The Crew

Debbie

Debbie grew up in Bristol, England.  Her childhood revolved around water sports, first as a competitive swimmer and later as a member of the Royal Life Saving Society.

In 1983 an opportunity arose to sail with the Ocean Youth Club (now the Ocean Youth Trust).  Debbie jumped at the chance and spent a wonderful week, learning to sail a 72ft ketch (Falmouth Packet) between Plymouth and the Scilly Isles.  Two other OYC trips, to France and Holland, followed.

In 1997, Debbie moved to Houston, TX where she continued her love of water sports by learning to scuba dive, becoming an instructor in 2012.  It was while assisting with a scuba class that she met Moray, and discovered that not only did he love the water, but was a sailor who had started his sailing journey with the Ocean Youth Club.

And the rest, as they say, is history!

Moray

Moray was brought up in Hong Kong and the UK. Once he left school he worked in Aberdeen whilst pursuing an Engineering degree in university.  While there, in 1985, he helped a friend with an auction to raise money for a trip to Africa.  One of the items up for auction was 7 days on the 72ft ketch, Taikoo, owned by the Ocean Youth Club, Scotland.  As no-one in the auction room wanted to purchase the trip he got it for a steal and so started his sailing journey

In 1996, Moray moved to Houston and through his work went on two charters.  One to Elba with the ECC (http://www.ecc-sailing.com) in 2000 and one to Vancouver with the ECCO, a splinter group of the ECC, a few years later.

In February 2010 he decided to take up scuba diving where he was trained by the beguiling Debbie and they have been together ever since.  Later that year in August he purchased Sol Purpose and moved onto the boat full time.

Bob The Goat

While researching how to plan a menu/provisioning for a long cruise, I came across a passage in [enter book tille] which discussed keeping a live animal on board, in order to have fresh meat.  While I understood the reasoning behind this, the thought of tying a goat to the anchor and throwing it overboard in order to slaughter it struck me at first as terrible.  Then, when I explained this to some friends (over a few beers it must be confessed), the whole idea became funny and the idea of “Bob The Goat” was born.  He came to life on Christmas Day, 2012, when Patty & Dan Lee gave him to us as a gift.  Bob The Goat (BTG) will escort us on our travels and will add his comments to the blog from time to time!