June 11/2025: I first met Zdenka and her husband Jack in an entirely conventional shorebound way, through my cousin Charlotte, who is an old childhood friend of Jack’s. This at a lunch Charlotte hosted in her home in Portland, Maine, soon after Jack and Zdenka finished sailing around the world on Kite, their Valiant 42. We had a lot in common: Zdenka was a lawyer (retired), my wife Clare is a lawyer (unretired). And we were all sailors. So there were many more encounters, both on shore and at random on the water.
Long story short: Zdenka was a mountain climber who was lured into sailing by Jack and embraced it wholeheartedly. They both retired in 2007, moved to Portland from New York, then set out around the world on Kite in 2009. They kept on sailing on a seasonal basis after they returned and cruised the U.S. East Coast and the Bahamas extensively. Zdenka was a very active member of both the Cruising Club of America and the Ocean Cruising Club and received from them various awards.
Zdenka tapping into her climbing mind on the steep east coast of Monhegan Island
Jack and Zdenka coming ashore in their tender
My wife Clare rowing over to confab with the crew of Kite, after we found them in an anchorage one summer in midcoast Maine
Mostly though, Zdenka was just a superb human being: attractive and kind, interested and interesting, amusing and wise, outgoing (but not effusively so) and empathic.
Appropriately, I suppose, the last time I saw Zdenka was at lunch at Charlotte’s house last December, when she announced, rather matter-of-factly, that she’d been diagnosed with stage-four endometrial cancer and had a poor prognosis for survival. We also met Miki, a young pup she and Jack had just taken on. Through a few e-mail exchanges over the following months, Zdenka exhibited great courage and equanimity regarding her fate and the unpleasantness of her treatment. Finally she did leave us in late April.
You can read a full obit right here.
We saw Jack and Miki just last weekend, again at Charlotte’s. Jack, like Zdenka, has bravely faced the tragedy confronting him and asked me more than a few questions about cruising singlehanded with a dog. He’ll be out and about with Miki on the Maine coast this summer, and I’m sure we will cross wakes with them.
RIP: Zdenka Seiner Griswold, August 28, 1956 – April 27, 2025
Condolences to all who loved her or called her a friend. She sounds like she was an amazing person. A devastating blow to a lot of people I am sure. Cancer is just a bitch. Forgive my language as I speak from personal experience.
RIP Zdenka