DURING my tour of duty as a navy medic in Vietnam, back in 1967, I sometimes escaped the danger, boredom, and the sick and wounded by taking out a small sailboat from the beach in Da Nang. Back on land, I would hold onto the sensation of freedom and peace that sailing afforded me, and in off hours I would daydream about someday sailing my own boat around the world.
In 2003, after sequencing a number of genomes including the human genome, I found myself with the enviable opportunity of being able to meld my two passions, science and sailing.…
