About the Author

Beth A. Leonard and her partner, Evans Starzinger, left high-powered international management consulting jobs in 1992 and set sail aboard their Shannon 37 ketch, Silk, on a circumnavigation that they completed 35,000 miles and 3 years later. Within a few months of returning to shore they realized they could no longer fit into their old lives. What was to have been a sabbatical became instead a permanent new life. It took them 4 years to build an aluminum sloop capable of sailing the high latitudes, and they spent the next six years sailing Hawk to the ends of earth, from the high Arctic to Cape Horn. They have won awards from the Ocean Cruising Club (UK) and the Cruising Club of America, and were members of U.S. Sailing's Safety at Sea committee from 2002 through 2004.