DREAMS ON BOARD, 2009-2014

A boat is a symbol of togetherness: when you share a vessel, you share a fate. Dreams On Board captures the time my family prepared to sail around the world with our young children, expressing both the challenges and the romance of family life on a sailboat.


The dream began in childhood, when I read Dove by Robin Lee Graham. In 1965, at sixteen, Graham set out from San Pedro, California, on a solo voyage around the world in a 24-foot sloop. Five years and 33,000 miles later, he returned home with a wife, a daughter, and enough extraordinary experiences to fill a bestselling book. His story stayed with me, and I carried that ambition into my fifties.


The book represents a vessel. They are contextual, universal symbols of story being told or a history being recorded. For my book Dreams On Board, I carved out a physical copy of the novel Dove and filled it with postcards from our own family’s voyages. Some postcards show dreamy, idealized, scenic views. While other postcards show my children seasick, bored, or in precarious situations.


Postcards historically present a curated version of travel, showing only the beautiful, hand-picked details of a place. The postcards do this while also sharing the less than perfect reality of living a dream on board a 38' sailboat.


Tan linen-textured portfolio box with a flat lid and a small wooden toggle clasp, photographed from above on a white background.
Linen-bound book with a mustard spine and white paper band, centered on an open mustard and clear-panel folding box on a white background.
Open sailing photo album with a ribbon and a stack of loose prints showing a hand gripping a mooring post and a sailboat on the water.
Diced yellow tomatoes with juices on a wooden cutting board, with a red container blurred in the background.
Wet child with damp hair sits on a sailboat deck beside a wooden-slatted seat, gazing out at the calm sea during bath time.
Sleepy young child with tousled hair lies on a white pillow in bed, gazing at the camera in a floral pajama top.
Close-up of a sailor's hand gripping a wooden ship's wheel beside a brass binnacle compass on a sailboat sailing in calm, hazy waters.
Flock of seagulls flying against a pale gray sky over the Pacific Ocean, with the caption 'Birds mean land is near'.
Aerial view of a wooden boarding ladder descending into deep emerald green water, framed as a print captioned S/V Pelican.
Woman in a colorful striped bikini top and red-trimmed bottoms stands on a sailboat deck with blue water and rigging in the background.
Curly-haired child hugs a blue sailboat boom against a bright sky, captioned Boom Boy, S/V Pelican.
Person glimpsed through a narrow gap between polished wooden cabin doors aboard a sailboat, captioned Nowhere to hide, S/V Pelican.
Rugged sunlit cliffs of Catalina Island rise above dark ocean waters, with low fog drifting across the ridgeline under a soft blue sky.
Young girl in a sparkly silver dress dances on a sailboat deck, holding the rail beside a marina with moored sailboats and sparkling water.
Two children relax inside a cozy sailboat cabin, a boy in a blue graphic t-shirt sitting in front while a girl plays behind him.
Child's bare legs dangle from a wooden boat edge, wearing a floral skirt, in a sunlit Dana Point, CA scene.
Close-up of a person's feet in decorative gold sandals with colorful beads, standing on a sunlit boat deck casting soft shadows.
Wispy white clouds stretch across a blue sky above calm Pacific Ocean waters and a dark mountainous coastline on the horizon.
Bare foot resting on a weathered wooden dock post wrapped with white and red rope, with blue sailboat details blurred in the background.
Two dolphins surface in choppy green Pacific Ocean waters, leaving white foamy wakes near the Port Bow.
Young blonde child jumping on a bed in a wood-paneled sailboat cabin aboard S/V Pelican, seen through a doorway.
A man in sunglasses plays a ukulele aboard a sailboat in the evening, with sparkling water reflecting light behind him.
Sailor leans off the side of the sailboat SV Pelican, with rigging and a blue sail overhead above calm turquoise water near a rocky coast.
Young child with wind-blown hair leans on a wooden rail against a blue and white striped sail aboard a sailboat.
View from a sailboat deck at sunset, showing the foredeck, rigging, and blue sail cover with boats anchored in a calm harbor.
Child in a blue shirt stands in a dimly lit sailboat cabin, touching a window as warm sunlight streams across the wooden interior.
Golden sun low on the horizon casts a shimmering reflection across calm blue Pacific Ocean waters under a soft, cloud-streaked sky.
Young child in a blue life jacket gripping a rope on a sailboat deck while an adult's hand steadies them above calm gray water.
Smiling girl in pink pajamas kicks her leg up on a cozy sailboat bunk beside a sleeping child, with a round porthole above.
Snorkeler wearing a mask and blue snorkel floats at the water's surface in the Pacific Ocean with rocky hills in the background.
Lone sailboat on the calm Pacific Ocean at dusk, with soft pastel skies and gentle waves in the foreground, titled Leaving Shore.
Fine art photograph of a rope on a boat railing with a blurred Catalina Island coastline and calm ocean horizon at dusk.
Calm gray-green ocean water off Catalina Island near Goat Harbor, with misty hills in the distance and a boat railing in the foreground.
Wooden ukulele resting on the polished teak deck of a sailboat, with sails and calm ocean water softly blurred in the background.
Two people in a small inflatable boat on dark rippling Pacific Ocean water beneath a shadowed coastal cliff.
Sailor in a red knit hat works on the rigging of the sailboat SV Pelican under an overcast sky.
Hand reaches into splashing Pacific Ocean water from the side of an inflatable dinghy.
Pale green sea urchin shell rests on a polished wooden surface, a natural treasure photographed aboard SV Pelican.
Wooden boat railing frames the calm gray ocean and hazy horizon in a moody passage photograph aboard SV Pelican.
Child in a black pirate hat and life vest steers a sailboat with a wooden helm wheel, titled The Pirate Captain, SV Pelican.
Child in a life vest kneels on a sunlit wooden boat dock, carefully coiling a rope as part of a proper line coiling procedure.
Sunlight glistens on calm bay water as sailboats rest at anchor, viewed from the deck of the sailing vessel SV Pelican.
A dolphin surfaces in calm gray-green Pacific Ocean waters while a lone seagull glides through the misty sky above.
Dimly lit close-up of a person resting with hands held to their face, wearing a bracelet, in dark moody tones.
Wooden bookshelf aboard SV Pelican holds nautical books, a woven basket, and a push-button signal horn.
Child with closed eyes leans on a wooden rail aboard a sailboat with the gray, choppy ocean behind.
Close-up of a sailboat's white mast with coiled ropes, rigging lines and winches against a calm, misty sea under a pale gray sky.
Overhead view of a swimmer in emerald green water at Fourth of July Cove, Catalina Island.
A child in a red wetsuit stands on a boat's edge, reaching a pole into the clear, reflective water beside the hull.
Coiled white rope with blue flecks sits beside black and pink flip-flops lined up on a weathered dock at Dana Point Harbor.
Person in patterned shorts sits on the edge of a gray Achilles inflatable boat, feet dangling in calm water at dusk.
Person climbs the mast of a sailboat beside a blue sail cover against a pale, hazy sky.
A young boy in a colorful life jacket sits on a sailboat's bow beside the rail, with calm sea behind him.
Group of sea lions rest at the surface of the blue Pacific Ocean with a distant boat on the horizon.
A young girl in a polka dot top peeks around a weathered wooden boat structure while a person works in the background.
Young child in pink sitting on a blue tufted sofa, reading a colorful book, framed by a wooden edge.
Silhouetted figure runs along a dock at Third Point Harbor with a mast reflected in the dark water.
Barefoot sailor standing on a sailboat boom beside a bright blue sail cover, with rigging against a pale sky.
Toddler in a blue life jacket and red patterned sleeves holds a white sailboat line while gazing over calm blue-green water.
A smiling child peeks out from under a wooden berth, hiding playfully in the captain's quarters of a sailboat.
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