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Alan Boreham
New Zealander “Hollywood” Bob Rossiter has a history of life on the sea. From his home in Auckland, he made his way as a fisherman, sailor, and ferryboat captain. Bob spent time around the Polynesi...view moreNew Zealander “Hollywood” Bob Rossiter has a history of life on the sea. From his home in Auckland, he made his way as a fisherman, sailor, and ferryboat captain. Bob spent time around the Polynesian islands, both as a fishing guide and a sailor, before moving to Marina del Rey, California, to work as a shipwright on yachts of the Hollywood set. There he met distinguished actor Hal Holbrook, leading to their voyage across the Pacific to New Zealand.
Bob had a marine services business in Hawaii for many years. From this base of operations he also worked as a delivery skipper, transporting yachts between Hawaii and California and from Hawaii to Vancouver, Alaska, and Japan. While in Hawaii, Bob studied acting and had parts in television commercials filmed there.
Bob retired from full-time marine work in 1995 and moved with his American wife to the Arkansas countryside where he still does some consulting work. They are making plans to retire for good to their property in New Zealand.
Peter Jinks left his home in the south of England at seventeen to immigrate to Australia. By the time he met Bob and Alan, he had spent almost half his life on the road. When he was short of cash, he started a window-cleaning business in Denmark, worked as a freelance photographer in South America, Russia, and Japan, and as a crocodile hunter in Costa Rica.
Back in Sydney, Peter went from selling end-of-line shoes for cash in the local flea market to a partnership in two top-grossing city shoe stores. Along the way, Peter was featured for a time as the Foster’s Man in Foster’s Lager television commercials and has done other acting parts.
Married in 1989, Peter and his wife have two daughters and have lived with them in the Cook Islands and Bolivia. An entrepreneur and still an ardent traveler, Peter and his family live at Bondi Beach in Sydney, where he owns a real estate consultancy, specializing as a buyer’s agent for top-end residential properties.
Alan Boreham emigrated from England to Canada with his family when he was two. He grew up on Vancouver Island off the west coast, spending a lot of time on the water with his father and friends. After completing a degree in civil engineering at UBC in Vancouver, he began his travels with a trip back to England. Following three years of work, he left for the voyages described in Beer in the Bilges.
Alan returned to Vancouver in 1983 to resume his career in fisheries and the environment, which ranged from building salmon hatcheries and managing programs for Aboriginal fishers, to participating as Canada’s national correspondent for the Canada-U.S.A. Pacific Salmon Treaty. He also served for ten years as a director of Cooper Boating, Canada’s largest sailing school and yacht-charter company, and volunteered with the Canadian Yachting Association to train sailing instructors.
Retired in 2010, Alan lives in North Vancouver where he does some consulting, and keeps busy as a writer and travel columnist for Canadian Teacher Magazine.view less