The Crew

Today a little about the Morgan "Crew" that will be making the journey.  My wife, Zetty, and I have three children, Zoe (6), Leah (4) and Rose (1) .  As noted, the kids are pretty young now, which is why we are going to opt for the 2015 passage.  By then Zoe will be 9, Leah 6 1/2, and Rosie will be 4.  They should be able bodied sea-women by then!  They have two Opti's to practice their "long" distance sailing in between now and 2015.

Zoe and Lou (LJ)

I was born and raised in Oconomowoc, WI USA.  I started sailing when I was about 6 years old and have never looked back.  I've competed mainly in the I.L.Y.A scow classes, X, M-16,C,E and A during my career.  My father, Lou Sr., was a huge sailor, and many of our family vacations as kids landed us in the Caribbean on various charter yachts.  In 1986 my mother and father purchased a Nautor's Swan 43.  For the next 12 years we plied the Caribbean islands and then ventured across the Atlantic to the Med.  I was hooked on long distance sailing!  In 1997, my father decided to retire and fulfill his life long dream of circumnavigating.  He again went to Finland and bought a Swan 57RS for the trip.  That's a picture of her during our visit to Antarctica in 1999 in the blog background.  We started the Millennium Odyssey, (MO), in London and finished back in our home port of Falmouth Harbor, Antigua in 2000.  I met my wife on that trip and after returning home, before kids, we purchased a Shannon 43 Ketch to keep our cruising up on the Great Lakes.  All told, I think I must have about 60,000 ocean miles under my belt.  I am a member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club.  Our route on the MO took us around Cape Horn, to Antarctica and around Cape of Good Hope so we did a fair amount of high latitude sailing.  My wife and I think that was the best part of that whole trip and hence our decision for the Northwest Passage.

Leah and Zetty

Lisette, better known as Zetty, is from Lyndhurst, in the U.K.  She also grew up in a sailing family, more so than mine.  They spent many summers in Poole Harbor  sailing Cadet's, Wayfarer's and Red Fox's.  Zetty's father Paul Boot, was the founder of Red Fox Yachts.  When Zetty was eighteen, her parents reluctantly let her sail across the Atlantic as one of two crew on a 28ft boat and she was hooked.  She spent a summer as a Bosun's Mate on the Tall Ship Lord Nelson.  We met in London just before the start of the MO in '98.  She was crew aboard Happy Spirit, an Ocean 60, a boat owned by her friend Liz's father.  Zetty joined the Risque crew 4 months later.  Zetty currently campaigns her MC Scow here in Oconomowoc on Lac La Belle.

Rose