I am an independent woman who works on the water and I love to travel the world whenever I can. I started out sailing on my fathers old schooner, got my own sea snark when I was a kid and worked around town on lots of friends fishing boats and the party boats down the street.
I got real lucky and was sent off (as punishment!) to school on a large traditional sailing ship. We sailed from Greece to Martinique and back to Europe. That did it! I decided to become a ship captain and sail the world and get paid to do it! The love of travel and the sea has not left me yet and I guess it never will.
Schooner Ariadne
I love to explore physically and mentally. I love the sense of adventure. I love to see whatever the world has to offer. I love to read and listen to music. I love to eat and drink and have a good time. I’m a friendly and down to earth person, I’m NOT politically correct! I take people as they come and love to meet new people.
I’d like to use this blog to get my thoughts and experiences out to the world. I will be posting about travel, photography, art and music, food and drink, books worth reading, sailing, working in the merchant marine, politics and political theory, religion and philosophy, what I think about current events and how it ties into history, etc…basically anything that I think is interesting and will interest others.
I’d like to see what others think about all this stuff so I really hope you’ll feel free to comment on whatever you want to.
Your blog was a very interesting read! The sea fascinates me, but there is much I don’t know about it. Keep up the good work here. 🙂 I wish you the best on your marine adventures!
Thank you Sindhu,
There’s plenty I don’t know about it either, even after all this time. But I do still love it. I’m happy to be able to share it with others. I hope I can keep it interesting and entertaining for others too 🙂
I like your tagline She sails the seven seas in search of FREEDOM But I’d be honest with you.. I likes fish.. small ones not the big strange looking ones.. Water and fish ohh it sounds scary to me.. But I know we all have different taste and likes in life and its good to know you like something i am dead scare of.. I can’t close my eyes for a long time during shower too coz i get to see big big fishes lol maybe i am sick
I like you blog.. i like your way of writing.. Happy Blogging
Thanks ljassdie,
my tagline pretty much says it all, that is my passion- sailing and living free! So, I try my best to find opportunities for both.
As for fish, I love to watch them in the water, I also like to catch them. I usually throw them back (if they’re still able to survive) since I don’t eat them anymore. I’ve eaten WAY too much fish in my lifetime for me to eat anymore by choice 😉
People say I’m sick for that- LOL!
Hello there! That sounds so interesting! looking forward to reading your entries! Cheers!
thank you for following me! lots of people tell me I’ve had an interesting life. I see other people out there doing so much and I don’t think I’ve done so much (yet). But I try 😉
the pleasure is mine! do keep trying! 🙂
will do 🙂
Interesting to know about your adventurous life and loved to find someone like you!
Best wishes for ALWAYS!
Thank YOU!! 🙂
Hi Jill… glad to connect and interact with you. Your blog so interesting… 🙂
Thanks for dropping by my blog. Best wishes to you… !!
Thank you Bams, you look like you have a lot going on there too 😉
I like the sea. My friend who’s son is a Marine Biologist got me going about the creatures of the sea and David Suzuki. I posted “My friend, the sea” recently in WPC. Safe journey.
thanks, I’ll check that out 🙂
Can’t wait to read more wonderful adventures! Thank you for sharing, it’s a great escape for those who grew up on the ocean and are now land-locked (sigh, dallas….)
I hope I can leave something enjoyable for others here while I have fun getting things off my chest and out there 😉 Thanks for checking me out!
Nice blog you have here! Thank you for your visits the other day and I hope you have a great rest of the week!
Thanks! you too. 🙂
I have added Capt Jills Journeys. Finally I have on my roster of fellow bloggers a woman ship captain with an independent mind to boot.
Thanks Barista,
I’ve been following you for a while. I’ll have to figure out how to add you here.
Added you to my Blogroll, I mean to say.
Good luck on your blog! I wish I’d been sent to live on a school boat! Enjoy and I can’t wait to read about your adventures! 🙂
Thanks Madeline,
I’m enjoying myself with this blog so far but still have a lot to learn here. I’ve been so busy with it I haven;t really even put anything on it about my travels yet and that was one of the main things I wanted to post about. 🙂
I have been posting a bit about sailing. I guess so far its mostly been about working out here tho.
I wish I discovered your blog sooner. Freeport is so close. Me and my son love the beach and lately discovering fishing which I need so much to learn. A toast to new blogger friendship…
Cheers! Always great to have new friends. Yes, come on down to the beach, let me know and if I’m home we can get together sometime. I also have a meetup group called Mariners Meetup. Sometimes we go fishing. Its at http://www.meetup.com/boating-39 if you join, you’ll get auto emailed whenever we set up an actual meetup but not for everything on the calendar.
Hello Jill,
I found your site through another (cross marketing of a blog community at its best). I have spent some time getting lost exploring your blog and realized I hadn’t stopped here to say hello. Which was my original intention on the visit. I agree with the messages above, you have interesting life experiences and I am glad you are sharing you view of the world. I am “land locked” and though I travel, have not had the opportunity to explore the oceans. I will have to live vicariously through you and your post.
I hope to be chatting with you soon.
Until next time…
-Jerry B
Thank you for checking me out, I’m glad you liked what you found here. I hope you continue to find it worthwhile. 😉
Wow! You have such a wide range of interests; you sound like a fun person to know! 🙂
Thank you catbirdamerica! Yeah, I can be tons of fun, especially when I’ve been drinking 😉
Sorry I missed your comment til now 🙁
Thank you for stopping by my blog, I hope that you liked the visit.
Your story and your adventure are very interesting, I hope that enjoy what you do and good luck.
I did enjoy it, very interesting 🙂
Yes, I do enjoy what I do very much, my only regret is that I don’t get to travel as much as I would like anymore.
May be is good idea to challenge yourself with a new different adventure and the regret will disappear.
Good Luck
I hope to be able to do that soon.
Actually, my blog is part of that challenge. 😉
Thanks
I am from a small town as well that thrives off the fishing industry. I can tell you put a lot of heart and passion into your posts. Keep up the good work!
thank you very much, I’m glad you enjoy it, yes, I am very passionate about the things I say, probably too much 😉
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Hi, I like your blog and have nominated you for the Liebster award. This award is one way in which to make yourself prominent in the world of blogging. More information can be found at
http://kathyclempoetry.wordpress.com/about/news-the-liebster-award/
Congratulations! Kathy ♡😊
Hi, I’ve nominated you for a Not Freshly Pressed Award. I like what you’re doing here; you can see the post at http://parttimemonster.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/getting-back-to-zero-to-hero-and-an-award/.
Thank you so much Diana! I’m so surprised at how much love and attention I’ve been getting here lately! 🙂
I’m really getting behind on everything so I’m going to be a little while responding. I hope that’s OK.
Of course, take your time. It took me several days, and I feel like I’m still not caught up on all I need to do.
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I also love travelling and exploring and the sense of both has heightened as I have gotten older. I hope it never wanes. You have a wonderful looking blog, thanks for visiting mine through zero to hero. Am looking forward to reading more from you.
Thank you. I hope I never lose my sense of adventure. It does seem that I have become much more fearful as I’ve grown older. When I was younger, I never would have let my fears get in the way. Now I hold back thinking things like, how will I be able to support myself? what if I run out of money? etc.
I know deep down that I could find a way, I’ve always managed before. But I’ve gotten to where I really like to be comfortable. 🙁 I need to get over that!
I think I envy your life.. adventures! 🙂
I only hope the best is not behind me! It seems I really struggle now to get to go anywhere really interesting.
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Dear Capt Jill:
Thanks for your comment on my blog. I stumbled across your blog serendipitously. I am finding it very interesting. In fact, being an inland person I never “met” a mariner before, let alone a female one! Yay! Anyway, thoroughly enjoying your blog, and safe travels to you.
Thanks! I’m glad you found it and you’re enjoying it. There are mariners on most rivers and lakes too! That’s one of the reasons I’m blogging, to let people know more about working on the water and what we do and how it ties into everything. It really is pretty interesting and there are a lot of different aspects to it. I hope you keep finding it interesting. 🙂
Hello Jill,
Enjoyed your blog very much and glad to hear you’re still going to sea. I retired a couple of years ago and don’t go on the water in anything much bigger than a canoe. It wasn’t a completely seemless transitiong from the life of a sailor to retirement, but I’m getting better at it every day. I stay busy doing art, writing a fishing column for a local paper, and fly fishing when the weather allows. You can see and read some of that if your interested on my website. croninsfishsoup.com It hasn’t been updated in a while, but you’ll get the idea.
I think it’s great that you ran into my son, John. He’s trying his hand at the drilling life and so far finds it pretty agreeable. He likes big complicated machines.
Whenever I’m pressed for a sea story one of my favorites is the Med entering Rotterdam; the pilots endlessly distracted by their hi tech gadgets; George Borowskie getting more and more concerned over the fishing boat right in the channel directly ahead; the pilots telling George the fisherman isn’t supposed to be there; the fishing boat disappearing behind the foc’s’le head; the bow lookout, Jimmy Davison, calling on the radio that the fisherman, who are close enough to talk to Jimmy, shouting for us to go away. I’ve forgotten who the helmsman was, but I remember him turning the wheel over to you as you were coming on watch and him saying, “I don’t want to hit that boat.” And then as luck would have it the fishing boat comes back into view and bobs down the port side of the ship pushed away by the bow wave. I think in all the years I sailed that was one of the two times I was very close to a collision. I was pretty lucky over the years.
Rick
Hi Rick,
Good to hear from you! It’s always great to hear from old friends and crewmates. It sounds like you’re enjoying your retirement. I’m about ready to start trying seriously to get to that point myself. Not really any feasible way for me to do it yet tho.
I think it was really amazing the way I ran into your son at the airport. It just happened I noticed his SeaRiver jacket and asked about it.
YES, I remember that time on the Med. I was the one on the wheel! I remember thinking, here I am getting off the ship cause my dad is in the hospital for major surgery and these fools are going to make me run over a fisherman! I remember Jimmy telling us that the fisherman was cussing us out. The pilots just kept saying he’ll move (but he never did).
Yeah, I’ve been pretty lucky myself. I remember a couple of years ago I was sailing master on a tuna boat and we were coming into Korea for a shipyard period. My officers were all Korean fishermen. They kept running in front of people and telling me that they had the right of way since they were a fishing vessel! I was really pretty upset with the situation but we made it in to port safely.
Oh well, I do really love the adventure of it all. I keep hoping to find a way to get back to work overseas again some day. They’ve taken everything out of it but the money on US ships anymore. Thats not really why I go to sea. I FINALLY made master unlimited after 30+ years of trying and now I don’t really even want the job anymore, it’s sad.
I’m trying now to find other ways to support myself. I’m trying to get into writing (that;s cool that you do your fishing articles and I LOVE your artwork!). I’m doing another writing/photography workshop right now (in Korea this time). I’m hoping to be able to earn some kind of income at some point so I don’t have to stay at sea so much. I also have some rental property which keeps me occupied when I’m home. Thank goodness I have some people I can trust to help me with all that mess when I’m gone!
I checked out your blog, I really like your work. I don’t see any way to ‘follow you’. Do you have a follow button somewhere I didn’t see? I’d like to keep in touch.
We love your blog so much. We love reading about your adventures. You are living an incredible life that many look up to. Keep living it!
Thanks so much! I think my life is getting really boring lately. I can tell I’m about ready to go off and do something crazy again, like go back on that tuna boat or something. 😉
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Thank you!! I’m still trying to catch up with the ones from Christmas time!! 😉
You sound like fun! Following now. Sail on over to my little island if you like: http://thatssojacob.wordpress.com 🙂 thanks!
thank you! I’m checking you out. 😉
thank you Jacob! I’m checking you out. 😉
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thank you so much! wow! I still haven’t even been able to do what I’m supposed to for the earlier ones. One of these days I’ll catch up on here. 🙂
Captain Jill,
I read your post a few days ago @Linkedin International Dynamic Positioning Operators Association (IDPOA) and I found your blog. Really nice story.
Fair winds and following seas 🙂
Greetings from Argentina!!
Thank you!
Are you another DPO?
I was a little hesitant to say anything about this blog there on linkedin (afraid it might hurt my job prospects if people didn’t like what I was doing here), but eventually I put a small notice on my profile.
You’re the 1st person to have found my blog from there.
I LOVED Argentina when I was there a couple of years ago. Such a beautiful country.
Captain Jill,
Thanks to you 🙂 Thanks for sharing your view on DPO issues. Being so brave and courage, facing up reality 🙂
I have only done the Basic Induction Course, zero console hours.
I am so happy you loved Argentina. You are always welcome 🙂
Have a super weekend!
Hi Agustin,
Thank you for your comments. I don’t really think of my comments of anything much more than my frustration with the system coming out. It’s nice that you think I’m courageous!
I hope you can get your desk time in before you run out of time. You know there is a time limit, right? It seems the powers that be are bound and determined to pigeon-hole us all in a very limited job market. 🙁
Yes, I loved Argentina and I hope to be able to go back sometime. If you ever make it to Texas, give me a shout. If I’m in town, I’ll show you around.
I’m always glad to meet fellow mariners. 🙂
I’ve actually had the chance to meet some very nice ones here in Korea. They showed me their training ship. I do plan to post about it on here so stay tuned. 🙂
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I love the water too and I like your blog so very happy to ‘buddy’ and follow you. 🙂
Hi Jess,
Thanks for the compliments. Glad you found me and want to be my buddy! I have to tell you, I’m pretty slow sometimes. I wish I had more time for all this blogging stuff, but lately it’s all I can manage just to check it out a couple of times a day. I’m following you too. 🙂
I’ve never been to Borneo. Closest was Singapore, Indonesia and PNG.
It’s on my list. Might get there one of these days. 🙂
Hi Jess,
Thank you so much for popping over to my blog, and checking out a few of my posts. This is most appreciated. I love what you’re doing over here, and I look forward to reading more about your adventures.
Amanda 🙂
* Jill…. Oh man! How embaressing. It’s because I saw the name Jess above, and it stuck in my head. Argh. I’m sorry. A sign, I should probably log off and go to bed. Haha.
Beautiful photos and writing. It is nice to meet you over here 🙂
Cheers!!
Belu | TTP
Thank you! Nice to meet you too. 🙂
What an opening and intro to your blog!! How can we not follow?? 🙂 Look forward to following and seeing more of your posts!
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it. I hope I can keep it interesting. It’s fun but having a hard time keeping up with everything lately.
Hello Captain. Great blog.
Thanks Crazy! 🙂
I love your blog and your spirit. I’ve actually just started a new project/blog myself and am trying to feature as many people from all over the world as possible. http://everydaypeopleoftheworld.wordpress.com/ if it looks like the sort of thing you’d contribute to it would be great to hear from you. If not I look forward to following your adventures anyway 🙂 Claire
Hi Clair,
Sorry it took me so long to reply (my email gets overwhelming sometimes and it’s hard to catch up).
I like your blog, I think you have a great idea.
Sure, I wouldn’t mind going on there. How do you prefer me to contact you? You can email me at Jps_77566@yahoo.com
Love that post stamp above 🙂 Would be perfect for exchange letters initiative, I started last month… http://byswav.com/2014/07/18/exchange-letters-worldwide/ Cheers from Ireland 🙂
Thanks for stopping by my blog and liking the post with the connection to Ecclesiastes. I hope you’ll visit again soon. It looks like you’ve got quite an eclectic and interesting blog here! 🙂
You’re such an inspiration.
Beautiful words..coming from a beautiful person.
I love your blog and most definitely love your life. It seems you have led such an interesting and adventurous fulfilling life.
*put up glass* : “Here’s to the future. May it be filled with more beautiful adventure and life..”…….
Sounds like you really enjoy your world:-)
Yes, I do love traveling and especially doing it by sailing. 🙂
Glad to you find your blog… and it appears we are the birds of same feather.. lol.
Wishing you following seas and fair winds.
Take care.
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Thanks for visitng Top of JC’s Mind! I see that you are very eclectic, too!
You’re welcome. Yeah, I have a lot of interests. 🙂
Thanks for the visit here.
Hi Capt Jill. I’m happy I stumbled upon your post on Photo101 before you travelled. Beautiful pic; your blog is definitely a must-follow. I’m going to travel with you; I’m following.
PS. Have a safe trip tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and liking the post Photography 101: Landmark – Athirampuzha Church. This is an ancient world renowned church. St. Sebastian’s feast in this church is very famous. Lakhs of people from diifferent religion attend and pray with strong faith and devotion. This also prove the religious harmony and integrity among people of India. Your about page prove that you a are a great person. WIll try to read posts later some time.
What an adventurous time! The little bit (and I mean minuscule!) of sailing I’ve done, I have absolutely loved! I look forward to reading about your travels and journey. 🙂
Oh yes it was a hell of an adventure. I’ve been trying my best to have more like that ever since. Not having much luck at that.
I hope you get the chance to do more sailing, it really is so much fun. 🙂
Aye aye Captain. I am sorry I didn’t check your blog before we started talking. From your bucket list I felt that you are a sailor. And now I confirmed. And now I know that you are an Unlimited Master ! 😀 Its a pleasure to meet you. We need to talk!! 😀
Well, thanks for stopping by when you did find out about it. 😉 Kind of hard to do it before you ever knew about it. 🙂
Sure, you can contact me by email if you’d like.
It’s CaptJillsJourneys@gmail.com, I always like to meet new friends. I try to get right back but sometimes it’s hard. So if you don’t hear back from me right away, it’s probably because I’m traveling or just can’t spend the time online for some reason.
It was a pleasure to meet a mariner. When you said to sail to Antarctica and to be able to spend sometime on the shore, I understood you are a mariner! 😀 I will soon drop a line to that email. Thank you 🙂
Thanks for making a port of call at my blog :p Glad you liked some of the posts. I’ve always been of the opinion that sailing is traditionally a male occupation and it gives me a kick that you’re a woman in a male-dominated world.
What a great page Captain Jill.
Thank you so much for visiting my bog. 😀
cate b
Thanks Cate. I’m glad you liked it. Hope you’ll come back and take a look around. 🙂
HA! What a punishment 😉 I’m sure you really had time to mull over all you had done wrong lol Happy travels!! 😀
oh yeah, my grandmother sure did regret telling me I could choose ANY school in the book! I was SO lucky to go to that school. I seriously think it saved my life. It sure did change me for the better.
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Hello Capt Jill, what an amazing travelling life you’ve lead so far. I’m glad to have found you – blogging is great when you can read about other people’s experiences and seeing as I have never sailed a ship, even more so! 🙂 ps. I have actually been on lots of boats but never taken the helm. Is that right?
Hey, hey monkey,
Nice to hear from you. I agree, it’s great to be able to meet so many interesting and fun people all over the world through blogging. 🙂
Helm- right. You should try it sometime, it can be fun. Especially when you’re going fast! 😉
Hi Jill, I invited you to the 5 Photo, 5 Stories Challenge…it will post on Thursday 4/2 on my blog https://terriwebsterschrandt.wordpress.com/. If you are too busy you can decline, but I know you have great photos and great stories to go with them. I’m not doing it consecutively, so post when you can. It’s actually fun. My second post goes up Wednesday morning PST if you want to see the rules.
Thanks Terri, it sounds like fun. I’ll try to do at least one. Not sure if I’ll even make that small goal. I’ve been super busy since I left home and it doesn’t look like it’ll be slowing down for a while yet. I’ll take a look at your blog for your pictures and stories. 🙂
Yeah, no worries! Again, not mandatory. I did hesitate at first because I read how busy you are. Look forward to your posts!
Thanks Terri. If I have a chance, I’ll try it. 🙂
Post your article very useful and beneficial, many useful quotations that I can take from your website as well as with many people
and how do you think about my website? 🙂
Thank you
Wow, love this blog from a real live Sailor woman (person) pardon me if I’m not politically correct!:) Thanks for liking my blog posts, Capt Jill. AND for sharing your travels and adventurous photos.
Thank you Clara. I’m glad you like my blog . Don’t worry about being PC (I’m not). 😉
Hi Jill, delighted to have found the blog of fellow sailor; your story is truly inspiring! I hope you’ll take time to check out my blog, Princess of Pirates.
thanks! Glad you found me. And I will check out your blog. Great name! 🙂
I love the look of your blog and that you’re a woman sailor. Cool! Arrgh, matey! Oops, sorry, that’s for pirates, isn’t it? Either way, I’ll be reading!
Thank you! Aye matey, that be pirate speak, but I like to play around with it anyway. I love Talk Like a Pirate Day! Even tho real pirates are still out there and they’re definitely NOT fun!
I’m thinking about going to the Texas Renaissance Festival, this is Pirate Weekend!!
Thanks again for reading and happy to have you back any time. (you can always follow me-hint hint). 😉
Thanks for following my blog – I look forward to reading about wherever your adventures take your thoughts!
I like what you’re doing over there. Wish I had more time to spend blogging, reading, etc but too much to do in the ‘real’ world
Jill I added your blog to my recent blog review!
http://aopinionatedman.com/2015/11/08/weekly-blog-reviews-6/
Thank you so much Jason! I appreciate it, and your comments were nice. 🙂
Thanks for visiting by blog Jill this way I found your. Your blog is totally unique covering variety of topics. Looking forward to some unique narratives from you.
Thank you Megha, I hope I can keep things interesting. To me it seems my life has been pretty boring lately.
I’m hoping to make some changes soon, so stick around. 🙂
I enjoyed your cooking lessons. 🙂
Hi Jill, I saw your link on Opinionated Man’s site, and I subscribed. I hope you’ll also check out mine. It’s called Exuding Energy, where I share stories about people’s goals. I share other people’s stories, but my own. Here’s the link-https://theexudeblog.wordpress.com. I look forward to your posts 🙂
Thanks Jennifer, I’ll check it out. 🙂
Hi Jennifer, thanks for that. I’m glad you liked it.
I checked out your blog. I subscribed. I’m not much into poetry, but I do like a couple of poets. One is Robert Service. Do you like him?
Good luck with your writing. I’m trying to be a writer too. Not poetry, more like magazine articles. Maybe a book?
I want to be a ship captain!!
Hi Jill,
Its Scott Broecker from Oceanics. I haven’t been able to find the email that i had for you and wanted to get in touch. I finally got the Big Blue Marble tape digitized and i want to send you and Todd a copy. Email me at sbsea@sbcglobal.net. Look forward to hearing from you.
Scott
Hi Scott, really great to hear from you. Sorry it’s so late, but I just saw this. I just got a message from Nancy Larsen about going on a reunion cruise on the SV Phoenix. I’m waiting for a reply from the people on the Phoenix as to if I can go. Tom Gibbs wants to go. We’re trying to find contact info for others who were at Oceanics with us. Do you know how to reach anyone? I’ll send you an email with my contact info.