Jan was raised the small town of Winthrop, just outside of Boston. Winthrop is a beach-front town and Jan spent much of her youth enjoying those beaches. Jan's first boating experience, at age 15, was falling overboard trying to get from a tender to a boat in Marblehead harbor. Her second, at age 19, was a trip around Boston harbor in a friend's speedboat.
Jim was raised in the small coastal town of Manchester, Massachusetts. From his earliest memories, he has been sailing local waters and cruising New England on the family's various boats. He spent the senior year of high school on the island of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, where he enjoyed running a Boston Whaler around the lagoon and snorkeling.
Both Jim and Jan settled in the Worcester area of Massachusetts where they met and married in 1983. Deciding that the Pacific Northwest looked interesting, they moved to the Seattle area in 1984. They spent 13 years riding a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle around the western United States, Canada, and Great Britain. In 1996 various medical issues made riding more painful than pleasurable. So the motorcycle was sold, and Jim convinced Jan to try his first love, boating. Jan said "Ok." as long as it went fast.
They bought a 28' express style power boat and spent a season cruising Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands at 23 knots. Finding that the boat was not well suited for extended cruising, they bought Windarra, a 33' sedan style cruiser. While it "only" went 14 knots, Jan was still happy with it. Windarra afforded much greater comfort and expanded their cruising grounds.
In 2000, Jim said he wanted to spend a year cruising full time. Jan hesitantly agreed. Since the intended cruising grounds were to be the west coast of North America, the first thing they would need was a different boat. The search for this boat brought them to Mañana, which is where this story begins.
