We met in New Orleans during Mardi Gras in 2005, which is really just a teaser line for a long, interesting story which we can only relate in person over beverages with much embellishment. Finding we had many interests in common and interesting commonalities, we stayed in touch and managed to cook up a long-distance relationship. That hatched into a full-fledged eleven year engagement, spanning the raising of three kids together, creating several businesses, climbing big mountains like Rainier and Kilimanjaro, running marathons, riding 130 miles in one day for charity, paddling Class IV rapids, and creating an adventurous wilderness triathlon through the densest population of Grizzly bears in the Lower 48. Our favorite activity has been sailing though, which Kristin fell in love with immediately upon my introducing her to it. We thoroughly enjoyed summer weekends on Flathead Lake in Montana aboard our Newport 30, surrounded by wilderness and snow-capped mountains near Glacier National Park. We love to travel and amongst multiple trips with the kids to the East Coast and one to Russia, we began to take Bareboat sailing vacations as “homework” for our planned retirement to a life aboard a sailboat. Trying to visit a variety of different types of locations so we would have some familiarity with them when we went back on our own, we vacationed for at least a week in the Newport, RI and Chesapeake Bay areas, the British Virgin Islands, Tahiti, Australia, and several times in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. In 2016 we decided to get married, in 2018 the kids moved out of the house to pursue their young adult lives, and in 2020 our carefully planned and meticulously executed 12 year plan was sideswiped by Covid-19 just as we were entering the homestretch. We swerved and used a lot of duct tape and bailing twine to slide sideways over the finish line. Luckily our challenges, while frustrating and stressful, were all first-world in nature and we are thankful for that. We look forward to sharing our sailing adventures with all of our friends and family on this site, and seeing y’all along the way!
