Talk to cover experiences of woman merchant mariner

Megan Frey will narrate an online slideshow of photographs from ocean passages on Sept. 23. Contributed photo

The Camden Public Library is scheduled to host merchant mariner Megan Frey for a presentation of the challenges and insights from her career.

The virtual talk is to begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23.

Frey will narrate an online slideshow of photographs from ocean passages, such as sailing around Cape Horn on the 1911 Barque Europa, visiting the Vanuatu Islands in the South Pacific, and traversing the Northwest Passage Sea Route from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to Norway.

“Ten years ago, I was living on the Isle of Eigg, in the Scottish Hebrides, when my dear friend Simon asked me if I would like to join him for a three-week passage to Ireland and back,” Frey said, according to a news release from the library. “I said ‘Most certainly,’ that although I had never gone sailing before, I would be up for the adventure. On our first night out, we were in a gale while crossing the Irish Sea. Simon looked up from the companionway with a cup of hot tea for me and said, ‘Megan, you’re not supposed to be smiling! You should be scared . . . have respect for the sea.’ But I was not afraid — I felt the most alive I had ever experienced.”

Frey has spent this summer in Rockport while serving as captain of the cutter Owl, sailing out of Camden Harbor. This is the first time in 11 years she has lived ashore. Frey will describe in her own words how “being on the sea is a form of empowerment for anyone, at any age, male or female.”

Frey recently founded Ocean’s Dream, a nonprofit sail training and marine science organization targeting students ages 16-21 years old. The organization is in the fundraising stage and would like to purchase a 75-foot steel schooner.

Ocean’s Dream will be based in the Pacific Northwest, sailing in the San Juan Islands, and on to Alaska and Hawaii. Visit oceansdream.org for more information.

For a link to register for this Zoom webinar, visit librarycamden.org.