She’s as Sweet as She Is Tough

"I never singlehand by choice," says Evi Nemeth. But when there’s no able-bodied crew around to recruit, this salty Coloradan doesn’t hesitate to go it alone — even on long, lonely ocean passages.

We first met Evi last March in Panama, when she attended our Pacific Puddle Jump Kickoff Party at the Balboa YC. At that time, she had already completed an Atlantic circuit from Florida though the Med, on to Brazil and across the Caribbean. What really got our attention, though, was the fact that she’d only learned to sail in 2002, after buying her Nordic 40 Wonderland the previous year. She began cruising — which had been a dream for four decades — after only a year of near-shore practice.

As Evi enters her 70s, many fellow cruisers marvel at her independence and stamina. But folks from Colorado tend to be pretty tough. Besides, Evi is a retired school teacher, and as a popular bumper stickers states, "You can’t scare me, I’m a school teacher."

When we caught up with Evi recently in Vava’u, Tonga, she shared some of her cruising tales. But so far the hardest thing she’s had to deal with has been the loss of her two small houses near Boulder, which recently succumbed to the massive Fourmile Canyon wildfire. After crossing to New Zealand this month, she’ll fly home to deal with the mess, and begin a battle with the local planning department, which won’t allow her to rebuild replacement houses that are less than 2,000-sq-ft — hers were substantially smaller. "I’m one person," she says, "and I’m living comfortably on a 40-ft sailboat. What would I do with a 2,000-sq-ft home?"

Goes to show that some challenges of the cruising life can’t be anticipated. Still, Evi is determined not to get hung up in Colorado. In fact, she’s already bought a return ticket to Kiwiland, proving that nothing — including hell, high-water or a 7,000-acre forest fire — is going to stop this white-haired sweetheart from completing her cruising dreams. You go, girl!