Robin and Duncan met in 1989 in Florida, where they discovered their mutual love of the water, diving, sailing, and each other. Early in their relationship they talked of a future that might involve a lots of travel, diving, and maybe some offshore sailing.

After moving to California's Silicon Valley in 1990, Robin and Duncan immersed in their careers and the California lifestyle for the next 12 years. Married in 1992, they enjoyed many years of travel, diving, skiing, road/mountain bicycling, kayaking, camping, hiking, roller-blading, and yes; work. Although this should have been more than enough to keep them amused, late in 1996, Robin and Duncan decided to pursue the sailing dream more seriously.

The initial idea was cruising via sailboat might allow pursuit of the travel, diving, beach walking, and other warm weather/water activities we enjoyed so much.

After several years of Duncan's "you know what would be cool?", but never doing anything about it, Robin finally said, "If you think it would be so cool, why don't we pursue it? Let's put together a plan". This plan -- roughed out over a fine bottle of California Chardonnay -- is why Robin and Duncan are cruising today.

The plan involved Duncan and Robin attending American Sailing Association (ASA) courses and getting certifications together. Between early 1997 and 1998, we progressed through basic keelboat sailing, basic coastal cruising, coastal navigation/piloting, and bareboat chartering classes -- all offered through Spinnaker Sailing in Redwood City, CA. Spinnaker provided both with a great base of skills, a common vernacular, and shared early experience.

Subsequent charters in San Francisco Bay, Captiva Florida, and Tahiti in French Polynesia added to this experience and confirmed the desire to cruise. The plan also included a boat acquisition and readiness phase and a "cruising kitty" savings plan. Whisper, purchased/delivered in 2000 and outfitted for cruising in 2001, cruised Puget Sound WA, Vancouver BC, the San Juan Islands for a couple of months and many locations around San Francisco Bay.

With this inshore experience under their belt, they were ready to further expand their cruising grounds with some California coastal cruising. From January until November 2002, they did just that.

From November 2002 until March 2004, Robin and Duncan sailed Whisper from California down along Mexico's Pacific coast.

In March 2004, they tackled their first major offshore passage (21 days) -- crossing the Pacific Ocean on Whisper. Stop-overs included several island groups in French Polynesia, Palmerston Atoll, Niue, and Tonga arriving in New Zealand in November 2004. After some New Zealand land travel, they settled in Auckland, New Zealand early in 2005.

From February 2005 until December 2007, Robin and Duncan lived, worked, and played from their home-base whlie continuing to live aboard Whisper in Bayswater Marina on Auckland's Waitemata harbor.

Duncan - Skipper

Duncan sailed Sunfish and Hobie Cats starting in his early teens. Although he crewed on larger boats and took a few sailing and piloting classes in Florida, in the 1980's -- he didn't get serious about sailing until 1997 in California.

Duncan's roles on Whisper involve mechanical, electrical and water systems maintenance, rigger, sail trimmer extraordinaire, co-navigator, watch keeper and helmsman — when he can grab the wheel out of Robin's hands. Robin finds the nickname MacGiver —old TV reference — is apropos due to his abilities to solve tricky problems in a pinch.

He is the primary provider of media on Whisper - photos, music libraries and media systems are some of his passions.

Robin - Co-skipper

Robin sailed a few times prior to meeting Duncan, but pursued it with enthusiasm starting in 1997.

Robin's roles on Whisper extend past the typical cruising female roles due to Duncan realizing the need to humor her. Provisioning, planning navigation routes, gathering weather data, and keeping watch keep her amused. She handles the helm on every docking and anchoring because she prefers the easy jobs. Cooking is outside of her comfort zone, but somehow she manages to prepare most of the meals. She also leads the budget committee to keep any unauthorized gadget-spending under control.