About Her Owners

Capt. Edmund "Bear" Downing was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area of California, and lived there for more than half a century. He began his professional life in 1962 as a computer programmer in the early days of the Silicon Valley, and has continued that line of work until his retirement in 2001.

Bear's avocation has been sailing, an interest he's had since he was a "little nipper". Even when he didn't have his own sailboat, he read extensively on the subject and occasionally crewed with friends. While he has raced, his primary sailing interest has been cruising.

Capt. Katherine "Kit" Hitchcock met Bear in 1980. Born in San Francisco and raised "all over" as an Army Brat, she returned to the San Francisco Bay area after college to work as a computer programmer until her retirement. Before meeting Bear, Kit had sailed on San Francisco Bay on a number of occasions and had been on a week-long charter in Hawaii.

With Kit's encouragement, Bear purchased his first cruising sailboat, the Redwood Coast, a Brown Searunner 31 trimaran from her original owner and builder. Together they cruised Monterey and Carmel, San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento and San Joaquin river delta region on the Redwood Coast for a number of years. When they were married in Sausalito on New Year's Eve, 1982, they sailed away from the reception in her.

In 1988 they donated the Redwood Coast to charity, with the idea of chartering for the next several years. Charters included the Pacific Northwest, the Virgin Islands, and the St. Maartin area of the Caribbean.

During the chartering years, Bear kept looking for his idea of a perfect boat. In 1993 he finally found her, and purchased Volant from her original owners. Volant was located in St. Petersburg, Florida, where they took possession. Since they were living in Palo Alto, California, at the time and their cruising plans were predicated on starting from the U.S. West Coast, their biggest question was, "What are we doing with a boat in Florida?"

At first, they continued working and living in California, while periodically visiting Volant in Florida. Then, in the Winter of 1994 through the Spring of 1995, they embarked on their first long-term cruise. They spent nearly six months cruising The Bahamas in Volant.

At the end of that cruise, Bear and Kit put her up on the hard and returned to their home and jobs in California. It wasn't long before they decided that it was silly to have such a nice boat in Florida while they remained in California. In less than a year, they had managed to arrange to continue their California jobs and live on Volant by telecommuting. Bear and Kit have been continuously living on Volant ever since.

But just living on the boat wasn't enough. Before long they were planning their next cruise. They decided on their next major cruise, a eighteen month long tour of the Caribbean Sea. Their route was to take them south down the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, across South America then northward up Central America. A Total Eclipse of the Sun, predicted for February 26, 1998 and viewable from Antigua in the Eastern Caribbean, was their excuse. They left on January 9, 1998 and returned on May 8, 1999, completing their cruise as planned.

On returning from their Caribbean trip, they decided to study for their U.S. Coast Guard 50 Ton Master's License examination. They received their licenses, including sail and towing endorsements, in July, 1999.

From mid spring to mid autumn of 2001 in Volant they cruised the entire Eastern Seaboard from South Florida to Nova Scotia and back. And in July of 2002 they spent a month sailing in Sweden on a friend's boat.

In August, 2003, Volant was shipped to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for their next major cruise. They are currently exploring the fabled Pacific Northwest, from Puget Sound to Glacier Bay. After that...?