I first came to Maine to visit a friend from the Coast Guard. I had no idea that trip would change the course of my life.

I fell in love with Southwest Harbor, the boats, the people, and the incredible sailing around Mount Desert Island. I started working aboard the schooner Rachel B. Jackson, taking guests sailing out of Southwest Harbor. I also spent time running weeklong sailing charters in the Caribbean, but there was something about the coast of Maine that kept drawing me back.

Eventually, my family and I purchased the Rachel B. Jackson—the very schooner where my sailing career in Southwest Harbor had begun. What started as a job aboard someone else's boat became our own family sailing business in 1998.

For more than a quarter century, we've been sharing the waters around Mount Desert Island with visitors from all over the world. Along the way, I've worked as a boatbuilder, restoring wooden boats and building traditional wooden spars. Today, when I'm not sailing Swan, I teach marine service technology and boatbuilding at Mount Desert Island High School.

After 28 years as a licensed Coast Guard captain, I still love taking people sailing as much as I did when I started.

Southwest Harbor became my home, sailing became my life's work, and sharing it with others never gets old.