Cathy Lee Simon is an American sailor, author, retired bank executive, and philanthropist. She is recognized as the first woman to complete three major sailing challenges within a lifetime: the Arctic Circle Northwest Passage Transit, a North American Continent Circumnavigation, and a full world circumnavigation.
Early life and education Simon was born in Omak, Washington, and raised in the Pacific Northwest outside of Seattle, Washington. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington State University in 1971. She learned to sail in San Francisco Bay and has since sailed over 100,000 nautical miles, visiting more than twenty countries.
Career
Banking and finance In 1975, Simon joined the Branch Management Officer Training program at Wells Fargo Bank. In 1979, she was appointed Vice President of the Berkeley Main Branch, where she oversaw commercial and construction loan growth totaling $100 million. Later in 1979, she became an executive at Barclays Bank UK in their San Francisco Mission and Spear Branch, where she was involved in financing for rapid-growth technology firms and Fortune 1000 companies.
She also served on San Mateo County's housing program in California and was appointed by the Mayor of Foster City to the city's Housing Advisory body.
Sailing expeditions Simon has served as Co-Captain of SV Celebrate, a 58-foot ocean cruiser, and previously co-captained two coastal cruising vessels, Chere (46 feet) and With-y-Wind (33 feet). In April 2015, Simon, along with her husband, completed a 26,000-mile world circumnavigation on their 58-foot Taswell cruiser, Celebrate. The voyage took them through 27 countries and territories as part of the World Cruising Club's ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) event.
Between 2015 and 2017, Simon completed a two-year sailing world circumnavigation, contributing water samples for research on microplastic dispersal in oceans. In 2017, She Co-Captained an Arctic Circle Northwest Passage sailing transit, following a route similar to Roald Amundsen's historical voyage. The expedition used satellite mapping to survey the route and was credited with adding a newly surveyed channel in the Tasmanian Islands. Her vessel was recorded by the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge as boat number 259 to complete the passage.
In 2018, Simon completed a North American Continent Circumnavigation, with SV Celebrate registered as boat number 15 to achieve the feat, according to Scott Polar Research Institute records.
She reached her seventh continent aboard the National Geographic Endurance, participating in a 35-day voyage to Antarctica and the Sub-Antarctic Islands.
Philanthropy In 2019, Simon was appointed to the Board of The New York Explorers Club, Washington, DC Group. She is a co-founder of the Mobius Science Center and has served as a sponsor and board member of the Regional Library Foundation.
She has also served on the executive committee of Advisors for the Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, supporting the institution's development and educational initiatives. Simon has been a donor to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre in South Africa, a conservation and wildlife rehabilitation facility. She has also been a member of the Executive Leadership Council for the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, a Smithsonian affiliate, where she played a role as a major underwriter.
Simon has promoted the establishment of advisory boards in addition to traditional boards, aiming to encourage greater involvement from high-level leaders in organizational decision-making and strategic planning.
Publications
Books
QuickStart Circumnavigation Guide: Proven Route and Sailing Itinerary Timed for Weather. Washington, DC: World Sailing Guru Press, 2016. Blue Water Women: Making the Leap from Landlubber to a Life at Sea (contributor, with Gina De Vere). Indianapolis: Blue River Press, 2018. The Arctic Circle Northwest Passage Guide: Satellite-Mapped Sailing Itinerary. Washington, DC: World Sailing Guru Press, 2020. American Portrait of a Pioneering San Francisco Family: Memoir (co-authored with Charles J. Simon and Stephen C. Simon). Washington, DC: Abbot, Foster & Hauserman Co., 2021. Cathy Simon WORLD SAILOR: Arctic Polar Bears, The Panama Canal, Galapagos Giant Tortoises, Lions of South Africa, and Penguins of Antarctica. Washington, DC: World Sailing Guru Press, 2025.
Awards and recognition Individual Benefactor Award of the Year, 2010
Award of Recognition for the Leonardo da Vinci: Man-Inventor-Genius, 2011
Personal life Simon's maiden name is Woods. The Woods family motto, Tutus in Undis, translates to “Safe in the Waves.” She is the daughter of the late Verle W. Woods, a research chemist and inventor of the Fluidic Mill, and Katherine “Frances” Thompson Woods, one of the first women in Washington State to hold a private pilot's license.
Simon is married to Charles J. Simon, a computer software and hardware entrepreneur, author, and founder of the Future AI Society., They have one son.
References