We are David and Marge Back, sailing fanatics and general goofballs.  This is our attempt to chronicle our sailing, travel and learning experiences.  We met on Lake Superior, sailed together on Lake Superior, fell in love on Lake Superior and eventually got married on Lake Superior.  We are always hanging around the marina, working on boat projects, bugging our friends about sailing things, out sailing or dreaming of our next adventure.  We love to tinker, improve and make our boat better.  We have done tons of cool boat projects and a few that were not so fun.  We usually learn from our mistakes creative solutions and things usually work out for the better.  We will try to document some of the more interesting projects we’ve done so hopefully others can learn a thing or two from us.

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David

I grew up in the Twin Cities, west of Minneapolis, MN.  I learned to sail at the age of 15 when a friend’s uncle purchased a 19′ Flying Scot sailboat and took us sailing on Lake Minnetonka.  We learned how to rig a boat, raise sails, tack through the wind and how not to tip over.  I fell in love with sailing very quickly, and throughout my college years I would grab a bottle of water, my sailing gloves and life jacket and go down to the marina docks on race days and bum a ride with whoever would take me on as crew.  I raced for a couple of summers with a captain on the St. Croix River near Hudson, WI and really enjoyed that.  Eventually I found myself crewing for two summers in Bayfield, WI on Lake Superior.  Our biggest achievement was winning the TransSuperior sailing race from Sault Saint Marie, MI to Duluth, MN in 2001 (corrected time).  I believe that was the longest fresh-water sailboat race in the world.  It was during that race that I decided I really needed to get my own boat.  I found a beautiful boat in the spring of 2002, made the purchase and brought her up to Barker’s Island Marina in Superior, WI on Lake Superior.  This course of events would end up changing my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined.  Marge and I have lived, breathed and sailed Lake Superior together since 2004 and we continue to love every minute of it.

If you’re family, you know me.  At least you know I love to sail, fly, build things, write and explore.  Some times we don’t get enough time when we’re together to really talk about the other things.  Maybe some of my less known hobbies will be featured on these pages as the years go by.  Guess you’ll just have to keep looking back here to see what we’re up to.

Marge

I was born and raised in Duluth, MN on Lake Superior. I think the lake and the water have always been special for me. I didn’t start sailing until I was in my 20’s with friends off of Park Point. Eventually I started sailing with my sister in the Apostle Islands on charters out of Bayfield WI, thru a group from 3M where she worked. We did this every summer/fall for many years. During that time we had the opportunity to take some bareboat charter trips to the Bahamas and the French West Indies, St, Martin’s, St. Bart’s, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Saba, Anguilla. I was pretty well hooked by that time.

In the fall of 1997 I decided I wanted to buy a boat of my own, so I started to look around. My brother Tim actually found it. She was 26 feet long, a wooden boat, (more work) but she was going to be mine. So in the spring of 1998 I closed on the deal and had my first sailboat Hearts Desire! She was a great first boat for me and she sailed like a dream. I kept her at Barkers Island Marina in Superior WI. During that time David showed up at the Marina with his new boat Seremotl. We on “C” dock sort of pulled him into our boating family and that was the beginning of a new chapter for me. In the fall of 2004 David and I were pretty much a team. In 2006 I sold Hearts Desire and Seremotl became our boat for many wonderful years. In 2013 we bought Wandering Toes, our latest and greatest! Now the fun begins. Follow along for all our adventures, I hope you’ll have as much fun reading about them as we have doing them!

Fair Winds!