I'd always dreamed of sailing and seeing the world but never had the chance to even get on a sailboat. So, on entering the University of California at Berkeley, I joined their sailing club and took lessons on San Francisco Bay. I went on to earn a B.S. in Chemistry and a Ph.D.in Nuclear Chemistry at that renowned university.
I met my husband years later (when I had my own 30-ft sailboat) on a sailing vacation arranged by answering a Crew Wanted listing in a sailing magazine. He was a qualified Captain with sailing and racing experience and a 37-ft yacht he’d fitted out for ocean cruising. We hit it off very well indeed!
At that time, I was burnt out from my high-pressure job with the California Governor’s Office, and he was newly retired, so we headed for the South Pacific, literally “sailing off into the sunset”.
We loved the cruising lifestyle, visiting some 42 countries on our boat and several more on excursions. Nearly 20 years later we returned to the States. This experience was indeed the Big Adventure of my life!
My cruising books (3 more volumes are in the works) give both sailors and armchair travelers a realistic look at what it takes to be a long-term, offshore sailor, visiting many countries on a small, live-aboard yacht, and how much fun it can be.
I’ve also dabbled in fiction, with a silly romantic comedy, and helped an accomplished bodybuilder and a dietitian with editing and publishing their excellent course. My work addressing climate change will be published this fall. I’ve used pen names for some of my books for protection from the guilty. That’s another long, sordid story I may write someday in the True Crime Genre.
Mary Fran Reed, Ph.D.
Boca Raton, Florida
September 2023
