Captain Greg

 

Greg grew up in Springfield, MO.  The only nerd in a family of athletes, he spent his childhood up in his attic, happily constructing airplane models while listening to Rush.  After a glorious run playing high school football, he pursued higher education in Missouri, Texas, and California, eventually getting his Ph.D. in Applied Physics.  He ended up working for a company called Aliph, doing high-tech stuff with acoustics.  Aliph renamed itself Jawbone, and their Bluetooth headsets sold well, with the ideas of Greg and a few other cool people inside.  We had a hard time explaining his job to people, and in the end, Mel just started calling him a “Silicon Valley guy.”

In the end, that was just a job.  Commuting from Minnesota, where Mel had selfishly dragged him to so she could do her residency, to California, eventually took its toll.  Greg eventually stopped working at Jawbone to spend more time with his family and less time dealing with the absurdity of the business world. He still does the occasional acoustic physics and patent consulting on occasion.

Greg has many skills that extend beyond physics, patents, boat electronics, and sailing! (Mel is writing this of course.) For example, Greg fulfilled a lifelong dream on May 15, 1997, by getting his pilot’s license.  Then followed many exciting adventures as he and Mel flew around in a little taildragger to all of the great airports in California, flying over all of the poor suckers in their cars, either stuck in traffic or switching back repeatedly to climb the mountains to places like Truckee.  Of course, upgrades were necessary as the family grew, and careful planning with paychecks led to a succession of bigger and bigger planes and ultimately to the purchase of Greg’s dream plane, a turbo Cessna 210. After years of flying Greg and his family safely around the sky, “Ty” is in storage at the moment, awaiting the day when the Burnetts decide it is time to trade the sea for the sky, once again.

Sailboats have a way of challenging those with a good sense of how things work. Greg is looking forward to the challenges Jerry may throw at him. As long as it stays fun!

First Mate Mel

Mel is your blog author.  She was born in Illinois and grew up in many different states, including Alaska and Texas.

She had an extended awkward period.

This did not end, of course, when she went to Rice University and chose to major in physics.  Fortunately, Greg met her just at the end of that awkward period at a wild Halloween party, and he wasn’t scared away. Eventually Mel found herself in medical school, where she became notorious for her controversial cartoons in the school paper, The Synapse .

She married Greg after a year of medical school, after 7 years of dating.  Mel is very patient.

During an awesome neurology residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Mel and Greg spawned two adorable children, Tommy and Allie. Tommy eventually changed his name to Isaak, as that is more rock-star. After practicing neurology and taking care of many wonderful people with horrible conditions like migraines and movement disorders at the Mayo Clinic and Mayo Health System in Minnesota for five years, Mel decided to take a break. After a year of ASA sailing classes and prep, the Burnetts bought their first boat, The Amazing Marvin, and pointed him south. They then sailed 18,000 nautical miles in this beautiful Leopard 48 catamaran, homeschooling poor Tommy and Allie along the way.

After two glorious years aboard Marvin, Mel went back to work. She put in long hours helping the good people of Omaha, Nebraska, fight the terrible crud called Parkinson’s disease, as well as other horrible neurological problems. After 8 years of practice and teaching hundreds of med students and residents at Creighton, Mel was exhausted. One day, she delivered a lethal diagnosis to a patient not much older than she was, and decided that was it. With the kids all raised up and on upwards trajectories of their own, and with her health still intact, it was time to return to the sea. It had been tugging at her heart every since she moved back inland, and it was time once again to yield to Poseidon’s call.

Mel hopes Calamity and Mr. Pissypants will behave themselves this time.

Morale Officer Penelope

Penelope was adopted from the Humane Society and was likely born in 2018. She has her PhD in Cuteness and has a passion for educating those cats less gifted in eliciting Treats from their humans. You can read more about Penelope and her cuteness techniques in this post.

The Intrepid Jerry

Jerry is a 2017 Leopard 48 catamaran. This family loves Leopard 48’s! Much like the family did with their first boat, The Amazing Marvin, the entire family decided on his name. The family also decided that Jerry is a bobtail squid and ocean surveyor.

Jerry has sailed over 6000 nm with his previous owners. The Burnetts are privileged to be his caretaker and are excited to see where he will take them!

Historical Crew

The Amazing Marvin had a few additional crew members in 2015 that occasionally still crew on the boat, either in person or in spirit.

Mates Isaak (formerly Tommy) and Allie

Isaak and Allie spent two of their formative years being homeschooled by their parents on The Amazing Marvin from 2015-2017. They emerged from that trip as smart, adaptable people who can function perfectly fine without social media and can carry a conversation with just about anyone, from anywhere. In 2025, Isaak is working on his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. Allie is studying Statistics and Chemistry at Connecticut College. Both are thriving young adults. Guess their homeschool wasn’t too shabby!

Gypsy, the Original Morale Officer

Gypsy was born around the year 2000.  We are not sure, as she was a stray.  She selected Greg as her owner when he was stopped in the typical California gridlocked traffic.  She crawled up into the engine block of his truck and wouldn’t come out until Greg got his vet friend Bryan to tranquilize her.  We called her “Gypsy” based on her nomadic origins.

Gypsy loved the outdoors, wheat grass, peeing on Melinda’s coolest rugs, making art installations of beheaded baby bunnies on our porch, and vomiting. Once Gypsy was on the boat, she loved shedding, laying on a new pillow every half hour, and peeing on our beds.

Gypsy lived another two years once the family returned to land, passing away at the age of 19 after a full and adventurous life. She is dearly missed.

The Amazing Marvin

The Amazing Marvin is a 2015 Leopard 48 catamaran. Marvin sailed about 18,000 nm between 2015-2017 with the Burnetts as crew. We conceived of Marvin as a world-travelling, adventurous, but slightly uptight cuttlefish. Over the years he became part of our family, and with us he had his share of amazing adventures, mishaps, and calamity. He nevertheless emerged the stronger for it! He is still out there with a new owner and a new name, but to us, he will always be Marvin.

For more info about Marvin, please visit Marvin’s Page.