Pacific Lady: The First Woman to Sail Solo across the World's Largest Ocean

by Sharon Sites Adams, Karen Coates, Randall Reeves (Foreword)

It was an age without GPS and the Internet, without high-tech monitoring and instantaneous reporting. And it was a time when women simply didn’t do such things. None of this deterred Sharon Sites Adams. In June 1965 Adams made history as the first woman to sail solo from the mainland United States to Hawaii. Four years later, just as Neil Armstrong very publicly stepped onto the moon, the diminutive Adams, alone and unobserved, finally sighted Point Arguello, California, after seventy-four days sailing a thirty-one-foot ketch from Japan, across the violent and unpredictable Pacific. She was the first woman to do so, setting another world record.
 

Inspiring and exciting, Adams’s memoir recounts the personal path leading to her historic a tomboy childhood in the Oregon high desert, an early marriage and painful divorce, and a second marriage that ended when her husband died of cancer. In the wake of his death and almost by accident, Adams discovered sailing. Six weeks after her first sailing lesson she bought a boat, and within eight months she set out to achieve her first world record. Pacific Lady recounts the inward journey that paralleled her sailing feats, as Adams drew on every scrap of courage and navigational skill she could muster to overcome the seasickness, exhaustion, and loneliness that marked her harrowing crossings.
 

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Womens, Outdoors, Memoir, History

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2008

Reviews

[Nancie Lafferty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had done this!

"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Blast."

A very interesting story, but the narrator sounded so matter-of-fact; never any excitement, even during the most harrowing events.

As a sailor, I related to the sea stories. As a woman who came of age in the sixties, I related to the trials experienced by Sharon's desire to do things that were not considered properly womanly.

I experienced envy during this book. I wish I had discovered sailing earlier in my life. I hope that if I had, that I would have sailed many solo journeys.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast."

Interesting biography of lady who started sailing as a hobby and then took it farther. Well written for the sailing enthusiast, as there are many technical terms., as well as the story of solo to Hawaii and then solo from Japan back to LA.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't mean to pick the book up but because the book was miscovered when it was delivered to the school, I decided to read what was inside the book anyway and I wasn't disappointed. This is a fascinating look at a woman who caught the bug of sailing and then decided first to sail to Hawaii from the coast of California and then to sail solo in the 1960s alone from Japan across the Pacific to California. Just her, her food, the sea, and her boat.

She waxes philosophically about being alone with her thoughts and what kept her busy as well as the trajectory of her life that was somewhat unconventional for the time-- she divorced after having a few kids, her second husband died of cancer, gussying herself up for when she was about to make landfall, the little bit of fame she had from these solo endeavors before GPS, making a frying pan version of a Betty Crocker cake for her birthday on the boat when she was sailing, and the quietness of the rest of her life but the decisions that stuck with her (essentially her kids were raised by someone else when she pursued these things but she has a pride for them still even though there are regrets).

It's a quiet memoir. Surprisingly good.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

In both 1965 and 1969 the author sailed alone in the Pacific Ocean - first from California to Hawaii and then from Japan to California. I can't even imagine! I admire her for these achievements. This book contains simple and satisfying accounts of those journeys and her life during those years.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

So exciting! She lives here in Beaverton too! Amazed at the lack of opportunities for women back then. Such a different world I was raised in. I didn't have such drastic limits and judgments out in me just because of being female! BTW I don't want to sail by myself, anywhere, ever!!

[Lacey Losh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt like I was right alongside Sharon on her oceanic journeys in this book! The amount of detail she can recall from her sailing excursions made reading this book feel like an adventure.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

I've always enjoyed autobiographies, and this was excellent. Sharon went through a lot, a tough childhood, and two rough marriages, and then found sailing. That's a faith testing relationship all in itself.

The book deals primarily with her two record setting voyages, with some personal background, and the relevant events and preparations leading up to embarkation.
I love the style of writing, Sharon is very clear throughout, I kind of feel like I know her now, like we had a long conversation, and she told me about her life. I've always been interested in sailing, and this book only strengthens the desire to go to sea someday.
Sharon strikes me as a person of faith and humility. Her travels are related as they happened, as she perceived them. She is neither a model Christian, nor an arrogant feminist proclaiming girl power from her accomplishments, though she certainly would have more right to that than most. She seems like a lady who knows her mind and her limitations, and yet brave enough to push those limits to the breaking point, and succeed.

Lee Ann Howlett is an excellent reader, I felt that she was Sharon, just telling me the story.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The adventures of a woman in the late 1960s who sails around the world, but, more importantly, sails solo across the Pacific Ocean--twice. The book is written memoir-style, as if you're reading the author's sailing journal. While she exhibits so much courage and moxy in her story, among the pages are some jarring moments of shame and humanity that balance the story and add dimension to her character. Among my favorite anecdotes are when the author, as the only woman on board, grapples with male egos on a sailing trip to Hawaii after achieving her own solo voyage, and securing a proper sea burial for her only companion on her solo trip: her pet turtle. Her descriptions of extended solitude at sea made me feel as if I were watching "Castaway" all over again, or even experiencing it for myself.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great story! Ms. Adams book is an excellent account of "just doing it" instead of thinking about whether it actually could be done!

[Lachelle]

Banana book club pick.

[Eliza Laurence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Can't recommend it enough. I would love to meet this amazing lady.