Seth & Elizabeth met in 2004 and have long since agreed that they did not want to live "the typical life. [...] Instead of settling down and buying a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence they chose a white catamaran with lifelines! They were married in Sonoma, California on August 2nd, 2008 and quit the jobs they loved to spend more time with one another before starting a family. Elizabeth helped design clothing lines for Banana Republic's Outlet stores and Seth exported California Wines to Europe for Constellation Brands, but for their Honeymoon they decided to live on a sailboat for a year and see where life would take them. With a financial loan and plan, they bought their boat in September of 2008 and set sail...

OUR EXPERIENCE: Seth is a lifelong sailor with over 25 years of boating experience. His family taught him to sail via ASA instruction and through many weekend trips on their family boat, a Benateau 35, sailed on Lake St. Clair, Michigan. He then moved to San Francisco where he raced with two [...]

one-design sailing teams before joining his families racing boat "Shadowfax," a classic Wianno Senior design based in Osterville, Mass. Elizabeth is an adventurer by spirit and has traveled all around the world for both pleasure and work. While living in England she sailed in Croatia on the Med and also with the Hynes family in the Grenadines. Elizabeth is also part of the "Shadowfax" racing team and she looks forward to becoming a more confident Captain over the course of the next year. THE BOAT: Having never sailed a catamaran before in our lives, choosing to purchase one was very difficult. However, the more we researched the boats the more we liked them. Catamarans are great for cruising with their shallow draft and large living accommodations. They also feature inherent back-ups which improve safety; like two hulls, two rudders, two engines and props. Once we learned that Cats crossed the oceans regularly, we took a solid look at the options out there, of which there were plenty. In the end, the Lagoon 380 stood out from the rest of the fleet for its dependability, successful production history and interior comforts. Our boat is a three berth "Owner's Version" that has never been chartered and has a larger head with a standing shower. When this was discovered, the search was over. After all, if Elizabeth is happy, Seth will be happy! THE ITINERARY: From the beginning it was always our plan to sail from the East Coast of the US to Australia, stopping along the way in the Caribbean and Central America. However, being new to the cruising life, we didn't want to force ourselves to do anything we didn't want, so the itinerary was left open. Not surprisingly, we loved our time cruising in the Caribbean but yearned for more of an adventure and opted to cross the Pacific Ocean in search of islands less visited. What we found was exactly what we were looking for. And in the end, Australia was a perfect boat market for a Catamaran and an end to an incredible 18 months of sailing. Below was our itinerary: SEPTEMBER, 2008: Refit boat in Norfolk, Virginia USA OCTOBER, 2008: Refit and sail Chesapeake to Annapolis, MD NOVEMBER, 2008: Caribbean 1500 rally to BVIs British Virgin Islands, Caribbean DECEMBER, 2008: St. Martin, St. Barts, Ile Fourche, Statia, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat JANUARY, 2009: Dominica, Antigua, Barbuda, The Saints, Guadeloupe FEBRUARY: Guadeloupe, Bonaire, Curacao, San Blas Islands, Panama MARCH: Cross through the Panama canal, Galapagos APRIL: Pacific Ocean Crossing, Marquesas French Polynesia MAY: Marquesas, Tuamotus, Tahiti JUNE: Moorea, Huahine, Ta'haa, Bora Bora JULY: Bora Bora to Suwarrow, Cook Islands AUGUST: Niue and Vava'u Tonga SEPTEMBER: Tonga and Fiji OCTOBER: Fiji and Vanuatu NOVEMBER & DECEMBER: Eastern Australia, Bundaburg to Sydney JANUARY: Fly home from Sydney to San Francisco. Quickly get jobs during a recession. Start a family. Buy a house. Start fanatically reading other sailor's blogs.