and I have been transitioning to cruising life and planning our journey, we have been reading and listening to everything we can. Books, podcasts, websites – all by experienced cruisers so imagine my happy surprise to actually get to learn and meet from some of these amazing people this week at Cruisers U!

One of the key books we bought was World Cruising Routes by Jimmy Cornell. Jimmy completed his first circumnavigation with his family over 6 years, taking them to 70 countries and encompassing 68,000 miles. That was the first of three circumnavigations and over 200,000 nautical miles! He started the first ARC rallies and the World Cruising Club. I definitely had a groupie moment and was absolutely in awe of sitting in his class! Yes, THE JIMMY CORNELL! It was an unbelievable opportunity to learn route planning from a master. In our class he shared that he wrote his books from the perspective of sharing information with others that he wished he had known before setting sail. World Cruising Routes has become the “de facto” bible for long-distance navigators and one we will certainly use. It was truly an honor to be in his class and definitely something I will never forget.

That was just one of many “groupie” moments for me this week. I took a She’s a Cruiser class and got to learn from an AMAZING group of inspiring, accomplished women including:

Behan Gifford (Sailing Totem)

Nica Waters (The Boat Galley, Fit2Sail)

Elizabeth Brown- Shaw (SV Fluenta)

Sheryl Shard (Distant Shores Television )

Estelle Cockroft (Catamaran Guru)

Deb Marlor (Sailing and Boating with Captain Deb)

Melanie Neale ( Sunshine Cruising Yachts)

Lara Ortiz-Decker (Ocean Adventure Cat)

Amy Alton (Out Chasing Stars)

Betty Nance-Floyd (UNC professor and researcher)

Judy Hildebrand (Skipper, USCG 100 ton master) 

Sophie Darsy (Ryan and Sophie Sailing)

I learned about Safety at Sea and everything Sails from Jamie Gifford. Jamie and Behan are also experienced circumnavigators on Sailing Totem which is a sister ship to our Meraviglia. The list of names could go on but the most amazing thing about having the opportunity to meet the people in person who have inspired us is how down to earth and accessible all of these people are. Every single person I learned from this week was willing to answer any question, share their contact information, and truly wanted to help others learn. I continue to be amazed by the true sense of community that there is among cruisers -from experienced circumnavigators all the way down to noobies like us. I am so glad we got to experience Cruisers University and learn from such amazing people. We begin our journey back to Meraviglia tomorrow and are returning with new information, new friends, additional projects to complete, and A LOT of good energy and memories from Annapolis 💛

Learning route planning from the master, Jimmy Cornell
Jamie Gifford explaining everything sails!
Tides and Currents with Frank Bohlen
Learning from the amazing Behan Gifford and Liz Brown- Shaw. Both also are on a Stevens 47 like Meraviglia!
Liz Brown- Shaw, Sophie Darsy, Nica Waters, Amy Alton, Lara Ortiz-Decker and Melanie Neale – amazing, empowering sailing women!
She’s A Cruiser panel!