Over the last 15 years my wife (and I) have housed and supported sailors from around the world who come to Miami to train in the winter when the winds are best. These sailors are world class athletes and most are Olympic hopefuls. Many, in fact, have gone on to win medals. Having studied these Olympic athletes for so many years, they share certain characteristics:
- Above average intelligence
- The ability to focus on a goal (making the Olympic team) to a degree which would make most entrepreneurs look like slackers
- A constant discipline to improve their performance
- An exceptional ability to multi-task on an international basis (training, competing, fundraising, logistics, etc.)
So it comes as no surprise that these Olympic athletes go on to distinguish themselves in other fields. One example is Carol Cronin, who competed in the Athens Olympics in 2004 as the skipper of a Yngling. Carol and her crew spent the winters of 2002-2004 with us. Carol's crew at times included a PhD biology researcher, a publisher of a cruising guide to the Bahamas and the assistant sailing coach at Annapolis.
Carol has just published her first book--Oliver's Surprise--which relates a young boy's experience with the great hurricane that hit Rhode Island in 1938. To read an excerpt, see the cover and order the book go here. The book is also available on Amazon. The cover features a photo by Onne van der Wal, one of the world's great photographers of boats and marine related subjects, who Carol introduced me to on a visit to Newport, RI.
Carol is now threatening to write a new book about a Florida hurricane and call it Hacker's Hubris. I think she should finally forgive me after six years for once telling her that her spinnaker set could be improved.
