Betsy Baillie grew up on one of the largest chicken farms on the island.

Her parents, Thomas and Betty James, were the owners. Farmer’s Pride sold eggs from three different locations. Ms Baillie, the youngest of five children, recalls how people would even show up on their doorstep on Burnt House Hill in Warwick.

“Things were winding down at that time and a lot of the work fell to me,” said the 72-year-old, who would help with washing, boxing and packing the eggs. It was 24/7.”

Back then, teaching and nursing were among the few career options open to women in Bermuda. As a teenager Ms Baillie volunteered as a candy striper at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, thinking she would be a nurse.

She quickly found she did not have the patience for the work.

One day representatives from IBM, the multinational technology company, came to Warwick Academy where she was a student.

“They ran an aptitude test on us,” she said. “I was one of three people who passed it.”

When she went home and told her parents she was going to work with computers. They were baffled.

“It was the 1960s and computers were still new. I don’t even know if there were degrees in it yet.”

As her parents were so unimpressed, she went back to the drawing board. At 14, while taking home economics classes, she found her career path.

She went off to England where she studied at Bath College of Education in Somerset. Ms Baillie then returned to Bermuda to work for a year before heading off to Mount St Vincent University in Canada where she completed a nutrition degree and qualified as a dietician.

She started her career with the Health Department in 1980. At that time there were only two other dieticians on the island.

“It was a new thing at the time,” Ms Baillie said. “Now I think there are about 20 either in the hospital or in private practice. Because I was in public health we did a lot health and nutrition education in the schools.”

She is most proud of her work with the Health for Success school nutrition programme started by former chief medical officer John Cann in 1991.

Today Ms Baillie believes that daily physical activity should be compulsory in all schools and should be taught to a recognised standard.

“It is my biggest disappointment that it is not,” she said.

Friends introduced her to her husband, Bob Baillie. He was originally from New Zealand and sailed into Bermuda in 1974 as the captain of a Canadian boat.

“I had to pass a seaworthy test before he would marry me,” Ms Baillie laughed. “Forty-four years later he says I’m still under test.”

In 1987, the couple took 18 months off from their jobs to go sailing on a 40ft Sigma 41 yacht called Belair after Ms Baillie’s childhood home.

“My friends thought I was the least likely person to do that,” she said. “I was not from a sailing family.”

The couple departed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, went through the Panama Canal to the South Pacific and ended up in New Zealand, before going on to Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Australia.

The refrigerator and freezer they installed did not last the trip.

“We knew it was not working when we got to Nassau and this bread dough in the freezer had risen around all the other stuff in there.”

They managed by placing perishable foods in the bilge, which was cooler because it was under the water line.

In the Galapagos Islands they had to choose between a freezer and an alternator, a diesel engine that converts fuel into electrical energy.

“We went with the alternator,” she said.

They did not have GPS so they navigated the old-fashioned way: a chart, a sextant, a stopwatch and a calculator.

Along the way they took part in the 650 nautical mile Darwin Ambon Yacht Race from Darwin, Australia, to Ambon, Indonesia. Ms Baillie said the race was popular because it was a good way to get into Indonesia without having to apply for a lot of permits.

The couple came first out of 50 competitors in the cruising division thanks to Ms Baillie’s husband’s sailing prowess.

“There was an island to the east of Darwin,” she said. “Most of the other boats headed that way. My husband decided to go in a different direction. All the boats that sailed towards that island ran out of wind.”

The couple returned home and resumed working but took time off again in 2000.

“The America’s Cup was in New Zealand that year,” Ms Baillie said. “My husband wanted to be there. I also wanted to get my master’s in public health.”

Towards the end of her career she would sail with her husband for six months out of the year and then work as a health consultant for another six months.

She fully retired in 2013 but still sits on the Diabetes Association board. Photography and bridge also keep her busy.

“Up until this year, I co-ordinated the Garden Club of Bermuda’s annual photography competition,” she said.

Ms Baillie also takes tap and ballet classes with the Lifelong Learning Centre at the Bermuda College and aerobics lessons with Sally Darling.

• Lifestyle profiles the island’s senior citizens every week. Contact Jessie Moniz Hardy on 278-0150 or jmhardy@royalgazette.com, with the full name and contact details and the reason you are suggesting them