Who Are We?
We met in 1989 in Florida, where we discovered our mutual love of the water, diving, sailing, traveling and each other. Early in our relationship, many late evenings involved talk of a future with lots of travel, diving, and maybe some sailing.
In the mid-1990s, we took sailing lessons and chartered sailboats on San Francisco Bay, in Captiva, Florida, and eventually in Tahiti, French Polynesia. We liked it. In 2000, we acquired our own sailboat, “Whisper” and practiced sailing around on San Francisco Bay.
On March 23, 2002, we sailed under the Golden Gate bridge, turned left and headed south. After cruising California and Mexico, we pointed Whisper west to tackle the 3000-mile, 21-day passage from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to Hiva Oa, in the Marquesas.
In 2004, we cruised French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, and Tonga before heading to New Zealand. After falling in love with New Zealand, we lived, worked, and sailed while living aboard Whisper in Bayswater Marina on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbor.
The Sailing Years
In 2008, we left New Zealand for Fiji, New Caledonia, and Australia. Early in 2009, we sold Whisper to new owners from Melbourne and flew back to San Francisco.
From 2009 to 2017 we re-immersed in big city life and work, saving up for the next adventure.
#Vanlife and Overlanding
In August 2016, we put down a deposit on a Sprinter Sportsmobile 4×4 campervan. We took delivery in November 2017 and proceeded to travel and live aboard our van “Miles” full-time for the next fourteen months.
At least five of the fourteen months were spent traveling with good friends that own a nearly identical rig. What fun! See the posts for more.
We wrapped-up this adventure early in 2019 and had an excellent time, exploring much of Alaska, the western USA, western Canada, and Mexico’s Baja peninsula.
Land Cruising
Never content without a way to take our home with us, we embarked on traveling via a 20′ Airstream Carvel. Duncan is now a third generation Airstreamer following in his grandparents and parents footsteps. Airstreams are apart of the family DNA with the grandparents traveling as far south as Central America in their airstream.
Why Traveling Light?
Traveling Light is our place to share our adventures with images and light commentary.”Why the name?”, Do you ask? Upon completion of packing for any trip — as suitcases, duffel bags, and gear-bins accumulate near the front door — we always have WAY more stuff than required. We survey the pile, looked at each other, smile, shake our heads, and simultaneously blurt “That’s us, traveling light”!
Well, that is a bit about us. We hope you enjoy the posts. Happy travels.