Nevertheless, She Persisted

I have sailed oceans with them. I have climbed mountains with them. I have closed multibillion dollar cross border transactions with them. I am proud to be one of them. I assure you that women are not the weaker sex.

The evidence is all over the news. Women finished the 2018 Boston Marathon at significantly higher rates than men, despite extremely cold temperatures, and the 2012 Boston Marathon despite extremely hot temperatures. Women are three times more likely to complete the ultramarathons they start, and are frequently finishing first overall. The first all-female crew in the around-the-world race aboard Maiden finished second in their class and won two out of six individual legs of the race in 1989-1990. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has worked through three bouts of cancer and is still “very much alive”. Senator Elizabeth Warren continued her objections in a confirmation hearing, despite invocation of an obscure Senate Rule to silence her. “Nevertheless, she persisted,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

Because when times get tough, women get tougher. They consistently out endure men, and do so without begging for any attention or acclaim.

I sailed around the world with 145 women. Three of them were captains or co-captains of their vessels, and three of us were crew who completed the circumnavigation. Many of the rest were on board with their husbands, because their husbands wanted to sail around the world. Almost none of them wanted to sail around the world themselves. Most of them got extremely sea sick, requiring heavy medication and days in bed. Several of them were scared and anxious, requiring more heavy medication. One was flown to Europe to treat pneumonia, came back, was flown to Europe to treat severe head trauma, came back, and then captained the boat hundreds of nautical miles across the Atlantic Ocean after her captain was incapacitated by a broken rib.

Nevertheless, these women persisted. They sailed passage after passage, enduring their sickness and fear, not for their own desires or accolades, but to support their male partners in their dreams and successes. When they couldn’t be on board, they crisscrossed the globe in planes to visit their husbands in ports of call and tend to families back home. Few men would endure such pains to support their female partners in their dreams and successes.

Everyone praises Marty Ginsburg for having supported Justice Ginsburg’s career, which he no doubt did, but if the sexes were reversed, no one would talk about how a female law partner supported her husband’s climb up the legal ladder to the Supreme Court. Everyone praises the sixteen male captains in our rally who circumnavigated their boats around the globe, but no one talks about the women who sat watch in gale force winds while their husbands were resting, and cooked meals in high seas while their husbands were sitting watch, and trimmed while their husbands were helming. No one acknowledges that these women suffered seasickness and far on a long, arduous voyage that they didn’t want to do in the first place. The women of our circumnavigation are the unsung heroes.

I’m here to praise the fourteen women who completed the circumnavigation with me (I may have miscounted – please correct me if I’m wrong) and the one hundred and thirty who joined us along the way. They were a vital source of comfort and compassion and encouragement to me along the way. I hope other women can be inspired by their grit and and endurance and persistence and tenacity and courage to do things they never thought possible. Sail strong, ladies.