Sailing Story: Merrilee Hertlein

Merrilee Hertlein had her first introduction to sailing as a young teenager. Her mother had grown up on a sailing lake and made the decision to buy a twelve foot Butterfly sailboat with the hopes of reigniting her own passion for sailing. 

At first, the sailboat just sat propped up against the side yard of the house, untouched. After seeing it day after day, Merrilee started to get curious about the boat herself. “I wonder if I can figure this thing out,” Merrilee said she remembers thinking. 

At the time Merrilee said it didn’t seem like a big deal to figure out the rigging on her own and set out on the lake by their home, but looking back— she missed that sense of adventure she had found that fateful summer.

“I didn’t really think a whole lot about it as a kid but as I’ve gotten older those memories are just seared into my brain of how much I enjoyed that,” she said. “Harnessing the wind, working with nature and I’ve always thought– ‘I’m going to get back into that’!”

As an adult, Merrilee found herself in the same position as her mom had all those years ago. Her and her husband had bought ten acres on a lake, bought a small sailboat, and then… life got busy.

“It sat in the side yard and I never did anything with it because we were in the thick of it raising kids,” she said. After a few years they sold the sailboat, never having put it in the water.

Then, as Merrilee’s children grew up and began to set out on their own adventures, she found herself drawn back into the world of sailing somewhat serendipitously. During a vacation in Jamaica, Merrilee and her husband encountered sailors making their way across the Great Loop. 

“The adventure they were having reignited it in me,” she said. “I’m at a point in my life where I’m thinking about retirement and if I don’t do it now I’m never going to do it.”

At first, Merrilee’s husband was a bit skeptical of their ability to ‘sail’ into retirement. After all, he had always suffered from severe motion sickness. 

“If we can’t figure that out, it’s not going to be a thing that we can live on a sailboat one day,” Merrilee said she remembered thinking. 

Through talking to other sailors, Merrilee decided the best bet might be to book a weeklong sailing course to test out the waters, see how her husband would fair, and receive sailing certifications at the same time! She found Captain Genevieve’s number on the ASA website and gave her a call. 

“She was really great because I asked her: ‘am I crazy to think [we can do] this’?” She recalled about her conversation with Captain Genevieve. However, Genevieve told Merrilee that they would be above board most of the time on the catamaran and her husband would have a clear view of the horizon. Booking an ASA sailing course wouldn’t be a crazy idea at all! So they booked their ASA courses with Go Sail. 

“He never even had a touch of queasiness,” Merrilee laughed about their week at sea. “I have never seen him sleep as peacefully!”

Merrilee was overjoyed to not only find out that her husband could sail without getting seasick but also that her sailing dreams were now becoming a reality. The trip was everything she had hoped it would be. 

“It felt equal parts sailing school and vacation,” she said. “We could go wherever we wanted and bring our accommodations with us!”

Now Merrilee and her husband are back home in Texas, they are already starting to plan their next sailing trip— and encouraging others to join them. “They are both totally on board,” Merrilee said about her daughters coming with them on their first bareboat charter. As are her brother-in-law, his wife, and two of the co-workers they sailed with in the Virgin Islands. 

For Merrilee, this trip signaled the end of sailboats gathering dust in the yard. She now has the skills and excitement to sail confidently into retirement.