Eight Bells: Michelle Slade

We are very sad to report that our very good friend, sailor, writer and lifelong energizer, Michelle Slade, has lost her heroic battle with colon cancer at age 64. We were very fortunate to connect with Michelle not long after we moved to the Bay Area in the mid-’80s, and before we both became so entwined in the sailing world.

We joined her ever-expanding global circle of friends while also sailing the Bay, seeing sunsets from Mount Tam, and living the Bay Area life, which remained the hub of her overactive traveling itinerary.

Readers have seen many of Michelle’s stories in Latitude 38, though her personal story extends far beyond our pages and West Coast sailing shores. Her boundless energy could power a couple of data centers, and we were often concerned that she alone was the source of climate change and the melting icecaps.

While she called the Bay Area home, Michelle was truly a citizen of the world. You never wanted to write down her mailing address in ink. She never sat still; she built a community at every place she inhabited, and managed to build and remodel numerous houses while also cooking and entertaining her many friends. In addition to writing, she was a scuba instructor, yoga instructor, and worked as a CAD creator with a sharp eye for design. She did all this between trips to writing gigs at a wide variety of sailing events around the world. She had friends at every stop.

Michelle was passionate about sailing, writing, and looking for ways to bring sailing to the people. She worked with a wide variety of America’s Cup campaigns and grand prix events with the likes of Russell Coutts, Paul Cayard, Gary Jobson, Craig Leweck and many others, to tell the story of sailing. She covered the BVI Regatta for years, and regardless of the task, she was on top of the story, yet never missed a beat when it came to joining the fun.

Meanwhile, her own sailing was often kept simple. She crewed for us and many other Bay Area racers. She was an active windsurfer, then kiteboarder and then wingfoiler. She and Scott Steele, her partner of the last few years, delivered a new-to-her Beneteau 40.7 from the Great Lakes to Annapolis last fall while they raced together on her Melges 15 — all this after she had been given her diagnosis.

Scott knew the bright light of Michelle’s life that all her friends knew. She was still running 50ks or up Mount Shasta, and we’d cross tracks while mountain biking or as she was running up Mount Tam. Just this past winter, while getting treatment in Germany, she and Scott were hiking mountain gorges and snowboarding in Austria before fitting in another Melges 15 regatta. She made the best possible of every day.

Her life was an endlessly scrolling Twitter feed of professional commitment, full-throttle adventure and organizing a social swirl of well-choreographed dinners, parties and events for her eclectic collection of friends.

Even at her light-speed pace, she would slow down to read in a book club, pause to do yoga, volunteer for the St. Francis Sailing Foundation, and do an occasional meditation at Spirit Rock before blasting off to her next engagement with the world.

Michelle’s long battle with cancer was also an inspiration on how to live every minute. She was a relentless warrior searching for a path to healing while also doing everything imaginable between treatments and setbacks. She never stopped looking ahead or planning her next adventure. No rock was left unturned and no opportunity for fun was ever missed.

We are going to miss Michelle, and the stories she wrote, but mostly we’ll miss the many stories she created with us all.