Legendary Cruising Sailor Lin Pardey's Passages Past and Present
When Lin and Larry Pardey, cruising sailors extraordinaire, attended their first Annapolis Sailboat Show in 1991, they looked up Don Backe, founder of Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB), which enables people with disabilities to go boating.
Don had written to them a couple of years before asking for help. A lifelong sailor paralyzed in a car accident, “He wondered if Larry would draw up ideas to help lift people like him not only onto a boat but also into the cabin,” says Lin. Larry, who could build just about anything, was happy to oblige.
At the boat show, the Pardeys also collected $18,000 in donations for CRAB. Since then, CRAB has taken thousands of people sailing. This year, Lin will throw a fundraiser on October 16 with Singles on Sailboats (SOS). She urges her followers, wherever they are in the world, to consider supporting CRAB or similar organizations. “It’s about including everybody in life,” she says.
She’ll be at the boat show October 15-18, with her latest book “Passages: Cape Horn and Beyond,” a welcome read for devoted followers as well as the perfect introduction for those who haven’t yet encountered the Pardey’s tales of life at sea.
Those stories began back in 1964 when they met in California. Sparks flew, and within days, Lin began helping Larry build the 24-foot wooden boat Seraffyn. Purists, they agreed to forego an engine, a liferaft, and electronic communications.
After cruising for eight years, they decided to build a new cutter, the 29-foot Taleisin. Upgrades included an oil cabin heater so that they could linger in colder climates, and a bathtub.
“We put it under the companionway, where many people would have put an engine,” says Lin.
Over 57 years, Lin and Larry cruised more than 200,000 miles, visiting 70-plus countries and completing two circumnavigations (one east, one west). “Influencers” long before the term came into being, this larger-than-life couple supported their adventures by writing magazine articles and books that informed and inspired countless sailors; titles include “The Self-Sufficient Sailor” and “Storm Tactics Handbook.”
Lin and Larry became beloved for their seamanship, grit, mutual respect, generosity, and good humor. They urged would-be cruisers not to wait until they could afford a bigger, better boat, saying, “Go small. Go simple. Go now.”
The mantra still applies, says Lin. “It looks so simple to put on all these extra bits and pieces, but taking care of those is bloody expensive. I’ve watched people delayed months—full seasons—because they can’t get parts to fix these so-called conveniences that aren’t convenient.”
In “Passages” Lin describes leisurely days as well as high adventure with Larry. The legendary pair made the trip around Cape Horn undaunted by reports of Southern Ocean winds known as the “Screaming 60s” and steep overfalls that can swamp a small ship. Lin’s vivid writing puts readers right there on deck as she changed sails 11 times on one challenging day. When a Chilean official tried to halt their progress, saying no boat without an engine could possibly make the passage, Lin’s powers of persuasion saved the day.
The book also offers a very personal, poignant account of how she navigated her husband’s decline from Parkinson’s and 2020 death.
“People would ask, ‘How did you handle the decision to put Larry into care, and how did you handle going on with your life in a new way?’” Lin says. “I thought, I’ll try to write about it and maybe I can help one person. I’ve had an amazing response.”
As Lin writes, “All passages come to an end.” And new ones begin. At home base in New Zealand, she met David Haigh just as the retired environmental law lecturer from Australia was wrapping up a 10-year circumnavigation. Lin writes about their travels together aboard his 40-foot steel cutter Sahula. Soon they will set sail from Queensland across the Tasman Sea for New Zealand, her ninth crossing.
Lin is enjoying new writing ventures and learning a new skill: maneuvering Sahula, which has an engine, in tight spaces. Now in her eighth decade, how long does she plan to continue the cruising life with David? “As long as it is fun! Or should I say, as long as we are able!”
Lin invites you to stop by and see her at the boat show (tent D, booth 57), and you can find her on Substack at “Go Now!” Get tickets for an evening with Lin benefitting CRAB or make a donation at singlesonsailboats.org and find CRAB at crabsailing.org.
~By Catherine Fox
