Boating

SCAN

ME!

out for a little more open

water. MarineMax’s marina

connects to a canal, which

then runs through the city of

Venice, out the Venice Inlet

and into the Gulf of Mexico.

We take turns driving

down the canal, bumping

up the throttle whenever

we leave a no-wake zone.

When it’s my turn to check

out the boat’s speed, I have

a tough time keeping the

boat going in a straight line

until I get the feel of how

not to overcorrect with

the wheel.

Then, at a few different

points along the canal,

Pearsall pop-quizzes us on

how to dock the boat. After

one woman successfully

docks the boat in front

of a crowd at a popular

waterfront eatery, another

guy docking his own boat

yells out, “You’re hired!”

Each time a woman takes

her turn, we all clap and

cheer her on. Lou Steele, a

second-grade schoolteacher

from Port Charlotte, Florida,

tells me I’m a natural, but I

suspect that’s only because

my fine motor skills might

be a little better than most

of her students.

The women gathered

in the class are here for

several different reasons.

One woman

owns a boat with

her husband,

and they hope

to make an

Intracoastal

Waterway trek

from Tarpon

Springs, Florida,

to Norfolk,

Virginia.

Another woman,

in her retirement

years with her

hair carefully

done and

makeup immaculate, was

there at the behest of her

fiancé. He lives in Maine,

she in Anchorage, Alaska,

and they meet in the winter

in Florida.

Steele, the Port Charlotte

teacher, recently purchased

a pontoon boat with her

husband to use for their

new pastime, scuba diving.

The first time they used the

pontoon for a scuba trip,

the pair forgot one crucial

detail before

they descended

on their dive:

to mark exactly

where their

boat was.

When Steele

resurfaced, she

and her husband

were so far from

the pontoon,

they could barely

see it.

“I was the

first back to the

boat, and I could

barely get back

on, my legs were

so tired,” Steele

says. “I had no

idea what I was

doing. I didn’t

know how to

turn on the boat, and I

didn’t know how to drive it.”

Steele and her husband

escaped their scuba

For information

about taking

the Women on

Water class, go to

marinemax.com/

boat-events/

classes/women-

on-water.

82 BOATINGMAG.COM APRIL 2016