Betsy and Hank  lived in Auburn, California, prior to shoving off on their adventure.  In June 2005 after teaching for 38 years Betsy retired from Pleasant Ridge School District in Grass Valley,  California where she taught fourth grade at Pleasant Ridge School.  At Pleasant Ridge she was honored by receiving the Teacher of the Year and the Teacher Who Makes a Difference awards.

Hank retired from the American Iron and Steel Institute  as the Director of Construction  Codes and Standards in December of 2005.  It may seem strange that Hank wants to travel in his retirement, since he spent so much time traveling when he worked, but he has a passion to explore corners of the world and get to know more about the various cultures.  In October we flew to Palm Beach, Florida where Hank was honored to received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Steel Construction. 

Our daughter Jennifer lives up in the Seattle area along with her dog and cats.  She was reluctant when we told her of our plans to go cruising, as are most relatives of cruisers when they first hear such wild ideas.  However she has seen that we have sailed Equinox from Seattle up into Canadian waters and now down to Mexico and we think she is a bit more comfortable with the idea  A side benefit is that she gets to visit us for holidays in warm places like Puerto Vallarta.

Jennifer enjoying a relaxing,
for her, trip through the Ballard Locks.

We have been boaters all of our adult lives but took up sailing 10 years ago., we were getting too old to comfortably recover from waterskiing crashes.   Our first sailboat was a Catalina 22 which we used to sail on Folsom Lake then we purchased a Catalina 34 which we kept in Richmond, California.  Sailing on the San Francisco Bay is great training.  As they say if you can sail on the bay you are good to go.

We began our sail training by taking classes from Tradewinds Sailing School in Point Richmond, CA.  Butch Florey was our first instructor and we would highly recommend their services to those wishing to begin their journey.  We progressed through their ASA certified classes through Advanced Coastal Cruising.  Butch now owns Tradewinds and has made some great improvements. 

To get some bluewater experience we decided to take a Mahina Expedition trip given by John Neal and Amanda Swan Neal.  Hank completed Leg 5 in 2005 which took him from Hilo to Price Rupert, BC.  This gave him a good taste of open ocean sailing and he had a great time.  Thanks to John and Amanda for putting on such a great experience.  Betsy wanted to take a separate leg so she went on  the next leg which took her from Prince Rupert up through the inland passage into Alaska then down to Ketchikan, AK.  She had some great scenery and had a wonderful time as you can see they were not in need of ice cubes.  They also had some time to fly over a glacier. 

Here is Betsy fending Mahina from
an iceberg  in Alaska in 2005.

We purchased Equinox, an Island Packet 440 in July 2006.  Outfitting a new boat was an experience in itself, certainly not for the faint of heart.  Fortunately our training gave us some excellent ideas on how we wanted our new home outfitted.  More on Equinox on the "About Equinox", page.