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About usBackgroundIt wasn't long after Beth and I first met that the notion of cruising the Pacific was hatched. We got Rainbird shortly after we were married, and things progressed from there. KevinI grew up in Minnesota, about as far from salt water as it's possible to get in North America. I started dreaming about visiting Polynesia when I read Thor Heyerdahl's books Kon-Tiki and Aku-Aku at the age of 10 or 11. I learned to sail one summer at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, which is on Lake Superior. UMD had a fleet of 420s, 14 foot planing dinghies. Great fun. I moved up to crewing on bigger boats the next year, and somewhere along the way it dawned on me that one day I might own a seagoing sailboat. The seed was sprouting. BethBeth was an Army brat and sailed on small boats as a youngster in Hawaii, though she mostly grew up in Minnesota. Boats we've ownedRainbird (Rawson 30)Our first sailboat was Rainbird, a Rawson 30. We purchased her from her original owner in 1978 and cruised (mostly motoring - there isn't much sailing-type wind in this area) perhaps 5,000 miles around Southeast Alaska during the five years we owned her. We had a good source of heat, so we used Rainbird year-round. We had some great times exploring many remote anchorages on the outside coast of Southeast Alaska in Rainbird. Achates (Valiant 40)"Footitis" bit us after a 3-month cruise in Rainbird, and we moved up to Achates, a Valiant 40, in 1983. She was new and was, fortunately, not a "blister boat". We lived on Achates in Juneau, Alaska for 6 years before we departed on a three-year Pacific cruise in 1989. We took her all the way to Tasmania, Australia and back to Alaska, racking up around 21,000 miles in the process. We returned to Alaska and sold her in 1992. Achates (now Fanuia) is now owned by a couple in the Pacific NW and is being prepared for another cruise to the Tropics. RED (Waterline 48, custom)We began designing The Next Boat when we were on our first offshore passage on Achates in 1989. After many iterations, that design ultimately became RED with the talented assistance of Ed Rutherford and the crew at Waterline Yachts. RED was launched in 1997. RED proved to be everything we'd hoped for when we designed her; fast, comfortable, safe, easy to handle, and beautiful. ExperienceBeth and I did much of our learning in the challenging waters of Southeast Alaska. Cold water, big (20 foot) tides, strong currents, lots of submerged rocks, fog, short days (in the winter, anyway), that sort of thing. It forced us to learn the basics. Back then, the only instruments we had were a depth finder and a compass, so we paid our dues and learned how to navigate the Olde Fashioned Way, including celestial navigation. That experience gave us a basis in navigation and boat handling that has proven quite valuable over the years. Sure, we use GPS (and paper charts) aboard RED, but it wouldn't be a crisis if we lost the GPS. We'd just dig out the sextant and the tables and navigate the way Captain Cook did. We'd been boating for 11 years when we left on our first Pacific cruise in 1989 and, frankly, found it to be a whole lot easier than what we'd been doing in Southeast Alaska. CareersBeth is a physical therapist and I'm a software developer. We both started businesses back in the '80's and worked hard to be able to go cruising. Hobbies and other interestsWe both like building things, and have built a couple of houses with our own hands. Beth has a variety of interests, including spinning, jewelry making, colored pencil drawing, miscellaneous artsy pursuits, cooking, and a bunch of other stuff. I'm still active in software projects with my business partner. I'm an amateur machinist, woodworker, electronics buff, and whatever else interests me. Obviously, both Beth and I fish, snorkel, spearfish, sail, and enjoy other water-related activities. Shortly after our return, I intend to begin building and selling some really cute little electronic spinning wheels.
January, 2002: RED in the scenic anchorage at Caleta Partida, Sea of Cortez, Baja, Mexico. This lovely and wild spot is only a little ways from La Paz and it's surprising how few cruisers come here. |
