What's Luck Got To Do With It?

In September 1979, newlyweds Michael and Sharon Metcalf set out on a yearlong adventure at sea on their yacht, Mystic Isle. From the California and Mexican coasts to Hawaii, they navigated through serious mechanical problems midocean and a nasty hurricane until they reached the Hawaiian Islands that they explored for several months before returning to San Francisco. Logging 10,000 miles over 290 days was challenging; it instilled life lessons that prepared them for their years ahead. Written on their 40th anniversary, this book relates how they planned, prepared, hard sailed, made friendships, and, most important, how they learned self-reliance, faith in each other, and perseverance.

Michael French Metcalf is of old New England heritage; sailing was integral to his boyhood. Educated in Concord, Massachusetts, and at the University of Pennsylvania, he served in the US Navy and received masters and Ph.D.

degrees in civil engineering from Stanford University. After a long career in the petroleum industry, he entered public service for the town of Moraga, California, where he and Sharon have lived for 35 years and raised their family.

Sharon Bartlett Metcalf was born in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and raised in Florida. Also immersed in sailing, she studied architecture at the University of Florida and has a degree in English literature from the University of North Florida.

Her career in architectural design and construction management sent her west; she met Michael in 1978 in San Francisco—where they hatched their dream of an ocean voyage.