Seattle - Sandi Henry and Raye Newmen: A Love Story
July 1, 2013 at 10:01 p.m.
Sandi Henry and Raye Newmen have a love story to tell—not only about each other, but another, intertwined story, about their adopted hometown of Seattle.
Sandi: “I am retired and living in Seattle with my husband, the love of my life, Raye.” Sandi is from a small Connecticut town, Raye from Milwaukee.
“Our lives converged in Washington DC. This is the story of our odyssey to Seattle.”
In 1999 Sandi built and was managing a large UNIX network system for all worldwide Navy Federal Credit Union atms. Raye, with PhDs in Human Performance and Computer Systems, had designed systems for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon. He held a position as a Chief Knowledge Officer at a major company in the Washington DC area. “We came together, after 10 years of brief acquaintances, in late 1999,” says Sandi. On the eve of the new century, the two were locked up together all night in a server room monitoring Sandi’s UNIX system as centennials emerged in different time zones around the world. After that night, they knew… “We were committed to each other then,” she reports.
Sandi visited Seattle when she could, where her foster family was living at the time, but those family visits rarely showed off the city. “I really didn’t even realize there was so much water!” she exclaims. When she took Raye to Seattle in 2000 for his introduction to the family, they discovered how ill her foster mother had become.
“We decided then and there to uproot and move to Seattle to help out,” she says. “I sold the condo and took early retirement.” Raye quit his job, and they bought a house in Kirkland.
Sandi’s foster mother lived for five more years. By then, instead of moving on as originally planned, they realized another love story had blossomed.
“I’d like to express what it is about the Pacific Northwest that to me is unmatched by any of the other places we explored,” says Raye. First, he remarks on the Northwest’s beauty and grandeur. “Sandi and I both have a love affair with the snow capped Olympics and Cascades, the three magnificent volcanoes we can see from Puget Sound, the majestic forests of tall trees that dwarf those on the East Coast, and, of course, the water. And it’s not just water but a highway to lifelong exploration to some of the most interesting and beautiful cruising spots on the planet.”
Living in the Northwest allowed Sandi and Raye to indulge their love of the water. “We joined the Bellevue Sail and Power Squadron…we leased a 34-foot full trawler,” says Sandi. “We cruised, studied currents and winds and waves as a 7 knot trawler can go backwards in Puget Sound if it is not handled properly. Meanwhile, we volunteered on Mallory Todd, a 65-foot schooner that takes out nonprofit groups for free…Raye became a captain and I was crew.”
Ever captivated by the water, in 2007 they bought their dream boat: a 60-foot 90 ton single screw 1949 North Sea Trawler out of Ventura, Calif. “We gave away all our belongings and moved aboard in November,” says Sandi. Their maiden voyage ended at 4am off Point Dume, Calif. with 3-foot flames shooting through the deck. During the lengthy (uninsured) repairs, Raye spent time obtaining his 100-ton Captain’s License.
Many cruising adventures and misadventures later, in spring of 2010, the couple found live-aboard moorage in San Francisco Bay. When the manager of the marina fell in love with their boat, they decided to return to Seattle without their beloved trawler, but not without further adventures on the water. “Raye captained Mallory Todd and I crewed, doing what we love best – taking out the non-profit groups for free. Then we started crewing on Virginia V.” 2010 also brought new twin grandsons in Singapore where the couple moved for nine months to help the young family.
By June 2011, Sandi and Raye returned to the East Coast with the intention of settling there to be near friends and family. “We searched from Connecticut to DC looking for the perfect place,” says Sandi. “The Atlantic is nice, but after living on the Pacific and Puget Sound…we could drive a whole day on the east coast and never see a volcano, or a mountain, or a 150-foot tree. Sometimes I felt like I was in Lilliputian land – and I grew up there!” she adds. The decision was made: “to go home.” They arrived back in Seattle in July 2012.
Raye expands on why Seattle has become the best retirement destination for them: “Climate. Yes, those from elsewhere delight in poking fun at our cloudy and rainy weather. But as all locals know, when it is beautiful here, as it can be at any time of the year, it is breathtakingly so. Furthermore, there is a great deal to be said for climatic moderation in this new age of weather extremes. We seem to be almost immune to the damaging and often deadly storms that plague other parts of the country with seemingly greater frequency each year.”
He and Sandi also appreciate Seattle’s neighborhoods and public transit. “We enjoy living in a small town within a big city,” he adds. “Our preferred lifestyle is to walk to every service we need and most of what interests us. In neighborhoods such as Ballard, this lifestyle is alive and flourishing. Currently, we don’t own a car and have no desire to. Zipcar meets our occasional automotive needs nicely. On a day-to-day basis, Seattle’s bus and expanding light rail systems take us wherever we need to go quite conveniently. Our travels and experiences elsewhere showed how rare this is and how much we appreciate it here in Seattle.”
Raye goes on to describe their interest in historic preservation coupled with expansive growth. “Having owned an historic wooden vessel, we deeply appreciate the efforts of Northwest Seaport and others to preserve our maritime heritage.” At the same time, they are glad to see redevelopment of areas such as South Lake Union. “Expanding housing and commercial development downtown also ensures a vibrant central city with an attractive multiuse waterfront,” says Raye. “These are aspects of city life we enjoy, unmatched by any of the other places we’ve explored around the country. So, that’s why we’re back and that’s why we’re likely to stay.”
Sandi agrees. “Every day of our lives we see two mountain ranges, at least one volcano, and water and islands and boats. We have beauties like Arthur Foss, Virginia V, and Swiftsure to admire and dream about and even work on. Having a boat would be nice, perhaps beyond our means now. But our dreams carry us on – now isn’t that the real retirement dream?!”
Sandi and Raye volunteer with Northwest Seaport, a maritime heritage center with a historic floating fleet moored in Seattle at Lake Union Park. For more information, visit nwseaport.org