The Holstee Manifesto mentions “If you are looking for the love of your life, Stop; they will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love.” That is EXACTLY what happened!
Prior to packing up and departing Sausalito, CA in 2014 to venture out on an “around the world sailing trip” with my Dad, the last thing on my mind was “meeting someone”. Little did I know what was in store or how much our lives would change.
Galen and I first met at a Skipper’s briefing in Cape Town, South Africa. I had been living onboard SV Wayward Wind for over a year with my Dad, and Galen recently joined an Australian catamaran to sail across the Atlantic Ocean.
Our love story developed quickly as we got to know each other sailing in convoy on different boats. Our first date (which wasn’t really a date just a hey let’s go do this….) was during Carnival in Salvador, Brazil. We went to see the massive parade that night. It was loud, and crazy!!!! We were being smooshed all over the place, mosh pit style, and I KNEW I was safe because Galen was there. We began exploring the city together, visiting art galleries, tropical fruit stands, meeting locals, getting at numerous boat chores including never ending laundry, trying new foods and basically learning all about each other.
As we soon sailed off to different places in Brazil, I yearned to share every new experience with him. Being together made everything so much MORE colorful. We met up again in Fortaleza, Brazil and that is where we decided to make a plan to travel together.
Galen first joined Wayward Wind in Grenada and we sailed back to St. Lucia to celebrate my first circumnavigation and the realization of a lifelong dream. We waved goodbye to Wayward Wind from the docks in St. Lucia and over the next three years, we continued to travel the world together.
It wasn`t until 2019 that we were reunited with Wayward Wind . It was at that time we made the decision to live aboard Wayward Wind again and started planning our next adventures.
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