Sailing Life Warriors

Who we are

01/06/2023 UPDATE: With the holidays over, we are back in boat hunting mode. We should be back down in Florida in February and maybe, just maybe, be back on a boat. In the meantime, checkout our very first YouTube video. Hit the subscribe button!

11/11/2022 UPDATE: We are officially in boat shopping mode. Our insurance, Concepts Special Risk, was amazing (enough said). We’ve been able to find insurance (which was no easy feat given the circumstances). So now the goal is to get back on a boat as soon as possible. Our hope is this can happen in February of next year. Sailing Life Warriors will be back and better than ever. Watch for our podcast, YouTube channel and more in 2023.

07/28/2022 UPDATE: Warrior has been lifted out of the water and is on the hard. I will be flying down to the Exumas this Sunday to assist the fire inspector. There is literally nothing left of the boat, so will be interesting to see what wizardry the fire inspector has - though I hear they are amazing. Fingers crossed my theory of what started the fire is proven out. We are actively looking for a new (to us) boat that we can get in as soon as possible. I am confident insurance will settle soon. We won't be able to get back into a new boat as we won't be able to afford that given rates, etc.

07/11/2022 UPDATE: We are temporarily back in Colorado. Warrior has been pulled to a sea wall in Georgetown, Exumas and will be lifted by crane this week (hopefully). The fire investigation should take place in the coming weeks. We are hopeful this will resolve any questions remaining from insurance and we will be back on a new boat by end of year. See our upcoming blog for more insight.

UPDATE: SV Warrior was totally destroyed in a fire. We lost our two beloved dogs, Xena and Xara. We will return bigger and better than ever. We appreciate your love and support. It's been overwhelming.

Like most who were bit by the sailing bug, our story is not dissimilar. After 25 years in corporate America and military, Dave was diagnosed with stage IV melanoma cancer. After 2 years of treatments that did not work, we found an experimental treatment at the University of Colorado (amazing by the way) that turned things around. It has now been 3 years since that treatment and things are looking fantastic - it's time to go sailing! (Insert screeching needle across a record here, lol) - in Feb 2022, during a routine cancer scan, Dave was diagnosed (after many more tests) with clogged arteries and needed 2 stents. Okay, now we are ready to go sailing... fingers crossed.

While sailing has been a lifelong dream, we really didn‘t know much about it. Yes, we'd sailed a bit here and there. We'd even owned a tiny boat we fumbled around with on a lake. Watching us sail that small boat would be painful for the seasoned sailor and a comedy for all. But things started to change when our daughter was born. We knew we wanted to do life differently. We wanted to make the world her classroom. So we dug in. Consumed everything we could put our hands on that would help us go from a dream to a reality. In the process we learned we owned the outcome. It was up to us to make this real. We needed to be relentless in the pursuit of our goal. We had to be LIFE WARRIORS.

And lastly, and before any salty sailor says otherwise, we recognize a catamaran isn't considered a "true" sailing vessel. That's okay by us. Our gear page would give the salty sailor heart palpitations with all the creature comforts listed there. I can hear them now…"that's too much weight", "that's unnecessary" etc. Our goal is less the sailing (as much as we love that) and more about being together and seeing the world - all while being comfortable and safe along the way.

What is a "life warrior"

Through battles of sexual abuse, a brain aneurism, stage IV cancer, heart surgery and CoVID, it became clear that life will get in the way if we let it. Being a LIFE WARRIOR means you own the outcome of your life. Only you will fight for what you want. It won’t get handed to you. The Life Warrior Project and Sailing Life Warriors are all about doing life differently - with people who think the same as we do - life was meant to be lived with adventure, passion and purpose.

Files coming soon.