Dave has been sailing from a young age when his Dad and Mom built an A-frame cottage on a small lake in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. His Dad built a sailboard and a rowboat and painted them fire-engine red and his Mom sewed the sails. It was a perfect summer get-a-way where he enjoyed sailing and rowing around the lake, often catching bullfrogs and rainbow trout. He continued sailing at the cottage and on summer Boy Scout trips to Lake Dunmore, VT on Snarks and Lasers. He always found places to sail small boats after college in Raleigh, NC and Austin, TX before finally buying his own boat, a Catalina 30 shortly after moving to the Seattle area. Quixote served him and Satin well throughout the Puget Sound area for 10 years until they purchased their current boat, a Hylas 54 named Anila.
Dave has a Computer Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Before heading out on our current adventure he worked for over 25 years in the software industry for Data General, a startup in Austin, and most recently Microsoft. When not sailing or fixing/upgrading Anila, he also enjoys skiing, ice hockey, bicycling, reading, and generally tinkering with IoT hardware and software.
Satin gave sailing a try for the first time in college with a trip to Lake Shasta and windsurfing on Lake Oroville. Then in 1996 when she met Dave, who owned a 30 ft. Catalina sailboat, she began to really learn to sail. She spent summers on the trusty Catalina named Quixote until 2005 when Anila, a 54 ft Hylas sailboat entered her life.
At five months pregnant with her second child she had no choice but to learn how to dock the boat because jumping off wasn’t an option. If she had thought about all the differences between Quixote and Anila: size going from a 30 – 54 foot boat, cockpit arrangement from an aft to center, and weight from light to very heavy she would’ve said “No way, I cannot do this.”
In those days the Brennan’s were quite a sight to see coming. Docking was a spectacle and amusing for all those watching. With a yellow lab named Razz, clipped on one side of the cockpit barking and whining to go ashore; a two-year old toddler named Camille clipped to the other side via her harness, jumping up and down, squealing with excitement; Satin’s big, pregnant belly; and the crew trying to hear each other over the noise; there was no chance for a quiet landing.
And so it began, the seeds of adventure. Satin and Dave began hatching their long-term plans to set sail, one day, on Anila for far away places.
Camille was only two months old when her Mom and Dad bundled her up and brought her aboard their first sailboat, “Quixote”, a Catalina 30’ which was cramped for the family of three and the dog. When Satin became pregnant with Kyra, plans for a bigger boat arose. Their new Hylas 54’ named “Anila” made it to Seattle, just in time for the annual trip to the San Juan and Gulf Islands for the Fourth of July. With Camille tied into the cockpit by her life jacket, they pulled away from the dock. As a curious girl running around the boat, her Dad was anxious to teach her all about sailing, she learned early to sail. Later, she participated in a summer sailing camp in Bellevue where she got even more experience on little, more responsive Opti’s and Lasers sailing around Meydenbauer Bay.
Other than Camille’s sailing adventures, she has participated in everything that comes her way. She could be found playing piano, singing with her choir, playing soccer or volleyball, learning French or violin. She previously attended a performing arts school (RSAR) in Sammamish, Washington and was always busy with practicing a dance, or preparing for a musical or play. Even with spending most of her free time in the car, she always found a way to plan last minute sleepovers with friends, or be busy on her phone.
After 14 years of growing up in rainy Seattle, she is excited about embarking on their floating adventure sailing to sunny weather. The trip on the boat will be an experience of a lifetime even though she is still sad about leaving friends and WiFi. She misses all her friends but intends to stay in touch!
Kyra was born in 2005 when the Brennan’s bought Anila, a 54 ft. Hylas sailboat. The Brennan’s continued to do their annual boating trip in July to the San Juan Islands located in Puget Sound. She loves hanging out with her good friend Dahlia on the July boating trip and will miss her this year.
In 2015 she did her first sailing class at the Meydenbauer Bay Yacht Club. She sailed in an Opti and only capsized once. The class sailed to Clyde Beach Park to have lunch on the last day.
Kyra is now 12 years old and still learning to sail from her mom and dad. They are teaching her how to sail and run Anila, such as important skills like turning on the engine. (It is not as easy as it seems.)
On the boat Kyra loves to bake and cook. She cooks many things for dinners including mango chicken with coconut rice and homemade pizza. She is also ecstatic to bake yummy treats and special requests. She especially loves baking pies, macaron, galette, and lava cake.
She is excited for this adventure and can’t wait to explore.