Sharon Sites Adams: key obituary facts
Is Sharon Sites Adams dead? Yes. Sharon Sites Adams died on October 16, 2026, at age 96.
Cause of death: Sharon Sites Adams's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Sharon Sites Adams known for?
She was a Sailed solo across the Pacific Ocean.
More about Sharon Sites Adams
Born: 29 May 1930.
Gender: female.
Occupation: sailor.
Nationality: United States.
Sharon Sites Adams, an American sailor who became the first woman to sail solo across the Pacific, died October 16, 2026, aged 96.
In 1969, she made the crossing from Yokohama to San Diego aboard her boat, Sea Sharp II. The achievement brought her the Los Angeles Times’ Woman of the Year honor that year.
Adams was born in Washington with the given names Phyllis Mae. After her parents died when she was young, different family members cared for her, and she was given the name Sharon. She took her first sailing lesson at Marina Del Rey, California, in October 1964, when she was 34. Before her Pacific voyage, she was the only civilian other than the captain’s wife on the bridge of the Queen Mary as the ship rounded Cape Horn on its final voyage. Adams later recounted her sailing story in the 2008 book Pacific Lady. Her 1969 passage, undertaken alone across the ocean, remains the defining event in the supplied account of her life: a Yokohama-to-San Diego voyage that established her as the first woman to complete a solo Pacific crossing. The journey and the award it brought placed her sailing achievement in public view in the same year.