Alden Blair

In agreeing to allow himself to be used as his father’s excuse for building the Maggie B, Alden made two demands. He now joins the crew to fulfill the first: being allowed to sail her around Cape Horn (the second being allowed to mutiny and put the captain ashore will wait for warmer climates).

A perpetual nomad, Alden’s history has seen him amongst others as an Outward Bound instructor, wilderness medic, aide on Capitol Hill, architect, congressional campaign manager, and most recently building comprehensive health centers in the central African Nation of Burundi. His jack of all trades approach to life looks to serve him well aboard the Maggie B, whether he is needed to cook, sail, navigate, fix an engine, sing a song, tell a (perhaps wholly inappropriate) joke, defend himself from hyenas with an ipod (a true but somewhat involved story), or any of the other myriad of tasks that keep a crew and ship going.

There is the remote possibility he will one day slow down and settle into a more focused path (though where is the fun in that?), but for now Alden is content to see where the wind and waves take him.