The Crew - Who we are.

Bowman Justin during Transpac

Some of Justin's hobbies

So I will start the story from my point of view. I grew up with the tropical beaches and blistering heat of Northern Australia. I have been sailing since I was a little kid when my Uncle Dave and Aunty Pat introduced me to sailing back in 1992 and so started my life long passion for sailing and the ocean. I have competed at a national level in various dinghy classes in Australia as well as some international friendly's with our New Zealand brothers also gaining multiple senior instructors qualifications through the AYF. I stayed in school graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree and entered the work force but then I got itchy feet and I decided to go on a "walk about" as the phrase goes where I quit my job and sold everything . To start I bought a one way ticket to Canada with the vague idea of travelling around the world or parts of it at least. After a fantastic summer in Canada/USA I was discovering the wonder of snowboarding in Canada and facing a dwindling cash supply. Two choices arose of heading south to explore cheaper countries or find work in Canada. Luckily a job arose in Fort McMurray that sounded pretty good so I stayed. I met Loree in "the Mac" and the rest as they say is history. Being a land locked sailor was starting to get to me and that's when the idea of getting my own yacht emerged and so the dream that I never thought I could afford came to fruition.

My sailing Resume is below.

Justin Sailing Resume

https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-mark-spillman-peng-397a7833

Cheers
Justin (aka. Sailor Spilly)

Loree leading the way

From Cape Breton growing up on the East Coast I was around water a lot but never really got into boats and sailing until I met Justin in Fort McMurray. I tried out sailing in a small 12 foot sailing dinghy when we were visiting back in Australia and things escalated from there shall we say. Now we are sailing off on a 42 ft yacht from Vancouver to the East coast of Canada via the Panama Canal.

Vada resting

Vada is the spirit of the crew and final member of the regular crew. She is a rescue dog with a great temperament who has adapted well to life on the boat. As you can see above she demonstrates a dogs life at sea working hard at hardly working.