Liz Gillooly is a beautiful 25-year-old girl. But what is more important, he is a true sailor. A professional skipper, he has many stories to tell: rode dolphins in Tortola, cooked pancakes while sailing on the reef, braved storms 700 miles off shore. Author of the blog “Moxie and Epoxy,” who better to tell the story of shipboard life from a woman’s point of view?
THE PERFECT JOB
“I found the perfect job,” she explains, “combining my passion for sailing with my love of travel. I am incredibly lucky but this lifestyle requires a lot of hard work.” As a child Liz hated sailing because her parents had enrolled her in a course and she, lacking a competitive spirit, resented instructors forcing kids to compete against each other. “Five years ago I was offered a job aboard an 80-foot racer that was headed from New York to the Caribbean. I realized that was my life, and since then I have worked on many different boats around the world. Getting a job on board is easier than it looks. I gained experience both in day-chartering and in situations where there was months of living on the boat.” His favorite places? “The British Virgin Islands, the archipelagos of Greece and Maui, Hawaii, where I recommend going during humpback whale season.”
LESS MUSCLE, MORE BRAIN
Girls who work on boats usually have a good ‘zest. “It doesn’t matter if we get dirty while in the engine compartment tinkering, or engaged in manual labor here and there. We are good at finding solutions that do not require too much effort. It is not true that women in boats work harder than men, they do it smarter, using their heads! I have worked with many colleagues and always got great respect and esteem from them.”
SAILING EQUALS FREEDOM
What is sailing to Captain Liz? “For me, sailing means freedom. Financial freedom, physical freedom (from a job behind a desk), freedom to see the world“. Talk about having clear ideas.
