I was born near the Baltic Sea in Kiel, Germany, on a Monday midday, 1969. My old man was with the U.S. Navy, so early on I got to see sailors and soldiers, ships and boats. We traveled a lot, to Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Britain and other places until I started my life over by myself at 16 and I chose to stay a Californian. I spend a few months in Kiel every year, living in a boat like in dreams.

I love motorbike racing. I used to do it when I was young ;-) I love late afternoon and early morning rides. I like American Jeeps for the same reason; they don't keep us too separated from the scene, wherever we drive to. My ambition yet to be realized is to go driving or riding across Europe; and from Long Beach, along the Mississippi, to the coast of Maine.

I love music like any of you do. My kind of music is Everlast, Mark Knopfler, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai and Metallica. Generally I can't listen to any other, and you will never hear rap and hip-hop coming from my cabin. My other hobby is collecting pictures of lighthouses, oceans, places, and boats. I also collect little items that have anything to do with those. I read a little, I like Paul Theroux, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. Strangely I don't really like movies about the sea unless it is a documentary film. I usually watch war films, but not those that only use war as a background and are actually love stories. A war film must be about war itself. I want what you want, a peaceful world for all, my kind of film sharpens my sense of peace as the highest goal we must achieve and keep.

One of my friends, Fernando Garcia, is a former volunteer in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the war. He also went to Congo and Eritrea. As a medic (he is also a part-time musician) he has seen a lot and his tales made me richer, to know what it is like living a world where there is no peace. Fher does not seem to keep his worst war memories from the job, and like other musicians he look like doesn't care, but I have known him a long time and I am happy to be his friend, a friend of a man with strong will and integrity, who knew how to stay alive in wars and knew how to keep his mind healthy in the middle of a chaos. I knew Fher from my other friend Nina Wilhelmina who met him when there was local wars in some islands in Indonesia. Nina is an author, but she was working with an international organization that helped the refugees. I read their emails and letters during the time Fher worked in Congo and Bosnia, they are thinking of publishing them online soon. Most of my friends are either sailors and/or people with social consciousness. One of them is a Dane, Lars Svensson, who are both at the same time and I am happy to know him too.

I don't have any artistic talent, unless you count skipping. I like men who love the sea and are able to set boats to sail. I like strong, athletic, big men who are useful at sea. :-)

I often get this question, "Why do you love lighthouses so much?" I simply don't know. But they are always my pet view wherever I go. I love all lighthouses around the world, even those that I have never seen myself. There is a good feeling touching me every time I picture a long stormy night sailing at an open sea and then there is the light piercing the darkness and tells the way. I am by far not a romantic person :-) It is the usefulness of the lighthouses to sailors like me that makes me love them to begin with.

Lighthouses took me to know several other people too. I didn't know that many love them the way I do until I joined a club and got to know the league. My favorite lighthouses are the Cape Lookout (USA, see the thumbnail above), the Hirthalls (Germany/Denmark), and the Marien Leuchte (Germany). My boyfriend's older brother, Kyle, loves photography and he gave me several good pictures of the Kiel beach. His wife Nina loves American lighthouses (see her collection), so does my friend Myrna Law. Myrna was a long time friend of mine. We went to school together in Auburn (Maine). Now she lives in Greece with her boyfriend and I will let you know when their web site is ready to get visitors soon.

The Kiel pictures can be seen at the Red Midnight Cat site, where you can also get info around the city of Kiel.