Three decades ago, Tracy Edwards and the Maiden crew set sail on a course to defy the impossible and compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race as an all-female crew. Despite having to overcome doubts and prejudice, Tracy and her crew won second overall in this notoriously difficult race! This achievement not only showed the world that women have what it takes to compete, persevere, and win, but ended up sparking the flame that would set the Maiden on a mission to inspire women around the world to achieve their dreams, and empower them through education!

Before the pandemic, the Maiden has sailed 22,00 nautical miles to 22 destinations in 13 countries over the course of 18 months, promoting women and girls’ recruitment into industries such as maritime, coding, computing, business, and banking, science, biology, and climate activism. Now, Maiden is on a world tour visiting 60 destinations in over 40 countries across 90,000 nautical miles!

Throughout her journey to inspire women’s education across the globe, the Maiden didn’t pass the opportunity to stop by Shake-A-Leg. The Shake-A-Leg family welcomed the Maiden and her crew to a Bay Day with open arms and ears as she shared her story to the women and girls of Shake-A-Leg and other local organizations that joined in for a sail with the crew on the Freedoms. The Maiden crew was also welcomed on the Impossible Dream, and the day was concluded with a screening of the Maiden documentary in the Coast Guard hangar. Even though everyone was wearied out after a hot day by the time of the documentary, the fulfilment the girls experienced after spending a day with the Maiden crew made the journey across the Atlantic for the Maiden totally worth it!

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