NAVIGATE LIFE
WITH INTEGRITY
& PURPOSE
“Leave a clean wake” is an important maxim for bluewater sailors. Leaving a clean wake can be literal (don't discharge plastic or sewage overboard) and metaphorical (leave local people eager to welcome the next cruisers to visit). At its most resonant, though, leaving a clean wake exhorts each of us to leave the people and places we encounter better off for our passage through the world: as bosses, as parents, as partners, and ultimately as citizens of the world.
This website and newsletter is our small attempt to spread the word.
WELCOME ABOARD!
OUR GUIDING COMPASS
THE CORE VALUES
THAT DRIVE US
We believe that “leaving a clean wake” provides a guiding principle for living an authentic, intentional life in accordance with one’s deepest values.
Here are some of ours.
Ripple or swell, tempestuous or calm, whether we realize it or not, each and every one of us cleaves an unavoidable wake as we sail through life. What might the world be like if each of us tried just a little harder to leave ours cleaner?
News headlines can be so grim that protecting the environment might seem like a lost cause. It isn’t. And when we care for the planet, we also care for each other. Together, we can write our own headlines.
Like that of a ship, the wake we leave unfurls ever wider, touching other people, other living things and, ultimately, the planet and beyond. Whether we like it or not, we are all truly in the same boat.
We all start life full of curiosity. The average child asks 40,000 questions between the ages of two and five. Life is a grand adventure. Why ever stop asking why?
ABOUT LACW
MEET THE
FOUNDERS
Vienna
Harvey
Michael
Harvey
We are Michael and Vienna, the Boomer dad and Millennial daughter behind Leaving a Clean Wake.
For those who don't know our family's backstory, we were supremely fortunate to spend four years living aboard Atalanta, our beloved 43' cruising ketch. We cast off the dock lines in Seattle when Vienna and little sister Rhiannon were seven and five to circumnavigate Vancouver Island, head down the west coast of the US, Mexico and Central America, transit the Panama Canal, bash our way across the Western Caribbean, ride the Gulf Stream up the east coast of the US into the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, and out the St. Lawrence Seaway, before running out of time, energy, and money in Norfolk, VA... which we still call home.
With a shared passion for intentional living and deep-rooted connections to life on the water and outdoors, we encourage people to live with purpose and integrity. Drawing from our personal experiences, we offer thoughtful guidance and practical insights to help others make meaningful choices aligned with their values.
