In my first conversation with Peter Quinn, the founder of U.S. Patriot Sailing, I expressed the joy I’d found out on my boat, how it was helping me deal with some of the ways I’d been struggling since leaving the military, and why I wanted to share this with other veterans. He told me the story of the moment he knew that the organization’s mission was succeeding. A guy on his crew told him that he wasn’t going to show up for the race because he was planning to kill himself. It was the first time Peter realized he had saved a life. And that’s why he wanted me on board – because that was my goal too. 

I needed something new that would pull me back into the light. My new location made this pretty obvious: the ocean. Seattle is surrounded by water, and I thought it’d be fun to live on a yacht (albeit a motor yacht 😒) like Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail, after he splits up with his girlfriend. It seemed like the right thing to do after my divorce, even though some might call it a midlife crisis!