Today, I got to talk to 100 7th graders at Blue Heron Middle School in Port Townsend.  My presentation, Woman of the Wind was part of the Maritime Discovery Program, an exciting new experiential program of Northwest Maritime Center. I knew from pre-program surveys administed by our Puget Sound Explorer staff, that more than one-third of the audience had never been in a boat.  I started off the presentation by asking how many of the students had ever dreamed of sailing around the world.  5 hands went up.  2 were female teachers.  I then proceeded to tell the group how I grew up on a ranch and how, at their age, I'd never even seen the ocean.  When I said I didn't see the ocean until I was 21 and didn't go sailing until I was 30, I almost lost them.  Then, I delivered the punch line....  I first went sailing to the same place you will tomorrow.  Within 10 years, that first sail had inspired me to sail around the world... and I'd done it with an all-woman crew. Lots of the girls leaned forward then and something started stirring.  Maybe it was the smell of lunch starting to waft into the room, or maybe, just maybe, there's a girl or twenty that began to dream. Two parents have called me to tell me their daughters are "crazy for this boat thing" and neither parent really knows what to do about it.  Can I help?  As long as they agree their girls should freely dream to sail around the world!  For updates on the Puget Sound Explorer program, watch the Northwest Maritime Center website in the Fall.  We'll expand the program to both Chimacum and Sequim, possibly even some schools from the Seattle side of the water!  Donations very much appreciated and put very well to use.