About the Author

Belinda Chesman, a marine biologist, and her partner Kit McAllister, a marine civil engineering surveyor, sailed the south coast of England and northern France for years in their first yacht, a Contessa 32.

In 2007 they purchased Quilcene, their cutter rigged Bowman 40 designed by American Chuck Paine and built in England 1991. They finished work and set sail from Plymouth. Heading first into the Mediterranean they lived aboard for six years, dropped the hook in 13 countries and visited 44 Greek Islands.

They left the Med in 2013, sailed to the Canary and Cape Verde islands, then crossed the Atlantic to Suriname, South America, in 2014. They sailed north through the Caribbean Islands, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the east coast of the USA.

Quilcene is currently on the hard in Port Whitby, Lake Ontario.

Quilcene is an American Indian word meaning ‘People of the Salt Water’, and is also a town on the West coast of the USA.