Sailing on the Lean

I grew up on Long Island sound. My father had a cruising sailboat, Tamatoa, 40′ Newporter Ketch. I was on the water at a young age but did not start sailing independently until I was 9, when I started sailing lessons at the Northport Yacht Club.

We were instructed in Blue Jay sailing dinghy’s that were sailed and raced locally. The boats were a 2-3 person dingy with a spinnaker.

I started sailing with both my sisters which usually deteriorated into a fist fight and then eventually found other people to sail with. At the age of 11 my father introduced me to a friend of his that did some winter sailing on Sunday afternoons on a boat called a Penguin. How did I get chosen? My weight. Dinghy sailing is a lot to do with balancing weight to make just about the minimum weight to be fastest. If one is overly conscious about their weight then dinghy sailing is not a good place to start because it is not uncommon for people to ask how much you weigh, especially as a crew.

Winter sailing was harsh as this was the day and age before dry suits and before modern foul weather gear was invented, especially for children. If the boat flipped or it was wavy…you got wet. In New England the racing would be run until New Years Day and then the harbors would freeze over. If you got dumped in the water they required that you were done for the day and had to go in and that would be the end of your racing for the day. I sailed both summer and winter until I went to college at 18.

My father had been an avid sailor late in life and had sailed the Newport/Bermuda race twice on Tamatoa. Our home library was filled with tales of great sailors, disasters and boat maintenance. I must have read every single book in the library by the time I left for college. Acknowledging my passion for sailing my dad signed me up as crew, at 14, on a yacht delivery from NY to Bermuda. It is there that I truly fell in love with the sea and the peace that comes with it. At that point I decided that someday I wanted to cruise extensively.

In college I raced dinghies as the light air crew. I am not a tall person at 5’1″ and I was very light at the time. We raced 420’s and FJ’s throughout New England and the east coast of the USA. I had gone down to Miami to race in the Orange Bowl Regatta with some friends the week of Christmas 1989. I met this guy in the parking lot one day after racing. I was out of the race because I broke a part on my boat and couldn’t afford to fix it. This guy lent me the part…I was floored….I didn’t end up using it as the next day was too windy so I returned it…He kept it in his glove box and at our 25th anniversary gave it back to me.

Magill and I share a passion for sailing and at the time racing. We sailed together and apart and then brought our three boys up dinghy racing. We have long talked about buying a sailboat and going around the world. He graduated from a maritime academy and has a strong knowledge of all things boat.

In 2009 we moved to Angola for Magill’s At that point we stopped sailing for as we had no practical way to do so. Near the end of our stay in Angola the older two boys went off to boarding school for their final years in HS. Blue Ridge, a fantastic school, was located just outside Charlottesville VA…not much sailing there.

After five years in Angola we moved to Dubai where we attempted to join the local yacht club. The there had very strict rules on membership and although I did a lot of volunteering there Magill was unable and so we never did gain membership. I did however take the RYA day skipper class there and learned a huge amount about navigation.

https://www.rya.org.uk/training/professional-qualifications/day-skipper

When we were leaving Angola in 2014 is when I contracted Dengue and my health started to change. Racing was no longer an option and so we have moved towards thinking of our long term cruising options. We moved from Dubai after two years with a quick few months in Amsterdam before moving back to the USA where we started our search for the first Ta Fixe.