is it time for another "Who We Are" thread

Born in LA, raised in So Cal with a life changing sojourn in Guadalajara, Mexico. Earned advanced degrees in city and regional planning but made a career as a filmmaker, producing documentaries and dramas for PBS and the Discovery Networks. Married for 45 years, we have three adult children and 3 grand kids.

Got involved with boating in 1993 when we moved to Seattle from Los Angeles. The Seattle gig allowed me time to discover boating and the outdoor wonders of the Pacific Northwest. Unlike Marin, I loved living in Seattle and still do. However, today I'm happily retired on Whidbey Island where we've owned a small hotel for the past 12 years.

My first boat was a 30' classic Monk cruiser (1941), followed by a quirky Cruise-A-Home which we used as a house boat for weekend trip into Seattle. In 2007 we bought Northstar, a 40 foot Willard trawler. In 2013 we cruised the Inside Passage from Anacortes to SE Alaska, taking in all the sights including, Glacier Bay and venturing out to Sitka on Baranof Island. Last year we bought a 24' diesel motorhome and toured the US, our first "non-boating" summer in 15 years! In January we're driving the RV down to Baja for the winter, then back to boating in the Spring and summer. It's been a good life lived with a good wife.

I come from avid boating parents. They took their children back and forth on the car ferry to Martha's Vineyard every summer.

Started sailing when I was 12. Learned to scuba dive when I was 14. Went to college and took another scuba class. The Fall of my second year, started working part time at the scuba store. Quit college at Christmas and have't worked since. They say,"Do what you like, and you will never work a day in your life." Opened my own store in '84. Started running dive charters in '86. Moved to the Eastern shore of MD in '90 and opened another store. Closed the last store in '04, but still run the dive boat about 80 trips a year. I tell my charter customers at the end of each trip, " Like they say at the brothel, It's been a business doing your pleasure." Now have over 3,000+ days at sea. There's just something about leaving the dock at first light, heading East, and seeing the Sun rise out of the ocean, that never seems to get old. Moved to Florida in '10, and split my time between there and MD's Eastern shore.

A long the way I had 2 wives (still on #2), a daughter and a son (28 & 23), 7 boats (still have 4 of them), and 1 airplane. Like the song says,"Life has been good to me so far!"

Ted

nwboater said:

Unlike Marin, I loved living in Seattle and still do. However, today I'm happily retired on Whidbey Island where we've owned a small hotel for the past 12 years.

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Fortunately, we don't live in Seattle but well east of it in the Cascade foothills. However, I have to drive into or through it fairly regularly What a dump. It must qualify for the country's worst-run metropolis.

Now Vancouver (BC) is another matter entirely. Makes Seattle seem like a badly rusted Quonset hut in comparison.

Whidbey Island, on the other hand, is very nice. Several of the guys I used to work with in television in Honolulu bought land in recent years near the south end of the island, built houses, and moved there. A couple of them have retired, but my closest friend there is still the top DP in Hawaii so commutes to Honolulu every other month of so to shoot commercials, movies, etc.

So we get over to Whidbey quite a bit these days, either by ferry or by running our small boat over to the Langley marina and staying the weekend, going crabbing and stuff.

My wife was in the Navy and her last posting was on the crash crew at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. So she's quite familiar with the island although she says it's changed a lot, particularly around Oak Harbor.

Marin said:

Fortunately, we don't live in Seattle but well east of it in the Cascade foothills. However, I have to drive into or through it fairly regularly What a dump. It must qualify for the country's worst-run metropolis.

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Wow, you should see the rest of the country - or maybe not. I think Seattle is one of the most vibrant and un-dump-like cities in the US. Perhaps that says more about the other cities rather than about Seattle, but comparatively speaking, it's way more together than most other large US cities.

OK, getting back to the thread topic....

My wife likes cruising as much as I do - that's the best part. Our kids are out on their own now, though both are in grad school so still financially tethered. I've been a geek of one sort or another my whole life. Started with cars until high school where I discovered computers (early 70's). I kept working on cars and paid all my bills through college by fixing people's cars, but my computer interests overtook cars pretty quickly so that's the direction I went professionally.

I worked through a variety of companies from very large to very small designing and building various computer related products. I was always good for only about 5 years in any given area before I'd get bored and move to something else. So I got bored with data communications and moved into operating systems just as my friends were going to startups to enjoy the internet boom. I watched them get rich while I toiled away.

Over time I moved from hands-on engineering to management and ultimately ended up making data storage products that were pretty successful in their little corner of the world. Then I finally started my own company and it did very well. We had filed for and received SEC approval to go public and literally the night before the road show we signed a deal to sell the company to Dell. Our investors go the vast majority of the $$, but I got enough to retire and go cruising, so I did. After all, my 5 years were up.

Boat-wise I learned about boats and sailing as a kid in Gloucester, and at age 14 convinced my parents to get a 16' Whaler which, by the way, I still have. It was all small boats until around college when I took an interest to friends' cruising sail boats, and spent a bunch of time crewing and helping move boats at the beginning and end of the season. Then I met my wife who had a 30' Pearson (but was selling it), and we subsequently did a bunch of bare boat chartering. Then we had kids and it was back to small boats again, mostly on the lakes in NH while they were growing up.

After retiring we decided to get back into cruising and experiment with power boats rather than sail boats. First we bought a Back Cove 29 which is a Maine Lobster boat style cruiser. It convinced us we wanted to keep cruising, and that we wanted a boat big enough for comfortable, longer term overnight accommodations. The back cover was just a little too much like camping for us.

Next was the Grand Banks 47 Europa which was very accommodating for extended periods of time. We also decided is was a good time to brush up on our navigation and operating skills, so took a 5 day captain's licensing course in Newport. I did the followup paperwork and got my Masters ticker, but my wife didn't bother. We cruised the GB locally, the whole Downeast loop, the whole eastern seaboard, and the Bahamas. We were totally hooked, but when we made out list of other places we wanted to go, most of them were unreachable in a coastal cruising boat like the GB, so that led us to the Nordhavn.

The next chapter is just beginning. We have finally taken delivery of the Nordhavn and are staged in Seattle for some winter cruising of the San Juans and Alaska next summer. From there we have a long wish list, but no specific plans.

Phew, what an achieving bunch you all are.

Although born in Oz a lot of my time has been spent in Europe from an early age, which included a couple of stints living in Germany on one of your bases at the Fulda gap with the 11th Armored Cavalry( all very unofficial though), although smack bang in the middle of the cold war security was very much less than now.

I have had a few businesses both in Oz and the UK/Switzerland. some did well, one literally caused me to lose the family house. That all paled into oblivion though when we lost our youngest child.As a result of that I decided to become a stay at home dad for the next five years, this believe me in the 1980's was very unusual. I became quite a hit on the mothers circuit in London.Some of the other fathers thought it a bit odd though.

I have been back in Oz on and off for nearly 18 years,and have done some more study, with lots of cooking and boating thrown in.Looking now to head off in another direction, not sure what, but if you stop moving you die, intellectually as well as physically.

Probably said more than I intended.

Thanks for sharing Andy. You said it though- we sure have an accomplished bunch here. That is becoming more obvious here as we post. And very diversified. I guess I keep looking for that common thread that lead us all into boating and I sure am having problems nailing it down.


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

When I was a kid we vacationed in Canada and my folks would rent a little Jon boat with a 10 hp engine and I would head out each morning with a bag lunch and the admonition to be back by dinner time. Married the wrong woman right out of college and she left me with half my stuff four years later.

I bought a 16 foot Bayliner at age 28 and skied with friends for five years. Sold her after a couple of corporate moves. Married the right woman and we moved to the PNW. Bought a 28 foot Bayliner and joined Edmonds yacht club. Great move. Learned about the care and feeding of a boat and made great friends. Got twenty foot itis and now have a Bayliner 4788. Singer, songwriter, guitarist, former telecommunications guru. Currently work with my wife in her insurance agency and dreaming of retiring so I can play all day.

Forkliftt said:

guess I keep looking for that common thread that lead us all into boating and I sure am having problems nailing it down.

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I think the most common thread is that we all were exposed to boats or boating at an ealy age. For me it was my mother taking me for walks when I was a toddler (in a harness and on a leash) on the narrow wooden docks in Sausalito when it was just a little fishing and railroad community on SFO Bay. First boat I can remember being aware of was a little Monterey herring boat, yellow and green, named "Lucky Lady." The fact I still remember it today shows what an impact those walks had on me.

An impressive group here!

I'll water it down a little. I grew up in southern Illinois, bass fishing and sailing on lakes, among other small farming town activities. After a self-financed college education, I took a job with FDIC as a federal bank examiner. That led to better positions at other bank regulatory agencies (OTS, FHFA, OCC) and several relocations landed me in the Seattle area 20 years ago. I retired a year ago.

I have owned a 28' express cruiser, a 36' convertible, and now am completely happy with my 46' DeFever.

My wife and I have five kids between us, both on our second marriage. None live at home but three remain on the payroll to some degree.

We love the PNW and our boat is about a 20 minute drive away. We are not members of a yacht club, but I have read the recent thread with interest, and devote a lot of time to boating activities.

I may be the youngest member here. 27, just bought my first live aboard boat in September. A 1976 Marine Trader Trawler. 36 feet in length, realizing that someday I might want to take her out scared the **** out of me. A buddy of mine is a first mate on a laker and he showed me the ropes. The first time I had her out we went out on the lake with 6 foot swells, turned around pretty quick.

I grew up in Southern Ontario right on the water, so the lake is no stranger, same with boats.

I work in media as my bread and butter. More so for the upkeep of the boat.

She's old, needs some work, but I love every minute of it.

BandB two parts:

Hubby B: I'm the boring half. 44 years old. Somewhat retired businessman as retired but we're still into some business activities. I grew up in NC regularly going to an inland lake. Father had a fishing boat and when I was 13 wanted him to upgrade but ended up with me a ski boat and him his fishing boat. Spent all spare time on the lake. There more than home. First boat was a 17' Sea Ray, then in college a 22' Sea Ray Pachanga, next a 24' Sea Ray Bowrider, followed by a 25' Cobalt. All boating on the lake other than deep sea fishing trips a couple of times. I most skipped childhood, graduated college at the age of 20 and went to work in business. Although company was sold along the way I never really had but one employer. My life was mostly the boring nerdish accounting businessman type until I met my wife in 2000. Everything changed then for the better. Fortunately she loved the water as much as me. We spent all vacations and and spare time on the water, eventually bought a home on the lake and then graduated to a 30' Cobalt. Only once did we venture further, a week on the Tennessee River with friends we met, in their boat.

Outside of boating, our interests are music and, although we chose not to have kids, we became very active with an orphanage and other kids causes. We do also like to play tennis and basketball.

Oh both of our sets of parents long ago deceased but we adopted parents in Myrtle Beach and have the best self chosen parents one could have, even if we were already adults when we met. We actually met them on our first trip together.

Wifey B: Ok, I'm 35. Yep, you got it, naughty man a cradle robber. I was a sweet innocent 21 when we met. And if you buy that I have a bridge I'll sell you. I actually corrupted him. I'd been on a boat one time in my life prior to meeting him. Ran away at 16. Went to work. After we got married, I went to college, got my masters and doctorate in Education and taught. Mainly developed and taught reading programs. Then in 2012 we took our first long non lake vacation to Florida. Was 2 wks but turned to 3 and before it was over we'd found a house, become residents, given our notices, put our house for sale and he just went back and worked a bit more before joining me completely. I know it sounds strange and impulsive but we knew and we did think it through. It was time and right. We could so we did. He said retiring but he couldn't give it all up so we have a business but we're boat crazy. Live on the water and boat probably 270-280 days a year. We feel so freaking blessed with the best friends and family. They're real family even if not blood related. I do help schools and agencies with implementing reading programs still. Some think we live life as if we're on speed but it never feels fast to us. Seems quite relaxed. Oh and we're like totally insanely boat crazy addicted to them and would love to have one of each...hehe. Any kind. Well, not sail. Too much work. We only like to sail when someone else is doing all the work.

And the kids we've met at the orphanage and elsewhere. Omg they are so special. I mean like we've never spent Christmas eve or morning except with them. And there have been others, I mean like some of the kids who have been through the worst and just getting to know them and talking to them and helping what little we can.

Hubby B: We'd never done coastal or ocean boating before moving to Fort Lauderdale. We went all in, both became captains, through school and training by the best ones we could possibly have connected with. Both 200 Ton Near Coastal now. We have no desire to travel by land but love each and every new place we explore by water. Can't explain it. I don't even try. Either you understand our love for water or don't.

We are very private people as we were required to be by some prior events in our lives. That's why we do limit what information we share in a public forum or setting. I still do occasional projects for the investment firm that owned my prior employer.

Wifey B: Oh and we do spend like all our time together. I know some like to be apart some but we don't. Maybe it's how alone we were before. So if one is posting the other is probably right beside or in his lap or something. We're like totally insane and our lives are crazy but it works for us and we just do what works for us and don't worry what others might think. We're exceedingly happy and free. FREE. What a word. Free to do what feels right. Go with your heart, your soul. Feelings. My hubby is the most feeling man in the world but he sure wasn't taught that by his parents as they only believed in brains and jobs and position and money. Thank god I found the real him underneath the facade. Our ever meeting was just random luck and two people taking a chance and ever since. Oh and you ever wonder what someone would do for you? I know from real life, he'd even risk his life for me. Oh and I was so freaking tough and didn't need anyone for anything I said, but first time I ever cried in my life was our first night together sharing things with him I'd never told anyone.

Hubby B: Yes, it was instant love and stronger every day for the 14 years since.

I keep telling people that it's not my fault that I'm this way. My thing with boats started way before I was born. My dad lived on a boat for many years in Bellingham, and when the Navy needed patrol boats during WW11, they took his boat and painted it all gray. He got it back after the war but it was still all gray. My mother grew up in Bellingham and boated with her parents and raced sail boats in Cuckanut Bay.When she married my dad they drove to the east coast and bought a sailboat. I was born in Florida in 1947, and when my mother brought me home from the hospital we lived on the sailboat. Shortly my mother got homesick and we all moved back to Washington and lived on my grandparents boat while dad built us a house.

When I was about 8, I watched dad build us a boat along side of the house. We spent several summers living on that boat, cruising the San Juan Islands and BC. My grandparents would cruise with us in their boat ( dad also built that boat) When I was 14 my dad and I built a 14 foot runabout that we would tow behind us. That was a great way to meet girls.

I my adult life I have owned a 21,18, 26, 24, 18, 38, and finally a 54 foot trawler that we lived on for about 3 years. Also built several small boats. Currently we have a 19 foot aluminum fishing boat in the garage. What a relief to be free of those moorage payments.

I grew up as a river boy on the Indian River in Cocoa/Rockledge Florida. My family had several boats starting with a small sailboat and then a 16’ Regal Line Lancer and finally a 25’ Owens inboard. When I was 11 or 12, they bought my brother and I an 8 or 9’ Pram and we mounted an old Elgin 1 HP motor from the sailboat on it. I regularly motored around the river and explored the manmade islands that were dredged to deepen the ICW. Also did quite a bit of trolling as salt water trout were plentiful at the time.

After college, I got a job in Michigan and then got transferred to Missouri. There was a transfer back to Michigan where I developed a deep love for northwest Michigan and the Great Lakes. After another transfer back to Orlando Florida, I took an assignment in Japan and stayed for 5 years and on our spare time, we would take ferry boats to the numerous islands. Upon returning to Florida, we bought my parents house on the Indian River where I bought my first boat, a 24 'Wellcraft Aruba. Due to a divorce and kids going off to college, I mostly single handed the boat and finally sold it.
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About 5 years ago, I married the right wife and coincidently, she was from Michigan and had family up there. She also had experience in competition sailing of J boats. We both had a desire to spend our summers in Michigan but between the both of us, there are 5 [FONT=&quot]children and they are scattered all over the country[/FONT]. Three years ago we found a nice little condo with a 40’ boat slip just off Lake Michigan and quickly bought it. Having the boat slip rekindled our interest in having a boat. Our initial interest was in sailboats but after our neighbor took us on a cruise on his 40’ Catalina, we quickly realized trawlers were the way to go and this summer we bought our 38’ Taiwanese Tub Classic after the owner dropped the price from the previous year by $25K. We have only put 40-50 hours since purchased it but we both love the fact it is a stable go slow platform that gives us a lot of options. We know the boat is old and needs some updating but it gives us the chance to see how much we really want to boat. And like everyone else, I am already looking for the next boat or a second boat to keep in FL.

[FONT=&quot]I feel greatly blessed to have a wonderful and talented wife who shares my interests and enjoys boating as much as I do.[/FONT]
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My grandfather owned a motor-sailer minus the mast which he kept in the creek behind the house in the 20's. It had a large flywheel, handcrank start engine which they would take trips down the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay. It was so slow that they only rode with the tide and anchored when they had to buck it. One trip they stopped at Betterton MD. The town was having a waterside festival of some sorts. They asked them if they would participate in their "boat race". Of course they came in 3rd (only 3 boats in the race) and my uncle kept the Betterton First Annual Boat Race, 3rd Place loving cup until his death in 1997. My dad was only a toddler and my uncle would tell us how they kept him onboard for those trips with a rope around his waist. When my dad married, they bought a house just a block away from that same creek. That creek was my graduation from my sandbox. Just about every day from K to high school was spent in or near the "crick". Dad gave me a Chapmans for my 13th birthday. My first boat was a 10 ft pram bought with lawn cutting money. The next year I bought a new Evinrude 4hp for $231 and never had it so good. 3 gallons of gas could take me a long way and boy I went. I spent the last 33 years running nuclear power plants for the local utility which gave me the opportunity to retire last year at 55. My wife and I have talked about buying a trawler since the mid 80's. This March we decided to "walk the talk" and buy our current Monk 36 (boat #16) and dinghy (#17). Good thing I'm retired because keeping up 5 boats and fishing takes up a lot of time.

Born and have lived all my life in Kansas. Always attracted to water, loved to swim and fish since I was a kid. Parents vacationed in the ozarks and I and my brothers spent most daylight hours in the water. Back home my brothers and I spent our summer vacations in the local creeks and ponds. We were always in the water because no one we knew had a boat, over the years since I got out of high school I've had several boats. All were small jon boats, canoes and fishing boats with trolling motors, 1st boat over 14' was a 22' Starcraft day cruiser with a 120 hp Merc io. We used it at lake of the ozarks and lake Perry a corp lake near home. Home is on a lake and the kids did pretty much what I and my brothers did, they spent a lot of their time in the lake or one of the boats fishing, catching crawdads and turtles. After the Starcraft I decided we needed a boat we could leave in a slip at Perry, the main thing my wife disliked about boats was the launch and retrieval process. So I started shopping for a small cruiser, at this time I knew very little about boats or the systems on a cruiser, I just knew I wanted something we could spend a weekend on. After looking at several cuddy style I looked at 2455 Bayliner express cruiser and immediately liked it, when I took my wife to look at it while sitting in the cabin talking about it after going over it she said that she knew we were going to own that boat by the look in my eyes. That was in 2000, in 2010 we bought the 3870 Bayliner on the Mississippi River, between the 24 and the 38 was a 3270 Bayliner which was a really great boat it had spent its life on lakes Oz and Perry. After deciding not to move the 38 to Perry I now live on it 8 to 9 months of the year on the Mississippi which makes me a RiverRat.

drb1025 said:

I have owned a 28' express cruiser, a 36' convertible, and now am completely happy with my 46' DeFever.

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Just glanced through this thread again and noticed this post. There is a deFever 46 in our marina in one of the charter fleets. So far as I'm concerned, the deFever 46 is one of the all-time best looking boats on the planet.

That initial pilothouse/Portugese bridge design of deFever's inspired the American Marine Alaska series of wood cruisers in the 60s and ealier 70s, the Fleming (Tony Fleming was Alaska Marine's yard manager at one point and when he left he took their deFever/Alaskan design with him and started his own company), and several other makes.

Both my wife and I feel deFever's pilothouse design is the best configuration going for a diesel cruiser for this part of the world.

Beautiful boat.

Marin said:

Just glanced through this thread again and noticed this post. There is a deFever 46 in our marina in one of the charter fleets. So far as I'm concerned, the deFever 46 is one of the all-time best looking boats on the planet.

That initial pilothouse/Portugese bridge design of deFever's inspired the American Marine Alaska series of wood cruisers in the 60s and ealier 70s, the Fleming (Tony Fleming was Alaska Marine's yard manager at one point and when he left he took their deFever/Alaskan design with him and started his own company), and several other makes.

Both my wife and I feel deFever's pilothouse design is the best configuration going for a diesel cruiser for this part of the world.

Beautiful boat.

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I'm a 53 year old dentist who was born and raised in Ventura county, CA
Grew up surfing, fishing, diving the local Channel Islands.
Bought my first boat (21' Boston whaler cc) while living/practicing in San Francisco right out of dental school. I was single at the time, crazy about fishing, and spent every spare minute either on the SF Bay or out of Half Moon Bay.
Moved back to Ojai after 12 years in SF and went thru a series of different trailer boats.
Got married later in life, have a couple of young kids (young wife too!) and am trying to introduce them to boating.
As some of you know, I recently bought a 32 Nordic Tug and we are loving the cruising life!
The kids and wife have taken to the water like a fish, pun intended.

I'm an ancient bottom feeder compared to most and was over 25 before I got into boating, but have lived aboard a sailboat for 3 years and did own a trawler for a short while. My real passion is trailerboats.
One More Time Around: Introduction

I did have a grandfather who was a boater...I have a faded picture of a boat on my living room wall. It was my grandfather’s boat, The Florence, named after my grandmother. The date on the picture is 1913. I vaguely remember my Mom telling me how she spent summers aboard, and that there was a crew of 13. If a crewmember standing on the deck in the picture is ~6’ tall, the boat could be in the neighborhood of 180 feet overall. I also remember someone telling me that when my grandfather had her built, she was the largest gasoline powered yacht on the Atlantic ocean.

My grandmother was led to believe by her husband, Ludwig Thorwald Petersen (who was rumored to have served as Commodore of the NYC Yacht Club), that the Navy commandeered the boat during the war, and that she was sunk off the coast of Florida by an enemy torpedo. We later learned that Ludwig actually sold the boat and made up the story, shortly before he permanently disappeared from sight, presumably due to being a disgraced victim of the depression. My abandoned grandmother eventually moved in with us.

My only living relative, a sister in Hawaii, thinks the boat must still be afloat somewhere.

I am a lifelong Alaskan, here since before Statehood. My father was a helicopter pilot fresh out of the Korean War and brought the family to Alaska in 1958. Flying was part of living in Alaska, helicopters was icing on the cake! Hunting and fishing were my driving force for many years, now I just like being there.

My first "boat" was a house door floating in a gravel pit at 3 years of age, that got me in a lot of trouble. Next was the $20 canoe you could get out of the back of Boy's Life Magazine, fiberglass for another $20. There were a heck of a lot of parts in that kit! That lasted until the Navy took me away for four years, then came the 13' river kayak on top of the '68 Impala, and a job with the Fire Department (lasted 30 years). Along the way came POWER boats, a 16' Alumaweld river boat followed by a 24' Bayliner Trophy, an Avon 13' tender, along with a family.

The Bayliner was bought in Seattle and run North to Seward, up the Inside and across the Gulf, in the first three weeks we owned it. I have always been a calculated risk taker... Now in my first trawler and probably my last boat. Of course there's an inflatable tender and a pair of sit on top kayaks on board. I do almost everything single handing, because no one else has the time to do what I do.

That's the boat history, along the way other things did creep in, from Ultra Light airplanes (Pterodactyl Ascender) to 150,000 miles on a pair of Harley Davidsons' (Deuce and sold the Ultra Classic) in 8 years of riding. I managed to win the only Alaska Cross Country Ultralight Race ever held in 1983, and had a great career in the Fire Department. I picked up shoeing horses along the way, so I have a source of income for boat parts as well as an exercise program.

Life is good. I spend pretty much all summer out on the boat in very remote areas, always anchored, in very raw nature. I see it slipping away, so I am seeing what I can while I can.

You ran a 24 Bayliner Trophy from Seattle to Seward? Wow. Lived in Alaska for 16 years and I've seen a lot of rough water - that must have been quite a run. Long run even in good weather.

Doug- You ever come across a couple named Dan and Zelma Quick in your area? They live in Soldatna.

jeffnick said:

I did have a grandfather who was a boater...I have a faded picture of a boat on my living room wall. It was my grandfather’s boat, The Florence, named after my grandmother. The date on the picture is 1913. I vaguely remember my Mom telling me how she spent summers aboard, and that there was a crew of 13. If a crewmember standing on the deck in the picture is ~6’ tall, the boat could be in the neighborhood of 180 feet overall. I also remember someone telling me that when my grandfather had her built, she was the largest gasoline powered yacht on the Atlantic ocean.

My grandmother was led to believe by her husband, Ludwig Thorwald Petersen (who was rumored to have served as Commodore of the NYC Yacht Club), that the Navy commandeered the boat during the war, and that she was sunk off the coast of Florida by an enemy torpedo. We later learned that Ludwig actually sold the boat and made up the story, shortly before he permanently disappeared from sight, presumably due to being a disgraced victim of the depression. My abandoned grandmother eventually moved in with us.

My only living relative, a sister in Hawaii, thinks the boat must still be afloat somewhere.

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The photo below of Florence was published in Motorboating of March 1934. Florence was built by George Lawley and Son at Neponset, Boston in 1914. Her dimensions are listed as 154' x 20' x 7.5', power was twin Winton gas engines of 220 HP each. She was sold as surplus by the WSA (War Shipping Administration) in 1945 for $1520.00.

The Bayliner trip was absolutely fantastic up the Inside Passage, we averaged about 220 miles a day running 2400 rpm's at about 8 gallons an hour. We fueled once a day, the weather turned on us about Juneau so she went home to the kids and her job and I went on alone. We spent almost a week in Juneau waiting for the weather to drop off before she gave up. Cape Spencer to Yakutat was alone, flat glass for the first 2/3 of the trip, then 4' in your face for the rest of the run in. I was going so slowly that if it weren't for the crap pot buoys, I wouldn't have been able to tell I was making forward progress against the waves and current. Once you commit, you are committed, no turning back, no ports in between. My brother joined me in Yakutat with eight 5 gallon gas cans (longest run of the trip) and we ran to Cordova with a night in Icy Bay (don't even think about it). Ice bergs the size of semi's rumbling past all night long, we had to get out on the bergs and walk the boat around them so as not to have one ride up on the anchor line. Needless to say, no sleep that night. You could hear the bergs hitting a big aluminum crabber all night long. The trip up with the Willard was SO much nicer

I have never met the Quick's, but the Peninsula is the kind of place where everyone does their own thing. If I hadn't been to their house with an ambulance or put shoes on their horses, I would probably not have a reason to meet them.

On the water I spend little time at the dock, almost never go out for less than a week and always anchor. Up here the point is usually solitude, not socializing when away from the docks. I am an expert at finding solitude!

My dad taught me the farriers art. Worked horses for 15 years guideing hunters during the fall/winter. Shod the beasts for other folks all summer. I hate horses !!!

Born and raised in South eastern Mass. My father was a passionate sword fisherman. He was into Harpooning. I started with him when I was 6, spent weekends fishing in the summer and winters working on the various boats he owned. He picked up a beetle cat for my sister and I. It needed lots or work, the three of reconditioned that boat one winter. The 1954 Hurricane Carol destroyed. By that time I was addicted to boats and fishing.

Went to college in West Virginia, met the love of my life and chased her five years, till she caught me on the sixth. We lived in Frederick Maryland for 8 years, I got a Master in Political Science and she got one in Library Science. Somehow I ended up in Public education for 35 years and retiring as a Middle School Principal. We moved back to Mass and pursued our carrers,raised our son enjoyed the water. We always had some type of boat and used it regularly. In Maryland we fished and cruised in the Chesapeake and fell in love with Annapolis . In Mass we fished and cruised, fell in love with the Elizabeth Islands. Our entire married life we always had some kind of boat. In 1980 I earned my Masters 100 Ton USCG ticket.

In 2000 we took early retirement and moved to Florida, settling in Merritt Island, right next the Kennedy Space Center. At the time we retired we brought our sport fishing boat south, took three weeks and had a wonderful time.

In 2008 my wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. We had sold the sport fisherman and purchased our Prairie 29, named it Sue Marie after the admiral. Sue is presently in early parts of stage 7 and appears to failing quickly. We don't boat these days, I struggle with the idea of selling the boat, but always decide to keep her. Sort of stuck in limbo.

Have enjoyed so many great days, weeks and weekends on the water. My father and myself became more then father and son, we became best friends.


John

Hi Guys,
We are Andy & Julie Nemier,,, the current care takers of INFINITY, our Nordhavn 62 - hull no. 018, built in 2001.

We bought INFINITY in 2012, selling everything we had in order to ‘make-it-happen’. We have just committed to a very lazy circumnavigation of God’s blue earth. 7600 nautical miles into it so far,,, all is going to plan.

Professionally, I have been involved in Offshore Diving Operations / Sub-Sea Installations all my working life, which has paid the bills and brought me around the world once or twice. I’m still working to fund the dream, and at 50 right now, have a few years yet doing the boating/working waltz.

It’s a pleasure to be amongst such esteemed boating aficionados. Cheers guys!

Sortie said:

Born and raised in South eastern Mass. My father was a passionate sword fisherman. He was into Harpooning. I started with him when I was 6, spent weekends fishing in the summer and winters working on the various boats he owned. He picked up a beetle cat for my sister and I. It needed lots or work, the three of reconditioned that boat one winter. The 1954 Hurricane Carol destroyed. By that time I was addicted to boats and fishing.

Went to college in West Virginia, met the love of my life and chased her five years, till she caught me on the sixth. We lived in Frederick Maryland for 8 years, I got a Master in Political Science and she got one in Library Science. Somehow I ended up in Public education for 35 years and retiring as a Middle School Principal. We moved back to Mass and pursued our carrers,raised our son enjoyed the water. We always had some type of boat and used it regularly. In Maryland we fished and cruised in the Chesapeake and fell in love with Annapolis . In Mass we fished and cruised, fell in love with the Elizabeth Islands. Our entire married life we always had some kind of boat. In 1980 I earned my Masters 100 Ton USCG ticket.

In 2000 we took early retirement and moved to Florida, settling in Merritt Island, right next the Kennedy Space Center. At the time we retired we brought our sport fishing boat south, took three weeks and had a wonderful time.

In 2008 my wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. We had sold the sport fisherman and purchased our Prairie 29, named it Sue Marie after the admiral. Sue is presently in early parts of stage 7 and appears to failing quickly. We don't boat these days, I struggle with the idea of selling the boat, but always decide to keep her. Sort of stuck in limbo.

Have enjoyed so many great days, weeks and weekends on the water. My father and myself became more then father and son, we became best friends.


John

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John Thanks so much for sharing this with us

New to forum, not to boats

I'm a retired journalist. I grew up in Cape May County, NJ, and spent the first 40 years around boats, fooling around in them and occasionally pulling a gillnet or crab pot, building five boats (duckboats, rowboats, and a sailboat) before my job took me away. I'm looking to get back on the water, starting with some time on a rented trawler in 2015 and after that who knows? Depends on whether I can grow web feet on my wife.