Gale, a native of Ogden, Utah, grew up far away from the ocean. She sailed for the first time on a 20-foot Newport sloop at the age of 22 on Pine View Reservoir in Eden, Utah. The boat belonged to a fellow ski patroller whose dream was to sell the house, pack up the wife and kids and sail off into the wild blue yonder. Gale liked the idea and decided to make it her own dream.

The following summer, Gale traveled to Anchorage, Alaska. During the winter months, Gale worked as a ski instructor at Alyeska Ski Resort in Girdwood. In the spring, Gale was invited by another fellow ski patroller to go on his annual Easter sail through Prince William Sound and out in the Gulf of Alaska to Seward.

When the ski season ended, Gale enrolled in a month long kayaking course with the National Outdoor Leadership School. The course took her through Prince William Sound exploring bays, ice fields, glaciers, and mountain lakes. She was selected to be one of four survival leaders for the 100-mile four-day journey back to the original starting point. The mission: to survive off the land and navigate back home.

For the remainder of the summer, Gale worked at a Bake Shop in Girdwood, Alaska, to save up enough money to buy a plane ticket to Hawaii with $200 to spare. Within two weeks of landing on the island of Maui, Gale was the caretaker of a 34-foot Columbia sloop on the roadstead off the harbor of Lahaina. Gale learned the basics of sailing and how to maneuver the boat under power from the owner and he allowed her to sail the boat single-handed when he didn't have charter guests.

After sailing for three months in Hawaii, Gale set sail on her first ocean passage as crew from Hawaii to San Francisco on the 50-foot Murray Peterson Schooner, Thales. Three days out, she experienced her first storm with over 60 knots of wind and 25-foot seas. The boat took a knockdown, throwing Gale out of her bunk into the lockers on the opposite side of the boat. Once the sail area was reduced and the boat was under control, surfing the huge breaking waves was fun.

Gale flew back to Hawaii and sailed for five more months before setting off on a second passage from Hawaii to San Francisco on the 40-foot Doug Peterson (IOR) sloop, Cadenza. Gale learned the true meaning of beating, crashing into 25 knots of wind and 12-foot seas, slamming down into every trough for seven days straight with water pouring through every deck fitting into the cabin below.

When arriving in San Francisco, Gale made her way cross county to New York City to work on the 106-Hudson River Sloop, Clearwater as volunteer crew for one week. It was mid-November when Gale finished with the Clearwater and most of the boats going south were long gone. The 72-foot Herreshoff ketch Ticonderoga was late going south that year and was at the South Street Seaport for a couple of days. Gale hailed the vessel to see if they needed crew and the Captain told here to get her seabag and be on board in the morning. She sailed on Ticonderoga from New York City to Fort Lauderdale via the Chesapeake Bay.

From the offshore passages, Gale concluded that Delivery Skipper was the ultimate job for a sailor and proceeded to work to accomplish that goal. Her next step was to the Virgin Islands to work as a charter captain to gain the experience she would need to make necessary repairs at sea. She worked for a charter company that poorly maintained their boats and learned a lot in a short period of time. She worked in the Virgin Islands for six months and then went to New England to sail with a friend.

Her first delivery skipper job came out of Newport, Rhode Island, taking a 40-foot Camper-Nicholson Sloop to Fort Myers, Florida. Gale spent the next winter in the windward islands of the Caribbean looking for a job as a charter captain and Mr. Right. She was approaching the magical age of 30 when all good girls should be settled down with a family and the nesting urge was too strong to escape. She fell in love with a man working as an engineer on a 103-foot schooner with a similar dream of cruising under sail with a family. They chose Annapolis, Bob's home town, to build the nest.

Gale worked as a charter captain and a sailing instructor on the Chesapeake Bay. She also delivered boats from Annapolis to the Virgin Islands. Gale upgraded her US Coast Guard License to 100 Tons and operated powerboats up to 77 feet carrying up to 300 passengers.

Bob and Gale now share three teenage boys, the oldest 16 and the twins 14. Their dreams turned out to be quite different, and the marriage was terminated. Gale bought a 47-foot schooner to use as a sail training vessel for the boys from the funds she earned as a marine surveyor.

In 1996, she and the three boys sailed from Annapolis, Maryland, to Camden, Maine, with many adventures, including riding out the edge of Hurricane Bertha in Manasquam. The boys were picked up as planned in Camden and Gale sailed solo in Penobscot Bay for three weeks before returning to Annapolis single-handed.

During the voyage to Maine, Gale's dream changed from long distance blue water cruising with the boys to solo ocean racing around the world. Gale sailed in the 2001 Mini-Transat race to prepare for a more ambitious goal of participating in the Around Alone Race. The Mini-Transat is an intensive ocean racing training camp with all the elements of a campaign for an Open 60 on a much more affordable budget.