We've been asking all summer for readers to tell us about their favorite cruising companions. Joy Kimball of Amesbury, Mass., was the only one to take us up on the offer, but that's fine because hers is so nice it more than makes up for all the missing ones.



I have the perfect cruising companion — my husband, Hans de Bruin. I met Hans in 1997 while on a solo vacation to Curacao. There, having never set foot on a sailboat before, I took a day sail charter and Hans was the skipper. It was a storybook romance that would later see much travel and many teary-eyed airport scenes.

Hans was born and raised in Holland and lived there until 1983 when, fed up with the rat race, he loaded all his belongings into his small sailboat (along with his cat) and did his first solo trans-Atlantic crossing It was so rough a crossing that when he landed in St. Maarten the cat jumped ship, preferring land to the boat. Hans did the opposite, living aboard ship and sailing the Caribbean for 15 years before he met me.

Meanwhile, I lived in Massachusetts raising twin daughters Kim and Kate and running a business.

Back in the Caribbean, Hans found the yacht of his dreams in Bonaire, bought it as a wreck, and began the daunting task of restoring her. I went to Bonaire to find out if what we both felt was real (it was, and then some), and to find out how we would fare together on his 34-foot Orion sailboat, New Create. I knew nothing about sailing and both of us had lived on our own for so long there was a lot that could go wrong there. As it turned out, everything went real right there.

Hans set sail for Massachusetts after much traveling back and forth and upon arriving declared he never wanted to sail solo again, and asked me to marry him. We were married on the bow of New Create at Merri-Mar Yacht Basin in October 2000 in the Merrimac River and have been together from there ever since.

Hans is my perfect sailing companion because he is such an experienced sailor I trust my life to him. In questionable situations I never have to worry because if it weren't safe he wouldn't do it. He never yells at me when I do something stupid, which in the beginning was most of the time. He just calmly explains where I went wrong so I get it right the next time. He is a great teacher and I enjoy learning.

We have done a lot of sailing in the Gulf of Maine — most memorable was going hard aground in Yarmouth, N.S., feeling our way into the harbor at Cutler, Maine, and day tripping home, all in a pea soup fog. We are going back this summer to see what it looked like.

Hans and I are perfect sailing companions because we cherish the time spent together on New Create — the adventures, the closeness, and the serenity that two people can find away from the rest of the world. And, yes, we have a lot of fun. That's what sailing is supposed to be about anyway, having fun. We do it to the max.

It's never too late to tell your story. If you'd like to tell us about your ideal cruising companion — or anything else — send it to editor@pointseast.com.