Jo taught Bob to sail aboard a 17-foot O'Day day sailer when they met in their early 20s in Kittery Point, ME. Since then, they have owned 14 boats, ranging from a Cal 20 to a 45-foot ketch. They lived aboard a 35-foot sloop with their two daughters, Lynn and Stephanie, while working in St. Petersburg, FL in the early 1970s.
They have sailed much of the Florida coast -- both the Gulf side and the Atlantic. They have cruised through the Abacos (northern Bahamas chain), the British Virgin Islands, as well as the New England coast.
Both of them have sailed the South China Sea when Bob was a teaching fellow, based in Singapore.
Bob's greatest sailing exploit was to co-captain a 56-foot Swan ketch that was sailed from Saybrook, CT, to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Stephanie was aboard for this 9-day adventure in which they encountered 25-foot seas and 45-knot winds off Bermuda.
Jo and Bob cut their ties to the land and headed for sea after careers in retailing (Jo) and newspapers (Bob).
Bob spent the last 3 years working in Portland, ME, as chief operating officer of Aurora & Quanta Productions, an international photo agency and new media company. Visit www.auroraquanta.com.
Jo worked in Portland as a canvas shop, learning numerous tricks of the trade (hence her ability to build the bimini and side curtains on our boat).
Since 2000, they have been sailing the East Coast of the U.S., circumnavigating Florida, and cruising through the Bahamas.
They took a break in mid-2001 for a four month visit to Namibia in Africa (by plane).
Now they have returned to the northern waters of Connecticut and will launch a new expedition to Maine in the spring of 2003.
