Shane was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1960. Shane learned to sail on Lake Okoboji, Iowa in 1973 aboard s/v "Cactus Queen", a Venture 222 made by McGregor and owned by his father. About the same time, he learned to scuba dive, and his fascination with all things aquatic began in earnest. [...] Shane graduated from Lincoln High School, Sioux Falls, SD in 1978, and received a BS in Accounting from the University of South Dakota in 1982. He practiced as a Public Accountant and Certified Public Accountant from 1982-1983. In 1984 Shane attended the University of South Dakota Law School and the Graduate School of Business, at the same time, where he graduated in 1987 with a joint Juris Doctor/Masters in Business Administration. He then practiced "Business Law" over the next 14 years with several different law firms all located in Minneapolis. Shane left the private practice in 2001 and joined an up and coming company as VP of Products and Administration and, also as Associate General Counsel. He left this company in early 2003 to pursue his cruising dreams. Sara's first sailing experience was with Shane in the mid 70's aboard his father’s 9'6" Catyak on a tiny lake just outside of Sioux Falls, SD. Sara graduated from Lincoln High School in 1979 and received a BA in Elementary Education from the University of South Dakota in 1983. She married Shane in July 1983 after 6-1/2 years of dating. Sara taught preschool for one year and then after moving to Minneapolis, became a Bank Teller for several years. Later she worked as a Banking Sales Assistant until early 2003 when they both decided to set sail. Lucia was born in Michigan on New Year’s Day 2003. Initially, she was raised to enter the "show" life of American black, white and tan cocker spaniels. But at just 11 weeks old, Shane and Sara adopted her in March 2003. Lucia's first sailing experience began at the age of 5 months aboard our first "Dream Chaser", a Catalina 320, on Lake Pepin in Lake City, Minnesota. Shane and Sara have owned various sailboats over the years. These include: A new 1986 McGregor 22 "Driftin' Dreamer", a 1981 Mirage 27 "Outa Here", a new 1995 Catalina 320 "Dream Chaser" and finally, a 1981 Bristol 45.5 also named "Dream Chaser". They've sailed on South Dakota, Minnesota and Canadian lakes; on the Mississippi River, on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. They've also chartered sailboats in the British Virgin Islands, the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands. In 1999, Shane also crewed aboard a Morgan Out Island 52 from Aitutaki, Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean to Nuku Alofa, Tonga, encompassing 9 days at sea, and over 1000 nautical miles. Shane has completed courses in Coastal Navigation and Celestial Navigation, and has earned his General Ham License. He also has a US Coast Guard 100 ton Masters License.

Ok, so here's the part you've all been waiting for. The reason why we are doing this! Both of us had been pursuing our careers for over 20 years and we do not have any children. Since we have not had to pay or save for those enormous expenses that sometimes children can bring, we have been [...]

able to save some money over the years. And Lucia is, relatively speaking, fairly low maintenance! We had always talked and dreamed about living aboard and sailing on our own sailboat in the Caribbean but it was mostly just a "daydream" and never really thought it would ever happen. As we got older, we started asking ourselves "why" and "what" we were saving for, and "when", if ever, we would someday pursue our dream of sailing off into the sunset. We really couldn't come up with a good answer. Shane had originally joined the last company in 2001 in order to assist them with their aggressive acquisition program. That program was expected to last about 3 years. However, after just two years and several successful acquisitions, the company decided to slow the acquisitions and concentrate on organic growth. This, in turn meant that Shane would focus less on acquisitions, which was his passion. At this point, we viewed this "change" as an opportunity to change as well. Sara enjoyed her position over the years as a Sales Assistant, but with the banking world consolidating, her "position" had already been eliminated, and she was working in an environment that no longer had a "slot" for her. Another opportunity for change was lurking on the horizon. With the changes in our careers and the window of opportunity that opened up, we both decided this was a "sign" to take a time-out from our working lives. We view this not as a retirement, but as a chance to live our dream while we are still healthy and young enough to be able to handle the rigors of extensive cruising and touring. We both expect to re-enter the work force at the end of our sabbatical. We became more afraid of something happening to us, before we did this, than what will happen to us if we pursued our dream. It seems that our lives brought this opportunity to us...so we decided to take it and take a chance. Our initial plan was relatively simple and open. We would buy a sailboat comfortable to live aboard and sail through the Caribbean for up to four years. The plan to "take off" started that broad but we knew that we couldn't decide on more details until the time got closer and could figure out the options. We hope that this experience will strengthen us as individuals and as a team; allow us to meet new people and explore and discover new places; at best, teach us "life lessons" and just be fun. We don't have any more specific expectations, and we will take each day, month and year as it comes. We still don't know where we are going, but we understand that the real fun is in the journey, not the destination. Beyond that, we don't really have any "reasons". We just really wanted to pursue our dream and knew it was our time. We found the courage to walk away from our jobs and a life that had become very comfortable for us. “Happy Journey…..Safe Return!”