Sailors' Series | Passages & Adventures, by Lin Pardey
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Doors open at 5:30pm | Program at 6:00pm
$10 for members | $20 for non-members
Join us for Passages and Adventures, an illustrated presentation by Lin Pardey, a look into the life that has kept Pardey constantly enthralled, led her to more than 70 different countries and included sailing dozens of different boats. Pardey will share some of the highlights of circumnavigating both east about the world, then west about the world on two different engine-free wooden boats that Pardey and her late husband Larry built. She'll share the excitement of doubling Cape Horn against the wind and the realization that, after crossing their outbound track for the second time, due to Larry’s declining health, she could no longer be contemplating another circumnavigation.
Lin Pardey literally wrote the book—many books—on cruising, inspiring generations of sailors to embrace the ethos of go small, go simple, go now. Over several decades, she and her late husband, Larry, built two boats—the 24-foot Seraffyn and the 29-foot Taleisin—and sailed both engine-free cutters around the world, including voyaging against the wind around the Great Capes. Lin chronicled their travels in nearly a dozen books that have become cruising bibles, including The Cost Conscious Cruiser, The Self Sufficient Sailor, and Storm Tactics Handbook. After Larry’s passing in 2020, Lin has continued to sail and document her experiences with her current partner David Haigh, as well as mentor younger cruisers and sailing writers and influencers. Her latest book, Passages, will be published in October.
The Cook Memorial Theater doors open at 5:30 PM and program begins at 6:00 PM. A cocktail reception with lite bites will follow, where Pardey will be available for book-signing.
"It was a whim, one that was definitely off the wall for a 20-year-old bookworm of a girl who was raised on the edge of the desert. 'I think I’d like to learn to sail,' I said to an office mate one day as I slaved away at another pile of office paperwork. Yes, I was young, probably foolish, but two weeks later I ran away with Larry, a professional yacht skipper who was building his own cruising boat. I still can’t believe I did it. Nor that 60 years later and with more than 220,000 miles of voyaging under my belt, I am still doing it, messing about in boats, preparing to cross another ocean.
I have had fine romances with two different men. Both introduced me to new adventures. When Larry was no longer with me, David sailed in to anchor near my island home. It took only two weeks before I became involved in the trials and tribulations of learning to maintain and sail on a 'modern' cruising yacht complete with an engine. The oceans we’ve already crossed together make me eager to continue sailing through life."
- Lin Pardey -
Supported by Ruth and Hope Atkinson
Supported in part by
The Samuel D. Rusitzky Lecture Fund
The Sailors’ Series is an annual, legacy lecture series of the New Bedford Whaling Museum that presents a wide variety of experiences and adventures by individuals with lifelong commitments to sailing, boats, and the sea.
Additional support for this program provided by the following sponsors.
Thank you!
Babbit Steam Specialty Company
Barden’s Boat Yard
