direction. By the time we got to the Med, Michael was interested in getting home faster than I was. Every year we get older and don’t have the same strength. I just kept thinking, “Oh heck, we’re young. We can do this forever.” When we had already made it two-thirds of the way around, it became apparent that we needed to move on if we were going to complete a circumnavigation, so we did. Are you glad you had a home to come back to in Annapolis? Marguerite: Annapolis is our home. We raised our kids here. We live in this wonderful neighborhood and have great long-term friends, so we never could have sold our house. We rented it out instead. It’s always nice to know that if something bad happened, we could come home to a supportive community.
Why did you take so long to complete the voyage? Mike: At first, we thought we’d go cruising for three or four years, and then I’d go back to work. We had no plans to take 14 years, and if someone told me that at the beginning, I probably would not have gone. We left in the fall of 1998 and planned to get to the Pacific that year, but we stopped in the Bahamas and then Cuba and Central America. We spent eight months in Guatemala and started doing inland travel. We lost our [Pacific crossing] window that year and didn’t make it into the Pacific until 2000. We discovered there are a lot of things to see and do along the way. We visited many places by train and bus, places such as Burma, China, Tibet, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam that we didn’t visit by boat. We discovered that the boat is a good base for inland travel. Marguerite: We’re just passionate travelers, as well as passionate sailors. What is your fondest memory of the voyage? Marguerite: We had so many wonderful experiences and shared so many great things, but some of my fondest memories were not of all the romantic islands we visited but of very difficult moments, like when something breaks in the middle of the night during bad weather. We both would have to get up, and with the boat rolling back and forth and horrendous winds, we’d have to find a way to fix it. Using all of our strength, ##There really are imagination and benefits to coming patience, we would home from long somehow manage voyages. to sort things out and be safe again, without panicking or yelling at each other and with full cooperation and respect for the other’s ideas. I think that nothing can bring two people closer together than having those experiences.
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erite, an artist, have y captain, and Margu ##Mike, a retired Nav a cruise around the en tak e years and hav been married for 47 n 38-foot Cut ter. nno Sha on their 198 0 world for 14 of them
Did you notice any changes in the world of cruising when you were underway? Mike: The first thing I noticed was in the size of cruising boats. When we left, Ithaca was an average-sized cruiser at 38 feet. Now we’re on the smaller side. I don’t know, but it seems that the average size today is around the mid-40s. Marguerite: The technology has changed, and there are more cruisers now because it’s easier to do. One thing I’ve noticed is how people rely on their electronics so completely. We started with paper charts and a sextant, and even today, we would never go anywhere without them.
What did you learn about yourselves during the cruise? Mike: I’ve become much more appreciative of other people and cultures. And I’ve become aware of how big the world is and how we’re just a small part of it. Seeing so much, visiting so many places, and interacting with so many people have made me a more worldly person. Marguerite: It made me feel differently about being an American. After you’ve done the kind of traveling we have and seen the way the rest of the world lives—sometimes in appalling circumstances—and met people who have experienced horrifying wars, you realize how lucky we are in this country. What advice would you give others interested in circumnavigating? Mike: Go early, while you’re still young, and enjoy it. We’ve run into a number of cruisers who are on the fast track, trying to complete circumnavigations in two to three years, but that’s inconceivable to me. Marguerite: The most important thing is to choose a sturdy, well-built boat that you have confidence in—a boat that will take care of you. Depending on your pocketbook, this may not be the biggest and most luxurious. We always felt complete trust in our boat. About the Author: Annapolis sailor Lisa Borre cruised full-time for five years with her husband aboard their Tayana 37 Cutter Gyatso, visiting the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Black Seas. The couple now cruises part-time in the Med and recently published a cruising guide called The Black Sea.
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