Part 2: About Us
Now that we’ve introduced our topic, allow us to introduce ourselves! We are Michael (dad) and Vienna (daughter), the duo behind Clean Wake Media. Leaving a Clean Wake is our first project, but we have many more in mind.
The Harveys aboard Atalanta, c. 2005 (left to right: Rhiannon, Michael, Ginny, Vienna)
Back in the day, the Harvey family—parents Michael and Ginny, plus daughters Vienna (7) and Rhiannon (5)—spent four years living aboard the good ship Atalanta, a 43-foot Wauquiez Amphitrite ketch. Sailors are a superstitious bunch and rechristening a boat is not a matter to trifle with, but Shangri La, our boat’s original name, did not capture our family vibe. Wanting a good, strong, girl-power name, we chose “Atalanta,” after the famous heroine of Greek mythology who could run as fast as the wind, in addition to being an all around badass. Not that we’re biased at all, but Atalanta was the best boat ever. After casting off the docklines in August of 2001, we completed a partial circumnavigation of North America—Vancouver Island to Nova Scotia, via the Panama Canal. We determined our route more or less as we went and, without ever really intending to, literally washed ashore in Norfolk, Virginia.
The good ship herself
Along the way, we became fully immersed in the cruising community. Since everyone was subject to the same vagaries of wind and current, we encountered the same people repeatedly, often buddy-boating (or bungie-boating) with each other for stretches of time, rafting our boats together at anchor so we could easily hop back and forth. One memorable Christmas, a whole little flotilla of sailboats anchored together in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, and we all rowed around the anchorage in our dinghies as we sang Christmas carols. Friendships form fast, and can last, quite literally, across oceans. Like many communities of niche interest, cruisers tended to give each other the benefit of the doubt: assuming that anyone crazy enough to be out there in the first place was probably someone worth getting to know.
This will be a theme we return to repeatedly in the months ahead: that all of us, no matter our histories and backgrounds, deserve the benefit of the doubt, that we should approach each other with open minds and a desire to find what unites rather than divides us.
Best boat buds
Among the cruising community, we discovered a long-standing concept of “leaving a clean wake.” In its most literal, simplified interpretation, this can refer to your boat’s actual wake: no one wants to see trash or oil bobbing along behind and around your boat. More broadly, though, cruisers held a collective belief in leaving a clean wake in life, not just in the water. When we moved back ashore and rejoined the landlubber life, we took this philosophy with us.
Although we’re all currently based on the east coast, we—Michael and Vienna—are both west-coasters at heart. Michael grew up in Santa Cruz, and Vienna spent several formative childhood years in Washington and the first nine years of her adult life in the Bay Area.
Michael backpacking in the Sierra Nevada, 2017
Michael had a few sailing lessons as a kid, but didn’t take it up seriously until he moved with Ginny to Seattle in the late 80s. After learning to sail ocean-going boats together, it was Ginny who initially suggested that they could actually do some long term cruising, but only if it came with the promise of having children first! So along came the kids, and along came the boat. It worked out pretty well for everyone involved.
The sailboat years marked Michael’s “first retirement” after several years on Wall Street and at Microsoft, but once we were back ashore he was back to work, joining the C-suite of New York ecommerce agency Corra until his second (and hopefully final) retirement in 2024. These days Michael spends his time making music, adventuring, and serving on the boards of multiple local non-profits.
Vienna on aerial sling, 2024
Vienna followed in Michael’s footsteps as a backpacker, Stanford student, and tech worker. After graduating with honors from the Stanford Program in Science, Technology, and Society, she spent several years living in California and working for Silicon Valley startups, both in-person and (since 2020) remote. While not a programmer or engineer herself, Venna maintains a deep interest in the tech space, especially around the ethics of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and self-driving cars.
She may be a techie in some ways, but Vienna is also an artist. She’s spent most of her life writing and taking photos, and has dipped in and out of many other creative pursuits, from ceramics to quilting. Over the years Vienna has also cultivated an interest and involvement in the performing arts, including directing and choreographing for multiple urban dance teams in the Bay Area, working with a local theatre company on several productions, and teaching aerial sling and trapeze.
We’re the pair behind Leaving a Clean Wake, but Ginny and Rhiannon get up to lots of cool things too! Ginny is a multi-entrepreneur, currently running a college admissions advising business called Atalanta Advising, after our boat. If you have or know someone with a high school student, send them her way! Rhiannon is a professional mariner and currently working on her debut novel. Check out her adventures on her website and Substack! Actually, Rhiannon beat us by 13 years as the face of Leaving a Clean Wake: she gave a TEDx Youth talk on the subject when she was 15! You can watch it here. It’s short, sweet, and pretty eye-opening.