Into the Light: A Family's Epic Journey
Dave and Jaja spent seven years sailing around the world (1988-1995) aboard their 25-foot Cal 25 DIRECTION.Dave purchased the boat in 1985, gutted her to a bare hull, and then went to work beefing up the structure. He glassed in stringers, added keel floors and extra bulkheads, and then re-designed and re-built the interior. "I built a new rudder, re-stayed the mast, built a smaller cockpit, and then christened her with a bottle of warm Bud in an effort to get the mood right for the intended circumnavigation" is the way Dave puts it.Dave was 22 when he started this project, and 24 when he finished. He met Jaja shortly after starting his cruise in St. John, USVI, and they finally got together in the UK (after a solo Transatlantic) in the fall of 1988. They were both 25 when they left England on their circumnavigation.From England they headed West to the Caribbean, via the Cape Verde Islands. They were married in Barbados, then transited the Panama Canal, visited the Galapagos; and did the usual trip through the South Pacific, spending several seasons in Australia, New Zealand, and the nearby cruising paradise to the north. A trip through the Torres Straits, Indonesia, and then across the Indian Ocean had them rounding South Africa before arriving back in the Caribbean and then the States in 1995.Along the way they had two children (Chris and Holly). A third (Teiga) was born aboard DIRECTION at the end of the voyage.The Martin family set sail again in 1997 on their 33-footer DRIVER in the journey that became the inspiration for Into the Light. Their three-year, 11,000-mile voyage took them north to the pack ice above the Arctic Circle, visiting the Bahamas, Bermuda, Iceland, the Faroes, Northern Scotland, Norway (including Spitsbergen), Greenland, and Newfoundland along the way.The Martins are currently settled down (for the time being) in Maine. They are featured in the PBS documentary "Ice Blink", which begins airing in May 2008.