So, my closet wasn’t sure if I went skiing or sailing over Memorial Day weekend.

Per the number of layers on my body, skiing was definitely on the agenda.

However, there were no skis in sight when I jumped on the deck of a sailboat on Sunday morning, still all wet with fresh dew (melted frost???).

After spending the first two decades of my sailing career on a sailboat full of men, almost a decade ago I started racing with…and this is so cool to say…a crew of all women.

Led by boat owner/skipper/current Port Huron Yacht Club Commodore Pam Wall, my BFF4Life, this scrappy group of gals has a wide range of sailing experiences from absolutely none, to having sailed from Chicago to Port Huron in a Super Mackinac (that’s me!), to being a national champion windsurfer-and-only-the-15th-woman to sail in more than 25 Port Huron to Mackinac races (that’s Pam).

Now don’t get me wrong; sailing with the boys all those years was super fun. They taught me how to sail and they taught me how to think competitively on the race course. I rode their coattails and was able to experience sailing adventures I probably had no business being a part of because I was fortunate enough to sail with some of the best sailors on the Great Lakes.

But there is something so uniquely fun and special about heading out into the lake with a bunch of women, and only women.

But there is something so uniquely fun and special about heading out into the lake with a bunch of women, and only women.

The conversations are different. The laughter is infectious. And, instead of beers all around after crossing the finish line, it’s mimosas all around. In plastic cups.

We’re classy that way. 😉

The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve grown to really and truly value my female friendships, most especially those with no drama and just light-hearted-and-yet-supportive fun.

Spouses and life partners can be fun, but our relationships with our partners are sometimes heavily weighted down with the doldrums of life…the mundane chores of day-to-day living.

The “discussions” about whose favorite color will we paint the front door (I seriously do not even know why this is ever an argument because we ALL know, in a heterosexual relationship, we are going to paint the door the color the woman wants to paint the door, so dudes, save your breath.) 😉

But, with our girlfriends, there is no mundane day-to-day life to worry about. And when your friend tells you she is re-siding her home with Barbie pink vinyl, you don’t gasp in horror; you cheer her on and say, “I LOVE Barbie! You’re going to rock that Dream House!”

And then, together, you jump on the deck of a sailboat with your other girlfriends and you laugh your way around the race course. The day feels like a fresh baked cake…so much melt-in-your-mouth cake.

And when you win that race, having beaten all of the boats in your class filled with silly old boys, you proudly raise your plastic glass, filled with orange juice and champagne, not a beer to be found on the boat, and you cheer…not for your win…but for your friendship.

And that, my friends, is the icing on the cake. That is the icing, indeed.