Randy was born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan, and grew up sailing small boats on Traverse Bay and the Great Lakes. Since the age of 12, he’s had a dream to live aboard and sail all over the world. Jody grew up in sunny San Diego, California, about 10 minutes from the ocean but only sailed a few times her whole life and never imagined the adventures ahead of her. During college at Michigan State University, Randy was the president of the Ski Club, and his sole purpose was to seek out the place he would reside after graduation; a place where the skiing was plentiful and water was nearby. The place turned out to be Lake Tahoe, where he has endured long, sun-filled summers and picturesque, snow laden winters as a free lance writer, marketing director for an outdoor clothing company, a manager of a local ski and bike shop, and owner of a ski patrol uniform company. He’s an avid skier and snowboarder, mountain biker, volleyballer, and of course, sailor.
Jody found her way to the Sierra Nevada a few years later. After college at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she worked as a botanist for the U.S. Forest Service in the San Bernardino Mountains, an outdoor education program, and then for an environmental consulting firm. When the opportunity to journey north to the Lake Tahoe area arose, there was no hesitation. She enjoyed her tenure with the U.S. Forest Service out of South Lake Tahoe, as the forest botanist for the entire basin, but most of her career has been with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service out of Las Vegas, Reno, Carlsbad, and, most recently, Palm Springs. She’s a snowboarder, mountain biker, volleyballer, and of course, now, a sailor.
They met on the sand volleyball courts in Kings Beach, California, in 1998; proposed to one another on the same night in San Rafael, France, in 1999; and tied the knot on the same sand volleyball courts in 2000. They’ve worked hard to achieve their dream to live aboard and cruise, and it’s been a long road.
