Pam was brought up in a sailing family. Her young years were spent sailing on Lake Michigan with her Father. It was this up bringing on the water that gave Pam the desire to find an adventurous husband who would sail her around the world.
Besides the studying at the University of Wisconsin, Pam was the president of the Hoofer’s Sailing Club for two years. Her years in college also gave her more opportunity for inland lake sailing on Lake Mendota.
After four years in the snow of Wisconsin, Pam made a move to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where she “could sail year round” and live with palm trees! It was this move that gave Pam her opportunity to become part of the large and growing Marine Industry of Florida.
Andy Wall, a young handsome sailor from Australia sailed into her life. Andy had built his own 30 foot sloop and had sailed it across the Pacific Ocean. He departed his home in Sydney, Australia and sailed his little sloop, CARRONADE, to the United States. From San Francisco he sailed to Tahiti and then the 4000 miles non stop to the tip of South America and rounded Cape Horn. Andy was the first Australian yacht to” round the Horn” and in the mid 1960’s this sailing adventure was accomplished with NO electronic navigation equipment, no radios, and no fanfare.
Pam and Andy met in Fort Lauderdale and began a truly unusual adventurous life together.
It’s not every woman who can say she had her honeymoon aboard a tiny thirty foot sloop crossing the Atlantic from Fort Lauderdale to England! Yet Pam recalls this first passage across an ocean as “the happiest time of my life!” Three years were spent sailing around Europe and then the two sailed back across the Atlantic Ocean to build a new larger boat and a crew to sail with them!
For the next ten years Andy had the easy job of building a larger 39 foot sloop, and Pam had the difficult, but successful, job of building the crew! While Pam was working at the local Mack-Shaw Sailmakers, she not only helped Andy with the building of their new sloop, but happily provided a lovely daughter, Samantha and four years later a strong and jolly son, James.
The Wall Family set out to circumnavigate our globe in 1985. The vessel, KANDARIK, was their home built 39 foot sloop, and the crew of Andy, Pam, Samantha (8) and James (4). Six and half years later they sailed back into Port Everglades after sailing together as a family around the world.
It was upon the return to Florida that Pam began her career with West Marine in Fort Lauderdale. Here she became the “go to” person for anything to do with sailing, cruising, outfitting, and presenting lectures. There are so many people that have been helped by Pam. Her knowledge of sailing and foreign countries, her passion for the right equipment while outfitting yachts, and her wonderful enthusiasm for helping others gain knowledge and confidence is what Pam has for the sailing community not only in South Florida but in every harbor around the world!
Pam goes around the country giving lectures at boat shows, schools, hospitals, yacht clubs, and other organizations. She talks about sailing, about responsibility, about empowerment, and the necessity of having dreams to work towards. Pam Wall has become a byword in the community for smiles, laughter, and the joy of passing on information and encouragement to so many people.
There is an event in the British Virgin Islands called WOW, or Women on the Water Week. It is here at the lovely Bitter End Yacht Club that Pam has been a sailing instructor for women for the past ten years. This yearly event has women from all over the country come to learn how to sail from women instructors. Log onto the web-site: www.beyc.com to read more about this event
If you asked Pam what has been her greatest accomplishment, she would not hesitate to say, “Andy and I gave our two children, Samantha and Jamie, the eyes to see the world, to meet and accept and make friends with all people, and to think with compassion about how lucky they are to have grown up on a small boat circling the world when so many are not as fortunate”
Pam is so very lucky to live in South Florida, and South Florida is lucky to have Pam living here!
