Published on 13th June 2022

4 min read

When Ky Delaney set sail for a month around the Virgin Islands, her aim was to show her four-year-old son Tobin the joy of the ocean. But as a skipper for the first time, she also needed to find a leadership style - as a mother, woman and friend - free of the hierarchical trappings her male teachers had imparted.

I was steering around jagged boulders toward one of the last available mooring balls for a day of snorkelling in the Caribbean Sea. My first mate, Sarah, suggested grabbing a mooring ball on the port side, requiring a slight deviation from my course. I shook my head. It would have been easy to change course headings, but I was still so insecure about skippering a boat that I couldn’t let Sarah make even one small decision.

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