September 17, 2003

Sailing into the sunset

Retired couples take off on multi-year Caribbean cruise

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

Sailing into the sunset with pension in pocket is a variant on the great American Dream.
Two area couples will be living that dream over the next few years. Ann Drury and Denny Lautner and Joel and Gail Mars launched on a multi-year cruise of the Caribbean in two sailboats. The husband-wife teams are exchanging decades of workday challenges for the calm of open rivers and seas. Even inevitable stormy weather does not phase these experienced sailors, who have visions of spontaneous swims, stunning sunsets and carefree days in their heads.

Herald photo by Carol South
Kicking off their retirement with great ambition, two couples headed to the Caribbean Monday for a multi-year boat cruise: Denny Lautner adn Ann Drury, seated from left, and Gail and Joe Mars. The couples have been dreaming about the trip for a decade and ,with Drury and Gail Mars' retirement last spring from Traverse City Area Public Schools, they were ready to go in their two sailboats.

"I'm looking forward to being able to just jump off the boat every day and swim," said Gail Mars, who retired as a first-grade teacher at Courtade Elementary School last spring. "I love the water."
"We are really looking forward to it, it is something we've talked about for years," added Ann Drury, who with her husband has been sailing for decades and will sail a 38-foot sailboat. "There is some apprehension because of the unknown and you know there will be difficult things along the way, but we're starting a whole new chapter in our lives."
Mars' husband, Joel, is a retired State Police Trooper and also served four years on the Traverse City Area Public School Board. Both Lautner and Drury retired after more than three decades of teaching in TCAPS, Lautner a year ago and Drury last spring as principal of Oak Park Elementary School.
The foursome has been talking about this expedition for ten years, making serious plans for the past two years as retirement dates drew near. They began planning routes, which includes part of the Great Circle Route through the central United States to the Gulf of Mexico. The also had many logistics to handle: houses, cars, family, communication, banking and, most difficult of all, deciding what to take and packing it.
"We pack and unpack and pack again," said Gail Mars, noting their 35-foot sailboat has myriad storage nooks, shelves and cupboards.
The Mars fell in love with sailing after taking a spring break trip with Lautner and Drury ten years ago. Joel Mars said the peace of sailing lured him from his powerboating ways, a sport he pursued since he was 12 years old.
"I liked the quietness," he recalled. "When we went with Ann and Dennis on their sailboat and they turned their engines off, well, the next summer we had one."
The couple had a trial by fire on their second sail, bringing their boat into Northport under sail after their engine quit and a storm was looming. This experience, added to years of sailing, gave them the confidence to undertake this trip.
"It's more about experience than training," said Joel Mars. "The ocean is much easier sailing than the Great Lakes for the same amount of wind, out there it is just rollers and sky whereas here the waves will chop you up."
The first leg of their journey will take them to Chicago, where they will have the mast removed from each boat. A semi-truck will drive the masts down to the Gulf while the couples will sail a variety of inland rivers, including the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee, until they reach the ocean.
"We have to take the masts off because of the bridges," noted Joel Mars.
The most challenging part of their itinerary is the jump from the Florida to the Bahamas, a 90-mile open sea sail. Neither couple has completed an overnight sail before but are confident they can work it out. Once in the Caribbean, after spending Christmas with family who will join them in Florida, they will laze from island to island, no timetable to guide them.
"I am looking forward to not being on a schedule, we're not in a hurry to get anywhere," said Joel Mars.
The intrepid sailors plan to get out of the way of hurricane season, which will begin next July. They could either travel south of Grenada to avoid the danger or moor the boats somewhere and spend the summer in Traverse City.
Modern technology including satellite radio, cell phone, laptop computers and e-mail will keep them connected to family and friends. Ann Drury plans to update a weekly log listing their travels and notable happenings.
A planned stream of visitors will keep them from getting too lonely. Each boat can sleep seven so at times the idyllic trip may get rowdy, but both couples look forward to sharing their expedition with family and friends.