Robert and Darlene have talked about sailing around the world for almost two decades. Robert is a native of Tampa, Florida and has sailed and raced sailboats his entire life. His folks were avid sailors, so when they had Robert they put him on the boat and took him along. As a result, he’s just as at home on the water as on land. He won his first race at the ripe old age of four! His family always owned sailboats and he spent many nights and weekends racing with family and friends. As a teenager he qualified and raced in the Hobie 16 Worlds. Twenty years later he raced in the Worrell 1000, aka the Iron Sailors/Plastic Boats race. Click here for more information about this crazy race! In between and since he has raced in regattas in almost every state and in several countries, including the Miami/Montego Bay race, Fiesta del Sol al Sol (St. Petersburg to Isla Mujeres, Mexico), Key West Race Week, Suncoast Race Week, Tampa Bay Race Week, Rolex Fastnet (England), Ford Cork Week (Ireland), International Rolex Cup Regatta (St. Thomas), Governors Cup (Austin), Montana Cup, Spud Cup, USA NOOD Regattas, Whidbey Island Race Week, Solomon Island Race Week, Semiahmoo Bay International Regatta, and a multitude of others. He founded, owned and managed NuClear Sails, Inc. until moving to Canada in 2002.
Darlene is a native of Dallas, Texas and was raised in Boulder, Colorado. Her sailing experience was extremely limited prior to meeting Robert in the late 1980s. She started sailing with Robert on his family’s S2-9.1 and quickly became addicted to the sport of sailing. When Robert started his sail loft, Darlene traveled with him and raced with clients in the majority of the regattas mentioned above. Always highly competitive, sailing became one of her favorite pastimes. A few weeks after meeting Robert, he mentioned his dream to one day sail around the world and asked if she would be interested in going with him. Her affirmative response planted the seed which is now bearing fruit . . .
In spring 2006, Robert and Darlene lost their best friend in Canada in a freak mining accident. They had been looking at catamarans off and on for the three years prior, and earlier that year Darlene had again begun a more serious search for the right boat for their adventure. Upon the death of their friend, they decided it was time to quit talking and rather start doing. Within two weeks they had a contract on a 2000 Sud Composites Switch 51 catamaran and a week later found themselves in Maryland for a sea trial and survey. They decided they had finally found the boat of their dreams, and closed on the purchase on Darlene’s birthday. Some present, eh?!
Summer 2006 was spent building a guest cabin on their property. It had been begun in the spring, long before the thought of taking off (that year) to sail had ever been considered. There were guests arriving in early August, so the task had to be completed. Darlene’s father, George Athey, came up and helped them build the cabin. Check out the results here!
Fall 2006 kept them busy packing up their homes in B.C. and Idaho and locating tenants and homes for their wolf hybrids. Robert and Darlene have shared many years of their lives with these wonderful creatures, and the hardest part of all was giving up their three beloved animals: Cochise, Cheyenne and Cherokee. By mid-October, Robert and Darlene had said goodbye to their current lifestyle and headed to Maryland to the boat. It had been sitting in dry dock in Georgetown, Maryland since June. Weeks were spent while in the boatyard making repairs to the boat and putting new bottom paint on it. “Splash Day” finally arrived and off they went, heading down the Chesapeake Bay. Friends David and Marsha Malkin joined in the inaugural cruise weekend, and the group ended up in Annapolis where they tied up for a couple nights as guests of the Eastport Yacht Club, David & Marsha’s home club. After some provisioning, Robert and Darlene headed out for the trip down the bay, into the ocean and south along the eastern U.S. seaboard.
Mid-January 2007 found the couple doing the last of their repairs and improvements to the boat. Next stop: the Caribbean, then a trans-Atlantic crossing (milestone here!) via the Azores to the Mediterranean . . .