There are so many wonderful things about the work I do here developing stories for Soundings, and among them is the opportunity to learn about people who dare to dream of big adventures, and then go to the wall to make them happen.
A friend of mine in Delaware recently told me about his former colleague, who took a risk to realize an ambition she’d had to cruise around the globe. The woman, Holly Williams, started sailing in San Francisco Bay around the time she began medical school at UCSF in the late 1980s. She wanted to see the world from a boat deck, but at the time she thought she’d have to put that fantasy to bed and choose her career over sailing. When she did her surgical residency in the 1990s, she was serious enough about the sport to invest in her own boat, a Catalina 30. She continued to fantasize about long-distance voyaging, but would then catch herself. She was a surgeon. She didn’t have time to sail around the world.
That changed many years later, when she discovered the Clipper Round the World Race. It’s run in 11 months from start to finish, a schedule that Williams knew she could make work for her professionally. The Clipper is a unique race because participants don’t have to be pro sailors. They just need the right attitude. Williams, who has that in spades, was asked to join the crew on the UNICEF boat. To make it happen, she left her full-time job and arranged for a part-time position that she could return to after the adventure.
Williams cast off from a dock in London in September 2019 for the 2019-2020 edition of the race. Things were going incredibly well, until the boat made the passage through the Indian Ocean and drove up past the Solomon Islands onto Papua New Guinea. Around there, the crew received a call about a virus. They were in the Philippines when Covid-19 made headlines.
The race was put on hold in March 2020. Boats were emptied, locked up and left at docks; crews went back home. The dreams that Williams had were put on hold. She returned to San Francisco and resumed her work as a pediatric surgeon.
Two years later, in March 2022, the race resumed, and Williams was on board again, finishing the Philippines leg of the trip that had been cut short. She then went on to cross the North Pacific, sail through the Panama Canal, enjoy stops in Bermuda and New York, and then race across the Atlantic. In a story by writer Heather Breaux, Williams said she really enjoyed the Atlantic leg of the race. “I loved it when the seas were big. It was just thrilling.”
On July 30, 2022, the UNICEF boat finished its world tour. Williams returned to California soon after and told Breaux she was happy to be home and back at work, but was also grateful for the incredible experience she had during the race. “I like feeling the rhythm of the sea. It’s a great equalizer.”
This article was originally published in the April 2023 issue.
