Lecture: Seagoing Women

Event type: In-person
Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum
Speaker: Journalist and Mariner Sara Donnelly
Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public. Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 2.

Join journalist and mariner Sara Donnelly for a fascinating conversation about her new book Seagoing Women: At Work. The book is a compelling collection of stories celebrating thirty-three women who have built extraordinary careers on the water.

Through vivid first-person accounts, striking photographs, and years of in-depth interviews, Donnelly offers a rare glimpse into life offshore—from the physical demands and long stretches away from home to the ingenuity, resilience, and sense of purpose that define work at sea.

Featuring tugboat operators, commercial fishers, naval architects, whale researchers, and many others, Seagoing Women highlights the challenging experiences and remarkable contributions of women whose lives and livelihoods are connected to the ocean.

Copies of Seagoing Women: At Work (Harbour Publishing) will be available for purchase ($26.95 plus tax) and signing after the talk.

Staci Lee Photography

Over a two-decade career as a journalist and writer, Sara Donnelly has also worked search and rescue with the Canadian Coast Guard, commercial-fished on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island, and served as a quartermaster on ferries. Her family has deep roots in marine industries, with generations of fishers, pilots and engineers. She lives on the Sunshine Coast in BC.