I am writing an account of how and why I, a girl who grew up in Burbank ended up sailing to Tahiti.

I guess I could say it all started shortly after I graduated from JBHS when my divorced mother decided she would like to live at the beach. She, my younger brother and I moved to Newport Beach and I went to Orange Coast College.

It was there that I met my first husband, Ed in the student union and our first date was a sail on a sailboat. It was love from the beginning. Ed learned to sail at a very early age and by the time I met him he was a big hot racing sailor who crewed on the winning boat in the TransPac race to Hawaii in 1958. His picture appeared in Sports Illustrated magazine with the rest of the 7 man crew.

Ed taught me to sail a small one person dinghy which is the best way to learn to sail. I soon started racing in dinghy races. One winter on a cold day I was racing in Newport Bay when I flipped my boat. I was wearing a big heavy pea coat and I had a heck of a time righting my boat. I thought the coat was going to take me to the bottom. The water was so cold that it took me hours to get feeling back in my hands and feet.

I married Ed in 1959 and we had 3 beautiful children, 2 girls and a boy. We stayed married for 15 years and continued to sail all that time. He has Bi Polar disorder and would not take his medication. For me it was like raising 4 kids instead of 3 and after 15 years of marriage I decided to cry "uncle" and get a divorce.

Enter my husband Lee to whom I have been married for 27 years. We were neighbors and our two youngest kids went to nursery school together. Those 2 are now 35 years old.

Lee also was a sailor but he wasn't a racer. He did it for enjoyment. He owned a Hobie 16' which is a catamaran. I started crewing for him and we spent a lot of time upside down and struggling to right the boat. Hobies are hard to sail. I have heard that even Hobie Alter, the designer, builder and namesake has trouble keeping his boat upright when racing.

Lee was a PhD professor at USC and was due for his sabbatical when we got married. He decided to go to Maryland to work for NASA for a year. We loved Maryland with its four seasons and we decided to stay. Lee became a professor at the University of Maryland. We bought a house in Annapolis which is considered by many to be the sailing capital of the U.S.A. Annapolis is a 300 year old city next to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and home of the U.S. Naval Academy.

We bought a 41 foot cruising boat and sailed up and down the east coast and to Bermuda twice. Sailing to Bermuda is not an easy feat because you cross the Gulf Stream which is about 100 miles wide of warm water that kicks up into big seas if the wind is blowing against it. Bermuda is 600 nautical miles from the Chesapeake Bay and it takes 6 days and 6 nights to get there when you are sailing at sailboat speeds in heavy weather. You don't anchor in water that is a mile or more deep so there is no stopping and there has to be someone in the cockpit watching for other boats around the clock.

We became so enamored with long distant sailing that we sold our boat and bought a brand new 45 foot boat that is more seaworthy and a much better sailing vessel than the 41. We made plans to sail across the Atlantic and cruise the Mediterranean to visit the Greek Islands. That was 17 years ago and it never happened. Instead we waited until Lee retired at age 59 (8 years ago) and then we sailed south to the Caribbean.

Three years ago we got as far south as Venezuela and spent a winter there before all the political problems started. From there we flew to Peru to see the Inca ruins of Machu Pecchu. Then we flew to the Galapagos to see the wild life that Darwin studied.

How in the world did we get to Venezuela? 8 years ago we left Annapolis on our boat and sailed southeast to the eastern Caribbean Islands and stopped at each one. Every year we would leave our boat, in May where we were and fly home. Then in January we would fly back down, get on the boat and sail south again. We stayed as long as we wanted at each island. Some are much better than others but it's fun to rent a car and explore each one. But what about the pirates of the Caribbean, you ask. We have to be careful. We never anchor in a desolate spot. We try to be with other boats at all times. We have heard several stories from people doing what we are doing who have been boarded and molested. We don't carry any weapons other than pepper spray.

We have been robbed twice. First, while we were scuba diving, someone threw a large boulder through the window of our rented pickup and took our belongings which included a VISA card, some cash and my prescription dark glasses. Secondly we were in Trinidad when a guy who was varnishing the exterior teak on our boat noticed that we forgot to spin the combination on our pad lock. When we were gone he boarded the boat and stole a night vision monocular which was worth $1500. Luckily we got that back which is another story for another time.

We sailed to the ABCs (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) where we spent 3 seasons because we liked them so much.

Why do we like them so much?

1) They are 12 degrees above the equator so they are far enough south that they don't get cold fronts coming down from the U.S. that we experienced on all the Islands north of St. Lucia. Also, the hurricanes don't come this far south.

2) These islands are Dutch therefore they are the cleanest of all the islands that we have visited.

3) The scuba diving is better on Bonaire and Curacao than any place that we have been.

4) The people are wonderful. They are happy and friendly and they make us feel very welcome.

So why in the world do we want to leave there and spend a month sailing to Tahiti? Answer ............ "beats the hell out of me?"