We have been sailing together since 1977 when we both owned Lasers and sailed on Lake Calhoun in
Minneapolis, Minnesota.   Love, marriage, travel, careers and two children put a temporary hold on our sailing
life.  In 1989, when Mark, then a Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota, was offered a position
at Brown University we moved to Providence, Rhode Island.

After a few years in RI the lure of Narragansett Bay became too strong to ignore, and in 1994 we bought a 1978

Pearson 323 and named her “Sabbatical” . 

Together with our children - Ben  and  Hannah - we started sailing - spending most of our time in Narragansett Bay, but slowly
widening our scope to include Block Island, Cuttyhunk, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.  In the winter
of 1995 we chartered a boat in the Caribbean for the first time.  After spending two weeks onboard a beautiful
38 foot Freedom charter boat, harbored in Tortola, BVI, we returned to RI and the following spring
bought a 1991 Freedom 38, naming her “Sabbatical II”.

It was about that time that Mark started dreaming about doing a circumnavigation.  He volunteered for his first

blue water sailing experience, joining the crew of a Swan 48 for delivery from St. Maarten to Bermuda.  After

extensive research, we bought an  Amel Super Maramu, a 52 foot ketch built in La Rochelle, France.  

In October of 2003 we flew to La Rochelle to take delivery of our new boat,  the current “Sabbatical III”.  
A crew helped sail her to the Canaries in early November, and from there Mark and three others sailed the boat
to St.Lucia as part of the 2003 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers.

In  November of 2006 we had the boat sailed down to St.Maarten while Mark was finishing up his semester at Brown.

We flew down to St. Maarten on December 11, 2006,  and began our circumnavigation.

All details of the trip from that point on are recorded  in the ship's blog.  

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