Welcome to our Personal Web Site

 How it all began!

     "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."  

Well, I didn’t compose it, George Washington did! From these wise words we derived how senseless life would be pursuing an eight to five ritual. The Goddess of opportunity may give us a chance only once in our lifetime; we couldn’t afford to miss it. With thirty-odd years of age, the time was right. We (my wife and I) built ourselves a boat – not very big; 20 feet – and off we were on the greatest adventure anyone could hope to experience. This voyage--3-1/2-years,  37,000-miles--is chronicled in our book.

West! Sail West, Man! 

What makes us tick?  

We are Siggi (Sigrid) and Hein Zenker, originally from Germany. Siggi was born and raised in the Ruhr Valley; Hein in the eastern part of Germany, near the city of Dresden. Both of us immigrated to Canada in the early fifties. Siggi pursued a secretarial job whereas Hein worked carpentry and mining jobs. In 1959 we started building our boat--Thlaloca (an Aztecs Goddess of water)–which we eventually sailed around the world. After the completion of the circumnavigation, and a voyage to Europe and back, we settled in Virginia, US. for many years where Hein started a general contracting business, and Siggi a job as dental assistant. There we sold our little ship and built our present boat–THLALOCA DOS .  

Not only was the voyage the culmination of a dream, it whetted our appetites to do a lot more. Realizing that a twenty-foot boat was far from ideal we decided building a much larger craft. 
The chosen design is the Good Hope by Maurice Griffith of the UK.; a man we regard as a top-notch designer of truly outstanding cruising boats--not racing type vessels that had no place in our envisioned future lifestyle as "live-aboards."
The design was modified by me, and among other things, include a clipper bow, and her measurements are: 40ft. x 11'10"x 5'3" cutter rigged. It took 29 month to complete the vessel. Her sailing life, of more than 50,000 miles so far, include 4 Atlantic crossings and numerous trips to the Caribbean and Canada . She proved everything we expected of her.

    (Photo by John Sharp)

                                                  Updated 07/2010