 By Susan Klein, Globe Correspondent
April 28, 2005
The night they met, Mark Handley — born and bred on the flatlands of Illinois — told his future wife, Judy, he had two dreams: to build and live in a log cabin in the mountains and to sail around the world. A year later, they were living in a tent in Idaho, building a cabin 3 miles from the nearest road. Thirty years later, they are on course to realize his second dream. They live year-round on their sailboat in a Charlestown marina and plan to set off for the South Pacific next fall after Mark, 62, retires as president of New Hampshire Public Radio in Concord. Until recently, he was also chairman of National Public Radio. He and Judy, a school district administrator, commute together to New Hampshire.
After Idaho, they moved to Washington, D.C., where Mark headed children’s educational programming at PBS. Fleeing city life, they then built themselves a farmhouse in rural Minnesota, grew their own food, and took up dog-sled racing. Then they built another log home on a 40-acre spread in West Virginia to live near Judy’s ailing mother.
Their last home on terra firma, a rented house in Concord, had a swimming pool in the living room. ‘‘We’ve done a few different things. None of them were my idea,’’ says Judy, 58.
The Handleys began sailing on the Chesapeake in the 1980s while Mark founded a radio station in Maryland. They bought their current abode, a yacht named Windbird, in 2001 and moved aboard full time in 2003.
She measures 42 feet from bow to stern and about 12 feet at her widest.
‘‘Even in the winter, walking down from the car to here, it’s like you’re on vacation. You’re outside, in the fresh air,’’ says Mark. ‘‘There’s something about a boat that does say freedom and, by its very nature, independence.’’
Up on deck, there’s a circular cockpit amidships with comfortable white cushions and gleaming teak trim. October through April, Windbird is shrinkwrapped in translucent plastic to protect the deck and help keep the occupants dry; the plastic sheeting turns the deck into a high-ceilinged hothouse. In February, the couple hosted a Super Bowl tailgate party here for all the neighbors before heading to a nearby trawler to watch the game.
Down below, the main salon is paneled in teak and its built-in settees are upholstered in teal. Quarters are tight, but there’s no lack of homey touches, such as the photos of their daughter’s wedding that hang in silver frames. Bread dough rises under a damp dishtowel in the galley. A white, lacetrimmed duvet and shams cover their bunk in the aft cabin.
There are latched cubbyholes aplenty to keep things from hurtling across the cabin when Windbird is under sail. The Handleys have devised elaborate spreadsheets to track where they’ve put everything. Off-season clothes and furniture are in storage in New Hampshire.
The couple’s children and their friends are frequent guests. Heather, 29, is doing post-doctoral research in marine biology; Justin, 27, is a musician and composer. The Handleys have fit as many as seven for holiday sit-down dinners.
Winter evenings, the Handleys are usually in the salon, hunched over laptops with wireless Internet access planning their voyage or keeping up with work. On summer evenings, they putter up on deck varnishing, polishing, and chatting with neighbors. ‘‘We’ve had probably the most vibrant social life we’ve ever had since we lived aboard,’’ says Mark. In the summer, the Handleys and their neighbors often shove off on Saturday afternoons and anchor overnight in a flotilla by some harbor island.
The Handleys occasionally tear themselves away from boat projects to walk or catch a ferry downtown. Stepping out to survey the panorama of wharves, warehouses, and condominiums, Judy says, ‘‘I love living here. I’m not a city person, but I love it here.’’
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