The two of us met in 2005 and were married in 2005. I have been sailing since I was about 12, cutting my teeth on tugboat wakes in Durban Harbor, South Africa. I sailed and raced in various classes of dinghy, Mirror, Sprog, Dabchick, Fireball (my favorite) and eventually raced Hobie 18s for a number of years after graduating from college in the USA. My keelboat days started in college, crewing for a friend’s dad on their boat. That’s where I fell in love with the idea of living on a boat.

My wife hails from Pittsburgh. She started sailing much later in life – in the mid 90s. She bought her own Catalina 22 right before we met and we have had many a fun time sailing on her on our home lake – Alum Creek – as well as on Lake Erie where we keep and sail Southern Cross. We also took the ’22 to Atlantic City and spent four days at a marina while day sailing the Atlantic Ocean.

We are both crazy about the idea of living on a boat, so we decided to try it for a while. For a time we are giving up our “ground” possessions – comfy beds, sofas, TVs etc – and moving onto the boat. In the summer of 2017 we left Lake Erie via the St Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic and sailed her down the East coast of Canada and the USA. We LOVED our first adventure and are planning more, but for the time being they will have to be local excursions in the Great Lakes until we decide to head out and tackle “big pond” sailing again.