Crew
Nancy & Judy
Judith Edwards
There is an appropriate is a quote from the movie White Squall, which I will excerpt from the original first draft by Todd Robinson. It is the skipper talking to his young crew trying to instill upon them the special nature of the sea. It goes as follows:
"So look out there... and explain to me why any man in possession of any sense at all, would take on the sea with sail? Because there's something else out there. It beckons in the wind and sings in the shrouds. Voices. Whispering... They're voices of men. Calling. Men you don't even know. Men you can't even imagine. It's a seed, a wish, that part of you and I that aches to be alive, that was banished by everything we've ever been taught or told. It's a part of us that can only be found on mountain tops and deserts, in the deepest caverns, smoking battle fields and... across oceans. Out there, is where it all waits."
I have been to mountain tops, deep caverns but thankfully not battle fields except long after the fighting was over. And I’ve been on oceans. It is the sea that pleases me most and holds comfort for my soul. There is great wisdom in that bit of prose that I can attest is true, that is a part of me.
I was born during the Korean war in 1951. My family was solid middle class. Construction, housing mainly, the mainstay of the family business at the time. I guess the most significant indicator of my eventual wanderlust is my fairly successful attempt to escape kindergarten when I was five! In my younger years I was musically inclined, loved astronomy really anything scientific. I have a Ph.D in Physics and even had a stint as an assistant physics professor. I have been around boats of all kinds since I was six when my Dad built a six foot pink pram for me.
Life got more interesting in the mid eighties when I shifted from academics to industry, defense that is. I spent five fascinating years at Lockheed. It was there that I honed my love for the sea on our beloved Perigail, a 35’ C&C MKIII sloop. The bay was fun but the ocean outside the “gate” was where we longed to be and spent many days.
I have a lovely daughter, son-in-law and two precious granddaughters. I have been working in one way or another either academically or in industry for almost 40 years. I started out an astronomer/physicist but morphed into a systems/software engineer. Had my own software company for a while pushing the envelope of some leading edge technology (GPS!) and ended my working career in enterprise information technology.
I have learned and maintained essential survival skills lost to so many these days such as the ability to farm, hunt and fish. I have found memories of the Rockies (there is the mountain tops), deep caves in Kentucky (the caverns). I have scuba dived to depths recreational divers avoid to see behemoths sunk in nuclear fire (Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands).
Nancy
I am a product of the hey-day of Silicon Valley who, over the years, watched the strawberry patches and pear orchards give way to semiconductor plants and software companies. As a maverick electronics engineer by training I fit right into this environment and spent my early career in software and semiconductors as the microprocessor transitioned from a technical curiosity to part of everyday life. I have always been very mobile, seemingly living out of my roll on suit case as my business life has brought my to either visit, work or live in virtually every country in the northern hemisphere.
Today I consider myself a student of leadership, a corporate "Ronin" who is the go to person for difficult problems in the halls of Fortune 500 companies. Although a native of San Francisco, and the child of a Navy family, it wasn't until the late 80's, after I met Judy, that I first began sailing. Now, after a career driven forced absense from the sea, after joining the divers 60 meter club, piloting a plane around a volcano, and running distances most people drive I am focusing my emotional energies on returning to sailing.