Changing Course One Woman's True-Life Adventures As a Merchant Marine

At mid-life, Jeanne Lutz takes stock of her life and isn't happy with what she sees. With a recent divorce, a dead-end, low-paying job and her estranged father critically ill, Jeanne feels like a failure and her future looks bleak. Tired of waiting for her life to change, Jeanne decides she must change it herself and fulfill her lost dream of adventure. Despite having no seafaring experience and against the advice of friends and family, Jeanne joins the merchant marines. After a tense wait, she is finally assigned to the O.S. Illinois -- an oil tanker -- as a Steward Assistant and the only woman on board with a crew of twenty-nine men. Nervous and excited, she joins the ship in Port Angeles, Washington. Soon she finds that though the sea is mysterious and wondrous, the work is brutally taxing.Lutz, Jeanne is the author of 'Changing Course One Woman's True-Life Adventures As a Merchant Marine' with ISBN 9780882822327 and ISBN 0882822322.