Meet Mike & Emma
We are Mike and Emma, two former tech execs. Mike in Sales, Emma in Ops. We were surprised (or at least I was) to find someone who shared our sense of adventure and the ‘wander lust’ gene.
Emma’s adventures had centered primarily around trekking and climbing having summitted Kilimanjaro twice as well as multiple treks in the Himalayas including reaching Everest Base Camp.
Mike’s adventures had focused primarily on sailing with multiple offshore sailing trips between the Caribbean and the US. Each of our adventures had to be squeezed in between very busy careers. Mike’s dream of sailing around the world was quickly adopted by Emma and planning began.
In 2019 we decided to take the plunge. Late that year we bought our first boat, a Caliber 40. 2020 and 2021 brought a couple of significant ‘knock downs’ (more on this separately). In 2020, this little thing called Covid put cruising on hold for just about everybody. Mike used that year to make upgrades and gain more knowledge. Early 2021 brought another surprise, open heart surgery for Mike. After an extended recovery, we decided we needed a larger ‘platform’ so we upgraded to our current boat, a 2019 Nautitech 40 Open catamaran. And now, after years of planning and experimenting we are actually ‘living the dream’.
The Boat
After many years of sailing, both inshore and offshore, we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted. First, we wanted a boat that was designed for offshore sailing. Second, we wanted a boat that would provide us more room than we’d had on the Caliber. After multiple Boat Show trips and research we settled on the Nautitech 40 Open. It was big enough to provide us with the room we wanted and at 40 ft long was easier to maneuver and find dock space for (and at a more reasonable cost).
Sailing performance was another key item for us. We wanted a catamaran that was seaworthy and leaned more towards performance than many of the ‘floating condos’ more common on the market now. We also wanted to live ‘off the grid’ which meant LOTS of solar panels paired with LOTS of Lithium batteries.
We are trying to do as much as possible to reduce our carbon footprint as well. For example, we got rid of all gasoline onboard and moved to an electric outboard (the battery is recharged off the solar panels) from Mitek Italy. We also wanted some of the comforts of home, e.g. air conditioning. We’ll share more of the details as to what we chose, and why, in the Our Gear section of this site.
We named our boat the same as previous boats, Endurance. We chose this name as a tribute to one of the greatest sailing adventures in history, that of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s attempt to cross the South Pole. While the expedition did not achieve its mission, it is a story of commitment, courage, seamanship, and leadership. They are qualities and attributes we hope to emulate onboard our Endurance.
