Your hosts Dave & Charly Holmes
Captain Dave KB3HXL
Hailing from deep in the heart of Texas, Dave knew he was going to be a
schoonerman since he was around 8 or so, when he glued his little nose to the tube
watching Adventures in Paradise,
although he never set foot on any
sailboat until he was grown. Other careers and interests came and went but
schoonerin' was always the recurring dream.
Fresh out of an aborted college freshman year at the University of Texas and Uncle Sam beckoning, Dave enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and spent four years documenting Air Force activities on motion picture film. During his last year of service, he and a friend began building the 20 foot Friendship Sloop Bluenose, which still holds a prominent place in Dave and Charly's lives, safely now in storage at Pleasant Plains Farm.
Early in the construction Dave's partner Steve Fryberger left to resume his studies. Dave finished Bluenose and sailed her from Washington D.C. where she was built, to Annapolis, Maryland. He found employment shortly upon arrival as a joinerman for a company building cold-moulded racing sailboats.
One afternoon, Dave walked downtown and found at the end of the City Dock the
gaff-rigged schooner Western
Union, and it was love at first sight. A mate's position was offered and
accepted. 
Western Union participated in Operation
Sail 1976, and was in New York Harbor for the Bicentennial Celebrations. Chartering the
Chesapeake Bay in the Fall of '76 and sailing offshore to St. Thomas came next. On the
return voyage Western Union was dismasted, but all lived to tell
the tale. (Dave's account may be on this site in the future.)
The next several years saw a succession of boat deliveries and time as deck officer on
Navy and Environmental Protection Agency research ships, culminating as first mate on the Antelope,
now Peter W.
Anderson, a converted Asheville Class Patrol Gunboat.
It was time now to go ashore and pursue a new career, and a new relationship with "Admiral" Charly. Dave started building musical instruments in 1979 and spent the next 12 years making primarily guitars, harpsichords, clavichords and pipe organs to critical acclaim. Concurrently he established a letterpress printing shop and published four limited edition hand printed books. The recession killed what little business there was, and the new responsibility of a family had made the pursuit of filthy lucre a necessity. Taking on odd jobs and desperate for meaningful employment, Dave fell back on an old hobby, electronics, and got work as a troubleshooter of printed circuit boards. Within a short time, he was acting as an electrical engineer, designing and programming industrial parts counting and packaging systems for Batching Systems of Owings Maryland. Dave later was employed designing and programming consumer electronics products with DesignTech International. He has two U.S. Patents to his name.
Since July 2002, Dave has devoted full time to the "Pursuit of Happiness"! Since then, he has had the time and inclination to resume playing and singing folk music, a pursuit laid aside many years earlier. He is developing an extensive repertoire.
"Admiral"
Charly
Charly was born in the horse country of Northern Virginia, to be near her mother. Raised in steeplechase country, she wanted to be a "girl jockey", outgrew the notion but remained a tomboy to this day.
Attended college everywhere over the years, studied anthropology, fashion design, boat finishes, everything that interested her. She married journalist Bob Andrews, lived in London England for several years and then came home to raise daughter Susan and son Stewart.
Charly and friend Carlyle Clinger started a fashion design business, CeCe Designs, and made everything except money!
Charly met Dave 1980 when a friend bought Bluenose and moved
to Annapolis. She founded Renaissance Designs to market
specialty tote bags made by Marty's Bag Works,
and spurred the design and official acceptance of the Annapolis city logo, well known to
sailors of the east coast, along with Linda Lee Graphics. She owned and operated a
successful property management company, Chase Company until also
devoting full time to the "Pursuit of Happiness".
Upon re-acuisition and rebuilding of Bluenose in the 90's she had a crash course in the care and handling of an old fashioned gaff-rigger, and was deservedly appointed Admiral by the captain. Charly has a great love and talent in the culinary arts, and regularly creates unique and tasty delights as evidenced by the inexorably increasing waist of the captain!