Landfall's Crew

Capt. Sharon

Capt. Sharon has been sailing since she was a young girl. Growing up near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the water was her playground. There she sailed on small boats with her family and friends, learning how to feel the wind and waves. She developed a deep concern for the oceans and the environment as she helped her mother fight the pollution from a neighboring power plant. After high school, her family moved to the Bay Area of California where she attended college at the University of California at Berkeley. While living near San Francisco Bay, she continued to sail with her father and his friends. After college graduation, she moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington Law School. Living near the waters of Puget Sound, her interest in sailing continued and her passion for kayaking was sparked. The vast and magnificent landscape of the Northwest fueled her appreciation of nature and our environment. A year living in the coastal rainforest of Costa Rica opened her eyes to the abundant beauty of the tropics. While her travels have taken her near and far, the ocean has never been far away. Wherever you find Capt. Sharon, you will find her eager to head into the water.

Capt. Tracy

Capt. Tracy grew up in North Alabama hundreds of miles away from the nearest ocean. He learned to swim in the rivers and lakes that are abundant in the area. He and his friends would head to the nearby creek almost every summer day to cool off and swim in the deep pools. As a teenager, he and his friends would drive their motorcycles to their special swimming holes. Having grown up in a small town, Capt. Tracy developed a deep wanderlust. He dreamed of seeing the world and meeting all of the different people. He decided in high school that life was not a spectator sport and he longed to live his dreams. So, he set the goal for himself that he was going to buy a boat and sail around the world. In college, he joined the ROTC program and on his graduation was commissioned as an Army Officer. While in the military, he wasted no time in getting his travels started. He lived in Korea and Panama and traveled to Japan, Bolivia, Honduras and Germany. Rather than quenching his thirst for new people and places, his travels made him want to see more. Everywhere he went, the people he met were so interesting, different and friendly that he never wanted to stop. While living in Panama, he bought his first boat and learned to sail. His love for travel and his new found skill of sailing made his dream of traveling the world that much more vivid.

First Mate Jasmine

First Mate Jasmine is a "Yellow-collared Macaw." The species is native to the jungles of Northern Bolivia, but Jasmine is domestically bred and was hand fed as a baby, so she is bonded to humans and could not survive in the wild. She was about 18 months old when she adopted Capt. Sharon and Capt. Tracy as her shipmates. While males tend to be more vocal talkers than females, First Mate Jasmine is beginning to learn simple words like "Hi," "Hello," and "Come up!" Capt. Sharon has a long history of raising and training birds so we are confident that First Mate Jasmine's speaking skills will develop with time. Maybe she'll even learn to say "Come about!"

Mate Magellan

Mate Magellan was added to our crew on February 28, 2007. She was abandoned with her seven littermates at a pet store near our home port marina when she was only five weeks old. Three weeks later, she adopted Capt. Tracy, who then called Capt. Sharon to let her know that we were adding a new "alarm system." After a week on the dock and a few days motoring from Gulf Shores, Alabama to Pensacola, Florida, she quickly got her sea legs. Though we had hoped she would stay small, she has grown into a long, sleek, agile, medium dog. When still a puppy on Landfall, she quickly learned to tell us when she needed to "go to the grass," even if the grass was only a green mat in the cockpit! She is friendly and smart, and we can't imagine Landfall without her!

Mate Independence

Indy came into our lives on the 4th of July, 2008, at a party in Tierra Oscura (Darkland), described in this log. Her mother belongs to the daughter of neighbors Janis and Danny. Janis had picked this puppy out as the special one in the litter who would stay in the family and go to live with her. But when Danny saw one of the other puppies, with white and black coloring identical to their dog, Buddy, he wanted that puppy instead, so now the little brown puppy had no intended home. Well, Tracy did not know any of that when he came up to Capt. Sharon with a brown puppy in his arms, saying "This puppy is coming home with us! She picked me out!" Janis and her daughter were thrilled. Capt. Sharon was not at all sure that Landfall needed another animal, but with everyone spending so much time up on Cerro Velero, it eventually seemed like a good idea. It helps that Indy is not only independent, but she is also sharp as a tack, extrelmely sweet-natured, and fiercely loyal. (And no, she is not chewing a cigar. It's a dog treat. Thanks for sharing this pohto with us, neighbor Mary!)

More "Mate" pictures