Patience Wales, the former editor-in-chief of Sail magazine, was a friend of mine. Sadly, she passed away in March at the age of 89.
She was Sail’s editor when I was editor of Cruising. World in the 1980s. Although adversaries in a fierce competition for readers and advertisers, we became great friends. We both loved what we did running magazine companies and we both strove to create magazines that were literate, professional and true to their niches.
Outside of our careers, however, we shared a love of the sea and world cruising. I’ve made one and half circumnavigations, plus many other voyagers. Patience was that rare sailor with two full circumnavigations under her keel. It was not uncommon for us to spend a boat show evening swapping cruising yarns from our travels over glasses of wine.
Patience retired many years ago, but we stayed in touch due to our mutual friends and our shared interests in politics and English mystery novels.
Charlie Doane, another old friend, was a Sail editor and contributor who worked closely with Patience and now is the author of the blog WaveTrain, where he wrote a lovely tribute to this fine and engaging woman, my friend, Patience Wales. Read more here.
