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They met in high school and Judy taught Milt how to sail. The couple married in 1962, and they've made a heck of a team ever since. Milt spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy, retiring in 1983 as a commander and serving in the Atlantic and Pacific and Vietnam. The Bakers lived in many places, due to Milt's Navy career, spending time in Japan, Singapore, Southern California, Rhode Island, Florida and the Chesapeake Bay. Judy taught elementary school, but became a real estate investor, buying and renovating old homes, when the couple moved to Florida for good in 1980. Both hold U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Master Captain's Licenses, and both are exceptional mariners.

Wherever they were, they sailed. Judy worked at Fawcetts, a marine retailer in Annapolis, MD, for awhile, and Milt managed the office at Seaside Boat Works, but neither had run a retail business until they opened the doors of Bluewater Books & Charts in Fort Lauderdale's Southport Shopping Center in 1986. They both knew that they loved boats, loved books and charts, and wanted to own a marine business, and they saw a need for a place in Fort Lauderdale where boaters could come to plan their voyages.

Over the next fourteen years, the Bakers turned Bluewater into a successful business. John Mann and Vivien Godfrey purchased Bluewater from the Bakers in 2000, and the Bakers decided to pursue their dream of cruising. They had cruised before on a Grand Banks 32 and then a 42, taking the 42 as far south as Cuba and as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia, but now they had their hearts set on a boat that could take them around the world. They commissioned a Nordhavn 47, one of the most seaworthy boats on the market, pictured below underway in the fjord-like Mochima National Park, just 25 miles up the coast from Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela.

Folks who know Judy and Milt also know that they love Schipperkes (for those who don't know, Schips are small black dogs that were originally bred in Belgium as companions for barge hands on the inland waterways). Their former Schip, Dory, traveled thousands of miles with them, and Katy, just a year old now, joined them a year ago and has spent most of her life as a liveaboard pooch. She may hold the record for the Schipperke with the most boating magazine pictures: two before she was one year old (Motor Boating and Power Cruising). Below, Katy is pictured with boat dog Coco, a 3-year-old Havanese, at Cayo Herradura on the western end of Isla Tortuga, about 75 miles from Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela. Katy is on the left and Coco on the right.

The people (below, from left to right) are Eddie Tuttle (Coco's mom), Judy and Milt. Glenn and Eddie Tuttle are old friends of the Bakers, and cruise aboard their Grand Banks 46. In 1984, the Bakers and the Tuttles lived aboard next door to each other in Annapolis, MD, for a summer.

Milt and Judy have my utmost respect for creating a place like Bluewater where sailors can come to plan and dream. They also created a successful business, and poured a lot of sweat and energy into it. But selling the business to John Mann and Vivien Godfrey has allowed them to devote all their energy to living the dream that they helped promote for so long.

This interview was conducted through email, as the Bakers are currently out cruising. If you see them out there, be sure to say hello!

Melanie: When you started Bluewater Books & Charts back in 1985, what did you envision that the business would be like in twenty years? Did you plan, back then, to eventually retire and go cruising?

Milt: After we came up with the concept for Bluewater Books & Charts in 1985, our focus was so much the course immediately ahead that we didn’t give any thought to where we’d be in 20 years—or even 20 months. There was a business plan to write, retail space to be leased, utilities to be turned on, fixtures to be built, accounts with vendors to open, books and charts to be ordered, a computer inventory system to get up and running, and a million and one details to attend to. On March 10, 1986 when we opened Bluewater to customers for the first time, there was no big staff like today. It was just the two of us. And when we locked up at the end of that day, we said to ourselves, "People really like what we have have to offer here...Bluewater is really going to take off." Still, in the back of our minds, we absolutely knew we’d be back out cruising again, but we did not have a definite timetable.

Judy: When we started Bluewater Books & Charts in 1985, neither of us dared to look ahead twenty years. However, the growth of electronic charting has been phenomenal and really wasn’t a part of the picture when the business began. It changed the business greatly from what I anticipated.

Yes, even when the business consisted of only two employees, Milt and me, we expected to return to cruising someday. We had cruised for two years before beginning the business, and we still loved the cruising lifestyle.

Melanie: Was it difficult to let go of a business that you put so much time and energy into?

Milt: Yes and no. After founding the company and giving it our own brand of hands-on management for 14 years, we knew it was time for a change. Sales profits were increasing at double-digit rates, we had a terrific staff in place, the Bluewater catalog had hit its stride and was bringing in a lot of business, and the new Bluewater website was sailing across the starting line like a one-design champion. The good news was that the business was growing faster than we ever expected, but the bad news was that we began to feel that it was outpacing our ability to stay on top of things. And we missed long-term cruising more than ever. All the signs were right, and we knew it was the time to sell. But Bluewater was our baby and letting go was still harder than either of us thought it would be.

Judy: Yes, it was extremely difficult to let go. The business had been so much a part of the fabric of our lives that being without it left a really big hole. We particularly missed the people, both the staff and the customers. Some of our very best friends today are those that we worked with in the store.

Melanie: Did you find that handling books and charts all day and talking to people who were out there cruising made you even more eager than you would have been otherwise to go?

Milt: Cruising has been our passion for many years, and perhaps that was one of the keys to Bluewater’s early success—we could talk to other cruisers like the cruisers we had been and would be again. So we definitely envied our cruising customers! We sent so many cruisers out of Bluewater with great charts and cruising guides that we began to realize that we really wanted to be on their side of the counter. Of course, we were able to take our own boat on short cruises to the Keys and the Bahamas. We also had the good fortune to cruise with friends in places around the world—Bermuda, the Azores, Australia, Alaska, to name a few. But short cruises like those are not the same as being on your own boat cruising with an open-ended schedule.

Judy: Definitely! I’m sure if we’d been selling shoes or real estate, cruising would have been much farther from our minds. As it was, we helped people with their dreams and their dreams fueled ours.

Melanie: How did you decide on the type of boat you wanted? Have you been happy with the Nordhavn?

Milt: We began sailing as kids and cruised aboard our 32-foot Allied Seawind II ketch, taking her offshore to the Caribbean for a year and then to the Bahamas for a winter right before we opened Bluewater. We were still living aboard that boat when we opened Bluewater, but it was clear to us that long distance cruising was out of the question. We spent summers cruising the Bahamas and the Keys, but summers in both areas are generally without much breeze. We decided that if we were going to motor everywhere, we ought to get a boat that motored well, so we sold the sailboat and bought a trawler. And we fell in love with trawlers.

We’ve been confirmed trawler addicts now for over 15 years, and our Nordhavn is our third trawler. I had admired Nordhavns from afar for quite some time, but then an opportunity arose to help produce a magazine about Nordhavns. When that happened the die was cast for me. I interviewed the company’s founders and officers, and I really liked their no-nonsense approach to designing, engineering and building offshore-capable power boats from the keel up. And the more time I spent learning aboard Nordhavns, the better I liked the boats.

When Nordhavn vice president Jim Leishman told me he was planning to take a group of Nordhavns across the Atlantic on a rally, I knew I wanted to be involved. Of course, I wanted to go on one of the boats, but Jim had other ideas. With Judy’s able assistance, I ended up managing the rally for Nordhavn on a pro bono basis, something that turned out to be one of the best experiences of our lives. Working with the people at Nordhavn, we planned the rally, did the advance work and visited the ports of call a year in advance to put the elements of the rally in place, wrote the rally operations manual, and flew ahead to make final arrangements in each port and be on the pier when the boats arrived. In the end, 18 boats and over 100 people crossed the Atlantic from Fort Lauderdale to Gibraltar on the rally, and, aside from a little weather, it was essentially trouble free. Once Judy and I saw up-close and in person how the Nordhavn team treated every captain and crewmember on the rally, the decision was made: our next boat would be a Nordhavn. We placed our order for a new Nordhavn 47 shortly after the rally was over.

Judy: We both wanted a boat that would be safe and comfortable and could be easily handled by two people in their sixties. While I’ve seen some lovely large boats, I’ve never lusted after one for myself. I’m a believer in going as simple as comfort and safety allow. The Nordhavn has more than filled our requirements. It’s a great boat, well made and comfortable. I really love it.

Melanie: Even though the boat was brand new, how long did it take you to prepare and equip it?

Milt: We did something that many experienced skippers would consider foolhardy: we took a brand new and untried boat offshore from the United States to the Southern Caribbean just a few weeks after taking delivery. We took delivery in September 2005 and by the time we left Beaufort, NC, for Puerto Rico just two months later, we’d already been through the fringes of Hurricane Ophelia and we had logged over 1,500 miles with the boat, including several overnight passages. Our 1,200-mile offshore passage to Puerto Rico and 500-mile passage on to Venezuela were textbook, with virtually no problems. Now that we have had a winter of living aboard and cruising in the Southern Caribbean, we have really fine-tuned the boat.

Melanie: Why did you do so much so soon?

Milt: Simply put, we wanted to give the yacht and its systems a good test before taking it across the Atlantic in 2007. To be sure, we are coming back to the U.S. this summer with a list, but it’s mostly want-to-do things, not need-to-do things. Happily, our list of warranty work is short and non-pressing.

Melanie: Where have you been since you left Fort Lauderdale?

Milt: We took Bluewater up the Gulf Stream to Georgia until the makings of Hurricane Ophelia forced us into port. From there, we worked our way up the ICW until Ophelia passed by, then took an offshore run from Cape Fear to Norfolk. We took the boat up the Chesapeake as far as Oxford, MD, before turning south. From Beaufort, NC, we and our good friend Dean Wiley took the boat to Fajardo, Puerto Rico, which took us exactly a week. We then went to Culebra and St. Thomas before heading almost due south across the Caribbean for Venezuela. We spent the winter at Puerto la Cruz, with frequent cruises to the offshore islands and other points along the coast. In her first six months, Bluewater has just over 4,000 miles in her wake. By the time we reach Maine in July it’ll be more like 6,500 miles.

Melanie: What, so far, has been the best part of your trip? The worst?

Milt: The best part has been seeing how well our new boat has handled everything we’ve thrown at her in her first 4,000 miles. This is a boat made to go offshore and take care of her crew while doing so, and she does it very well. We are surprised how comfortable and rested we are after a passage. We’ve also been extremely pleased with how comfortable the boat is for living aboard at anchor and at the dock. And with the systems integrity—the systems on the Nordhavn 47 are built to last!.

A close second would be how much we have enjoyed living and cruising in Venezuela for the past four months. Venezuela is a nation with enormous problems and huge potential. Venezuela’s people are warm and friendly and welcoming, its geography is truly stunning in so many ways, and it’s a land of plenty with a nearly perfect climate. Not only that but the dollar is still very strong in Venezuela, which makes living there inexpensive by Stateside standards. As usual, it’s the people you meet cruising—both cruisers and locals—that makes the experience so special.

The worst part has been running from Hurricane Ophelia, which seemed to plague Bluewater every day of the first two weeks we owned the boat. The elements which morphed into Ophelia were stirring up the Gulf Stream when we made our first overnight passage out there, and as a full hurricane Ophelia forced us to go in the ICW and seek shelter in South Carolina, slowing our trip north. For awhile it seemed like we were destined to operate the boat in 25 to 40 knot winds forever, but it gave us good experience and we’ve seen such weather only once or twice since.

Melanie: Do you have an itinerary or are you just planning on going where seas take you?

Milt: Serendipity is great, but it doesn’t fit us very well—we work best when we have a plan. Our plan is to take the Bluewater to the Mediterranean in 2007 via Bermuda and the Azores, then spend a few years cruising there, leaving the boat for much of the winter and flying home to Fort Lauderdale. Will we have had enough cruising when it comes time to leave the Med? I doubt it! But "where next" is a question we have not yet to even begin to consider. We’ll take it one step at a time!

Judy: We don’t have a hard and fast itinerary, but we do have plans to cruise New England and the Chesapeake this summer and fall and then take the boat to the Mediterranean next spring. I would guess that we’d have the boat in the Med/Europe for three or four years. After that, who knows? Alaska and the Pacific Northwest are a possibility, but so are lots of other places. We know better than to plan really far ahead. Life always gets in the way.