When I first said to my relatives that I wanted to buy a sailboat and leave for an extended period of time, most of them either thought I was crazy or wanted to take out a large life insurance policy on me. However, I've done some crazy stuff, seen some insane happenings, and been to some radical places. It started in college at the University of Vermont. My crew of friends was instrumental in pushing me to do more than the average kid. We started our journey in Jackson Hole, WY as ski bums living with six guys in a house and creating as much trouble as we possibly could. The time there sparked the bug in me to travel to places far and wide every fall, every spring, and one whole winter, using seasonal work to make enough money to get outta town. 
Actually as soon as we got to Jackson Hole, three of us couldn't wait to leave again and get some surf so we packed our bags and headed for Australia's Gold Coast to visit a sister studying abroad there. We spent three weeks surfing, partying, and just 
doing things that most people say they wish they could do. After skiing our brains out in Jackson Hole, I needed some surf. Chris Germain and Terry Dorman happily obliged. Terry was in Thailand when Chris and I cooked up a scheme to pack my truck and head to Baja, Mex looking for surf. In fact, we picked Terry up right from Los Angeles airport and crossed the border later that night. It was an awesome trip with dinner cooked over the camp fire and even finding a perfect point-break in the middle of nowhere between Tijuana and Cabo with no one else out.
The next winter my best friend Terry Dorman hatched a plan to go live it up in South America for the winter with a sleepy little surf town named Montanita as our home base. It's located in Ecuador and has a great wave right out front. We surfed, spearfished, grilled it up, whitewater rafted, motocrossed, mountain biked, bridge jumped, and read too many books in our hammocks. 
That winter I got pretty into spearfishing and took the hobby home. Being from NJ most people don't think of the ocean as a playground, they think of it as the background to MTV's The Jersey Shore. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than proving everyone wrong. There's nothing better than having nothing to do in the spring but fish, grill, and drink with your buddies till sundown.After getting a taste in Jackson Hole, I had to get some more fresh powder so I moved out to Lake Tahoe, CA. Awesome place. More snow than Wyoming and the temps never got below 20 degrees. Nothing's worse than waiting for the bus to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in -40 degrees. Actually it's not that bad if you're going skiing, but heading to work you just want to cry when it's that cold haha. From Tahoe I ventured to Baja once again. With one of the same guys and a friend from home that I grew up with. We did more of the same from the first trip, only this time we did it even better since we made it down the entire peninsula.
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The last surf trip I went on was with Terry Dorman and we scored it epic. Got to visit two friends we'd made while traveling through Ecuador in Ireland. They lived in Galway and really took care of us. Something tells me that the surf lessons I gave them had nothing to do with their genorosity. The next leg of the trip was south Portugal where we got to surf with the British youth national team. We ended the trip in Morocco, the land of the right-hand point break, and wound up back in the states a short time later.
This trip had finally sparked something in me, the desire to not carry my bags around while hunting for surf and fish. Until you've carried an 80 lb. surfboard bag through an airport, several city streets, and too many busses, you may not understand. From that fateful trip forward, most of my funds went towards saving for a sailboat.
So now it's my turn, like Jay the majority of my family and friends thought I was crazy to buy a boat and sail the carribean, even though I have traveled a decent amount and have been sailing since i was 12. I have always been pretty reserved and followed the usual path in life and everyone was a bit taken aback when I first brought it up. I finished undergrad at Saint Joseph's University with a B.S. in Elementary and Special Education. and immediately went on to pursue and finish a Masters of Education in Special Education from the University of Pittsburgh, the next step naturally being my first REAL teaching job, but as you can guess that is not wh
ere I ended up. After finishing my Masters I decided to take a year and travel. During school I was very focused on my work that unlike many of my peers I had not done much traveling at all, even in the summer during my time off I was working two jobs; I wait tables and have been teaching sailing for about 6 years, so it was about time I did some traveling.
ere I ended up. After finishing my Masters I decided to take a year and travel. During school I was very focused on my work that unlike many of my peers I had not done much traveling at all, even in the summer during my time off I was working two jobs; I wait tables and have been teaching sailing for about 6 years, so it was about time I did some traveling.
So I began searching and researching different places and trips, volunteering, and mainly in warm places. I had gone to Bocas del Toro, Panama while in grad school and was ready to see the world. I looked at volunteering, cruises, backpacking, and crewing boats. I knew I wanted to go somewhere warm, and figured with my sailing experience crewing boats might be an option, but required a lot more time than I had to dedicate at the time. 
In November of 2010 my friend Jakki and I took off to explore Europe for a month and a half. We hit Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Paris and Monte Carlo in France, Venice, Naples, Rome and Florence in Italy, Dubrovnik, Croatia, Athens, Greece, Kusadasi, Turkey, Barcelona, Spain and Lisbon, Portugual. It was an awesome trip and definitly sparked my travel bug. 
Upon returning home I quickly readyed myself for my next adventure, Brazil. I had always wanted to volunteer abroad and thought that there was no time like present, so I headed for Salvador, Brazil where I volunteered with a program called Cross-Cultural Solutions. I spent about 5 weeks in Brazil volunteering in a home for children with HIV/AIDS and traveling and exploring the country, It was an experience I'll never forget and can't wait to do more volunteering.
Before heading home I stopped off in Cancun, Mexico for a little fun and some rest with a few friends. Once home and back to my usual routine of working two jobs and the frustrating and exciting job hunt and interviewing I couldnt help but itch to keep traveling and what better way than by boat!