Our story began in the British Virgin Islands aboard SeaTrek BVI a live-aboard sea camp for teenagers. Sasha was teaching sailing while I was guiding students beneath the surface as a scuba instructor. Between sunrise water sports, reef dives, and showing young adventurers the magic of the ocean, we discovered a shared passion for life on the water—and realized our best adventures would be the ones we built together.

Turning our passion into a lifestyle, we stepped into the world of term charters, managing and running privately owned 50–60 ft catamarans throughout the Virgin Islands. As active members of the BVI Charter Yacht Society, we honed our skills in seamanship, hospitality, and yacht maintenance, learning the ins and outs of living and working together in small, dynamic spaces at sea.

Ready to forge our own path, we took on an audacious project: transforming an empty, bare aluminum hull into a fully functional, custom-engineered floating pizzeria. Over the course of 2 years every system, bulkhead, and galley station was designed and built with our own hands, blending marine engineering with culinary ambition to create something the maritime world had never seen before.

What started as a bold idea turned into a Caribbean icon. Anchored in Christmas Cove, Pizza Pi grew from a grassroots floating galley into a world-famous destination celebrated by sailors, travelers, and food lovers from across the globe. Operating Pi taught us resilience, creativity, and the joy of creating community wherever the anchor drops.

Trading the turquoise waters of the Caribbean for Florida’s Space Coast, our maritime journey took a high-tech turn. Sasha joined the SpaceX Dragon recovery operations, supporting cutting-edge astronaut and capsule recovery missions at sea. Our years in Florida grounded us and gave our young family space to find our rhythm - homeschooling, traveling, working, and playing.

The ocean and the cruising community have always felt like home, and the call to return once our kids were old enough was impossible to resist. Grounded by years of varied experience, we’ve packed up life on land to embark on our greatest chapter yet: cruising full-time as a family. For the next few years, we will choosing to wander—setting out to show our kids an alternative lifestyle, deepen their connection to the natural world, and cultivate genuine grit, one anchorage at a time.