TAMMY: THE HIGHLIGHTS

How does a skinny kid born and raised in Roswell, New Mexico, (yes, THAT Roswell) end up on a sailboat in the wide open ocean?

LIVING :: Plodding across land

My 50+ year route from desert to ocean led from New Mexico through Texas, Iowa, Virginia, D.C., Maryland, New York and finally, the Outer Banks of North Carolina. 

WORKING :: Plodding through employment

An overview: blah, blah, blah, BEER.

The details: My equally circuitous career path (if you could call it that) included, among other things, technical secretary to physicists at Texas Tech and University of Texas, conference coordinator for lawyers at University of Texas Law School, public information officer for a nuclear physics lab called Jefferson Lab, production designer for Thompson Publishing Group and editor at washingtonpost.com. In the end, I created a job for myself that, rather than driving me to drink, instead encouraged me to do so. We opened Chip's Wine & Beer Market in Kill Devil Hills where I became a beer specialist.

SAILING :: Riding the wind

As as kid, I played Swiss Family Robinson in the willow tree out back -- yes, in the middle of New Mexico. Talk about shipwrecked! My play was more about the ship and less about the wreck, and I sailed through gales in my willowy cockpit, and conquered tropical islands that to the unimaginative probably looked like a bumpy stretch of Bermuda grass with a clothesline strung across it.

I started dabbling in actual sailing that involved more water than a garden hose could provide when I lived in Austin in the 80s. But I didn't really start learning until Chip and I got together in 1997, first on a Balboa 26' named Bella Luna and then a Downeast 32' named Isabella.

In 2010, 13 years of daysailing after we sailed our first boat, we set out for good on Cara Mia, our Island Packet 380.

WRITING & PHOTOGRAPHY :: My creative outlet

I'm formally trained to be a writer, not a sailor. At some point that might seem like a bad idea (like now), but there it is. Every job I've had since I turned 30 has had something to do with writing or publishing -- except the beer specialist. My plan is to turn my blogs into books when I'm not snorkeling or fishing or sailing.

The photography came much later when Chip bought me a Canon40D for my birthday two years ago. I was a little annoyed at first that he didn't get me a point and shoot, but over time, I've grown to love the power it gives me to capture my own visual perspective on the amazing sights we pass at 6mph.

Fishing en route to Eleuthera.

Georgetown, May 2011.

Hanging out in Warderick Wells, Exumas.

If you want to know more (really?), here's 25 Random Things About Me from our old blog.