Sitting behind the wheel of The Far Side, the captain of his own vessel, John Meyers, listens to the wind in the sails, the water lapping up the side of the hull. He looks out at the horizon, thinking about how hard he worked to make a dream out of nothing, and how grateful he was to those who helped him see it.

Growing up in the small town of Brentwood, NY, John Meyers never thought that he would ever leave, let alone sail the world. After leaving Port Jefferson High in his junior year for three months and working at a nursing home, some of the patients convinced him otherwise.

After dropping out John worked at a nursing home cleaning pots and pans, a job available to someone without any degree. At lunch time everyone came together to eat and discuss their life before living there.

“Listening to their stories of their very much more affluent recreational activities, I realized that there is an advantage to continuing my education, and going to college.” And so with this realization he went back to school and began to work twice as hard as before, to catch up on the 3 months he lost.

So much work went into where he is today, but today he is happier than ever.

He knew that if he wanted to have those affluent activities as well there would be a long road ahead of him. Scoring well in physics and math in high school and scoring high on the GRE for physics after attending Sultan County Community College in NY, John decided to attend the coop engineering program at University of Virginia. After some years of having to work and attend school, he finished his degree at the age of 26.

During and after college John worked in a naval research lab in Virginia, and when they needed someone to go to California for a year as a technical liaison, he jumped on the offer. Santa Barbara was the place that triggered his need for a sailboat, “While living there I thought, what a great place to have a sailboat.” So buy a boat he did.

John explains, “So I bought this sailboat, but I didn't really know how to sail, but lots of people around did.” After taking some of these weathered sailors out with him, letting them sail his boat while he watched, John finally got the hang of it.

Over the next few years, his job and new jobs would take him to Los Angeles from 81-83, back to Santa Barbara for a job that was a “little sketchy”, and then doing consulting work in a jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena. All the while going back and forth to Santa Barbara and taking his little boat out and about, never “Losing touch with the ocean, a place where I can always get lost in relaxation,” John reminisces.

John took jobs in many other places but always ended up back in Santa Barbara. Whenever he was away, he made sure to go back once a month, and during one of those trips in 1985 he realized, “Going was a pretty fun thing I was able to do, and I met some people that talked about having a boat built in Taiwan, so I decided to go there and look into having my own boat built.”

November of 1985 took him to Taiwan, and he went boat shopping. After choosing a shipping yard where he could customize his yacht, from its trims to where the rooms would be and how many, it took a little over a year for the boat to be ready. January of 1987, the boat was finally ready to set sail. So John along with two of his friends christened the boat and sailed the boat to Hong Kong for some finishing touches.

The real fun began after everything was finalized and they journeyed to the Philippines for a month. His plan was to sail for a year, but after going from Island to Island, continent to continent, he just couldn't stop. The trip went like this, Philippines -> Pilau for a month -> then to Yap and some outer islands of Micronesia -> Truk Lagoon, Bona Pai, Tobalo -> Fiji Islands -> American Samoa -> Tahiti -> and then back to Tonga and Fiji -> Australia -> then back to the Solomon Islands and Papa Niugini -> and then Truk Lagoon, all in about two and half years.

During his Voyage a woman came into his life, and her name was Yvonne Visser, a crazy blonde hair, green eyed beauty. They met in September of 1989, in Truk Lagoon, and after they met John was hooked. He stayed in Truk Lagoon for about 4-5 months and to some other surrounding islands, before deciding it was time to visit her where she lived in Key west, Florida.

Convincing was the easy part, I mean who wouldn't want to spend 3 months in the Philippines on a sailboat with a handsome sailor bum. John went a month before her, and sailed the boat to where they would complete their dive trip. So for the few months they had together, their love for each other grew.

Airports hold a special place in their hearts.

John tells me, “I knew I had to go back to the states after the Philippines, so I started proceeding in that direction,” it was time to get back to reality. Before heading back he stayed in Pilau with Yvonne at his side until he was ready for the transit back home. In July of 1991, he began a transit that would take him 35 days and sail around 5,600 miles, with few stops along the way. He was a man on a mission.

When he reached the states, Santa Barbara, they agreed that they would meet at the Denver airport where her parents were flying in so that he could meet them. She thought that John would only be meeting them, but he had other plans. Plans that involved a proposal. After 35 days at sea, and then a 17 hr drive to Denver, John Meyers proposed to the love of his life.

From having nothing, to finding the drive and the courage to finish school, and graduate from a highly regarded engineering school, to buying his first sailboat, and then having his second made, John Meyers did it all. He worked and he adventured, and along the way met the person who would help him continue his adventures through life.