Pete:  Doing some extended cruising has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember.  Mary wasn’t a sailor when we met but, despite my foolishly introducing her to the sport via frostbiting JY15s in the Hudson River in January, she has gamely joined in with this dream.  For her, I think its less about the sailing and more about traveling and being in the tropics.  After moving from New York to San Francisco, the planning took on an added urgency.

Finally, in 2012 circumstances seemed right and we pulled the trigger.  I took early retirement as of December 31, 2012 and we were off.  Leaving my partnership at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, a truly outstanding group of people, at the age of 46 was a much harder act than I anticipated.  But now that we are off, there are no regrets whatsoever.  Our plan is to do this as long as it’s fun and interesting.  We’ll see where it takes us.

Mary:  Let’s leave our jobs, house, friends and go sailing for a few years?  What???   No way.   My first response to most ideas of change.  Not to mention I’m the world’s biggest chicken and afraid of many things.  But, although I am now 91.8% ready to tackle this adventure, I won’t lie – I’m not 100% there yet.  However, I am 100% there to support Peter’s life long dream and I think it is good to challenge myself.    And as I read others’ sailing blogs I see a theme of even the reluctant eventually loving it.   And I think in the big picture of my life, 2 years (maybe more) of traveling the world, experiencing other cultures and approaching the world in a different light seems like a great idea.   And I can’t wait to see how I and we change along the way.

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”  Eleanor Roosevelt

Lucy:  I won’t try to do that thing that so many bloggers do where we write as if the dog is speaking.  Lucy doesn’t speak or even communicate anything other than the urgency of her basic desires  (feed me!  I gotta pee!).  However, she is an integral part of the crew, having joined our family in 2001.  She is a genuine Belizean Potlicker – she licked the pots put out by the school cooks in Belize.

Belize, Dec. 2001

1st Mutt Lucy
2012

We were chartering a cat down there when Lucy introduced herself to Mary and bonded with her immediately.  After Mary spent the entire charter trip on dog-shipping logistics and several flights, many vet visits and meds, Lucy joined us in NYC.  Mary saved this dog, as she was basically dying on that beach in Belize, suffering from heartworm, ticks, fleas, Lyme disease and who knows what else.  We spent enough in hospital and vet bills on this mutt to buy 10 purebred labs, but it was worth every cent.  She has been a loyal, if a bit goofy, friend of ours for 13 years.

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