Sailors

Sheldon L. Shubert, a retired Baltimore County public school psychologist and avid bay sailor, died Oct. 5 of Alzheimer's disease at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The longtime Cockeysville resident was 81. Mr. Shubert was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. He yearned for adventure and was 17 when he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Air Force in 1946. While serving in the Air Force, he earned his General Educational Development certificate. During the time he was stationed at Carswell Air Force Base in Texas, Mr. Shubert met his future wife, Barbara "Bobbie" Stewart, a roller skating rink.

Seniors Hannah Schmidt and Caroline Casey have helped Mount de Sales win the past two Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference volleyball championships. Thanks to their leadership Saturday at Mount de Sales' homecoming, the Sailors took a big step towards a third one. Schmidt and Casey both contributed big plays, and — along with junior Taylor Beaumont — led the third ranked Sailors (5-1, 4-0) to a 25-18, 15-25, 25-13, 25-17 victory over No. 7 Seton Keough (7-2, 6-1)

John Alfred Aldrich, a retired electronics engineer and avid sailor, died Saturday of pulmonary fibrosis at the William Hill Manor retirement community in Easton. He was 87. The son of a Bethlehem Steel Corp. chief naval draftsman and a homemaker, Mr. Aldrich was born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton. After graduating from the Polytechnic Institute in 1940, he attended Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., for a year. He attended the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.

Marguerite M. "Peggy" Owens, a homemaker and volunteer, died Aug. 25 at her home in Naples, Fla., of complications from an infection. She was 87. Marguerite Martin, the daughter of a Chesapeake Bay ferry purser and a homemaker, was born in Royal Oak on the Eastern Shore and moved in 1928 to Roland Park. After graduating in 1941 from Eastern High School, she worked as a secretary in the Office of Strategic Services at Aberdeen Proving Ground during World War II. In 1946, she married John B. Owens, who was one of the founders of the Owens Yacht Co. For years, the couple lived at a home on Hollins Avenue that overlooked Lake Roland.

The Brazilian warship has traveled around the globe the past quarter century, but it was pelted by pirates for the first time Sunday. The naval ship — a sort of floating classroom for Brazilian midshipmen — is spending a week in Baltimore as part of a tour that began in early June. It is docked near Harborplace, where costumed privateers and wenches on the city's pirate cruise sail by with taunts every hour or so. Throughout the week, the 420 Brazilian sailors are extending their gangplanks to visitors for free tours of the ship, The Brazil.

While Billy Jenkins Jr.'s classmates spent the early part of summer heading to the pool, playing video games and going to summer camps, the 12-year-old from Annapolis took a little sailing trip with his father. Their destination? Bermuda. Billy served as a crew member of Genuine Risk in last month's Newport-Bermuda Race, which started in Newport, R.I., and finished at St. David's Head in Bermuda. He is one of the youngest participants to have raced in the event. Genuine Risk, a Dubois 90-foot racing yacht, won first place in the Class 16 Open Division and brought home the Royal Mail Trophy.

By 5 p.m. today, the fishing vessel Ile de Reunion is expected to rendezvous in the southern Indian Ocean with 16-year-old Abby Sunderland and her crippled sailboat, ending the Californian's bid to circumnavigate the globe alone. The rescue effort that began just before 9 a.m. Thursday, when Sunderland triggered two emergency satellite beacons, would have been impossible without a global system of satellites and electronics, including a computer center in Suitland. Sunderland left Cape Town, South Africa, on May 21. But in satellite telephone conversations with her family at 7 a.m. Thursday she reported her boat was being pounded by 30-foot waves.

Jane R. Blair, a homemaker and longtime volunteer, died Monday of pneumonia at her Annapolis home. She was 89. Jane Rydstrom, the daughter of a businessman and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on Beechdale Road in Roland Park. After graduating from Girls' Latin School in 1938, she began working as a Candy Striper at Union Memorial Hospital. In 1942, she moved to Washington, where she worked as an advertising representative for the Yellow Pages. She later moved to New Orleans, where she worked for the Port of New Orleans.