The Crew
We are Charlie & LeeAnne Clark, a couple of salty dogs from Southern California.
We met on a sailboat on October 6, 1981, and married exactly three years later. Our early years were spend sailing on our 30-ft Catalina, but when our two children, Julia and Dean, came along we took a long break from sailing. Once they grew up and moved on, we returned to sailing and began seriously planning our big adventure.
And what is this adventure of which we speak? In September 2019 we retired from our jobs – Charlie was a Biotech Business Systems Analyst, and LeeAnne was an R&D Training Project Manager. We moved out of our house and onto our sailboat, and then, a month later, we sailed off into the sunset! We kicked off our cruising life with the Baja Ha-Ha, which is an annual cruising rally in which a hundred or so boats spend two weeks sailing from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, stopping at a couple of remote Mexican fishing villages along the way. We had a GRAND time on the Ha-Ha, and are now down in Mexico.
Our plan is to sail on south to the tropics, hopefully ending up in Zihuatanejo and other ports and anchorages along the way. Then we’ll head up into to the Sea of Cortez. We are planning two to three years in Mexico, then we’ll do the “Pacific Puddle Jump”, which is an annual rally across the Pacific from Mexico to the Marquesas Islands. From there we’ll head to French Polynesia for however long we can stay there (current max time is 6 months), then on to other islands in the South Pacific (Cook Islands, Samoa, Fiji) and on to either Australia or New Zealand. That should keep us busy for at least a few years.
From there…who knows? Maybe head north to Hawaii, then back over to the US and back down the coast to Mexico, and start all over again. Or we might get bold and head further west to Indonesia or the Philippines. One thing we will NOT do is go anywhere near Africa, the Middle East, or the Red Sea…nope, no interest in getting abducted by Somalian pirates! We’re figuring there are more than enough paradisaical destinations in the Pacific Ocean that will keep us occupied.
If you’d like to learn more about where it all started, our family life, and how we ended up here, please watch our “How it All Happened” video:
The Boat
Juliet is a 1990 Mason 44 cutter-rigged sailboat. We purchased her in 2013 in order to go long-term cruising around the Pacific Ocean, beginning in October 2019.
Juliet is a true blue-water cruiser – meaning, a boat that is designed to cross oceans. She is a beautiful boat of traditional design, with a comfortable motion at sea. Although not a racer by any means, she sails very well under all conditions (except extremely light air). In preparation for going cruising, we recently upgraded all of our navigation electronics, including chart plotter, radar, autopilot, wind speed/depth sounders, AIS, and VHF radio. She is also equipped with a high-output water maker and 175 gallons of onboard water tankage.
She has a Yanmar diesel auxiliary engine with 160 gallons of diesel fuel in two tanks. In addition to solar panels, she has a 5kw diesel generator.
Juliet is a boat that was built for comfort and safety on long ocean voyages – which is exactly what we are using her for.
Bubba
Bubba is a TRUE salty dog! He is a 9-year-old Chihuahua/mini-Australian Shepherd mix. He was a little befuddled when we first moved onto the boat, having grown up in a big house with a doggy door. But it didn’t take him long to adjust, and now he just LOVES being on the boat with us! Although he’s made it clear he’s not too fond of multi-day passages. Bubba is a great companion, and keeps us entertained every day.
Follow Our Journey!
Every time we sail to a new location, we will update this map so you can see all the places we’ve been. You can also use the buttons below to see up-to-date trackers showing where we are right now, and what the weather is like in our current location.
We also encourage you to follow our YouTube Channel, where every week or so we upload short video episodes of our life afloat.
Adventures on SV Juliet 