They still don't get it!

One of our dockmates is leaving this week for a 2-year cruise , up the East Coast, into the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi/Tennessee/Tombigbee into the Gulf Coast, around Florida and closing the loop back to Annapolis - the "Great Loop" or "Great Circle." She's been planning the trip for years; bought a trawler a couple of years ago, improving her skills, studying maps, and working a kazillion hours of overtime to build up the cruising kitty. She's been pretty quiet about her plans until recently, and several of the neighbors that I invited to her bon voyage party still didn't know at the time of the invite. Melissa is smart and strong and competent and well-prepared. Now, when one of the single guys takes off, folks at his party might ask, "Is he single-handing?" Like, maybe he is, and maybe he isn't. But about Melissa, they ask, "Who is she taking with her?" My feminist soul is offended at the assumption that she wouldn't even be capable of going alone. Why? Because she's a girl? Hah!