We have been sailing together since 1977 when
we both owned Lasers and sailed on tiny Lake Calhoun in
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In 1989 we moved to Providence, Rhode Island
where we had an opportunity to sail on the ocean for the
first time. Narragansett
Bay was an incredibly easy and beautiful place to pick up
sailing again and after a few years we bought an old
Pearson 323, named her Sabbatical, and
started exploring the bay and the lovely harbors of
Jamestown and Newport.
Each
year we became more adventurous and more anxious to expand
our cruising grounds.
In the
winter of 1995 we chartered a 38 foot Freedom in the
Caribbean and soon after traded our Pearson for a 1991
Freedom 38, naming her Sabbatical II.
It was about that time that Mark
started dreaming about doing a circumnavigation.
He joined the crew of a Swan 48 for his first blue water
sailing experience, sailing from St. Maarten to Bermuda.
After extensive research, we decided that the
boat for us was the 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. Mark sailed Sabbatical III
across the Atlantic to St. Lucia that year as part of
the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. It was another 3
years before we began our circumnavigation, officially
starting in St. Maarten in December of 2006.
