Seabee71.com  

100 Nautical Miles Northwest of Bermuda. Wind 35 kts, seas 15 to 20 feet. November 2009. Captain Lyman at the helm of Searcher, his Bowman 57 ketch, bound for another winter in the Caribbean, this time with his wife, Julie and their two kids: Renaissance 12, Havana 10. Lyman tuned 70 the day they arrived.

The Author:

Writer, Photographer, Entrepreneur and Sailor.

Navy Journalist (JO3) David Lyman, 1967, 27 years old, with his new 35mm Nikon F, a 35 mm Nikkormat SLR and a Nikonos underwater camera, on assignment in Vietnam.

Since the Navy . . .

I left Seventy-One a few weeks after we arrived back from Vietnam, and was released from active duty on November 26, 1967—on my 28th birthday.

     I immediately went to work as the Communications Director at Mount Snow, a large ski resort in Vermont--doing pretty much what I did with the Seabees--made the outfit look good. Two years later, I became the Publisher/Editor of The Goose City Gazette, a weekly newspaper in Southern Vermont. Two years later I became the Editor of a national ski magazine, The Student Skier.  I wrote stories about and photographed skiers, mountains, resorts, racers and the environment.

     In 1973, I founded the Maine Photographic Workshops, a summer school for photographers, filmmakers and writers, located in the small coastal village of Rockport, Maine, ln 1975, the summer school became a year round learning center. In 1996, the school added Rockport College, a conservatory for the world’s creative media professionals. I was the schools’ director for 34 years. It continues to this day as the MaineMedia.edu.

     Soon after being discharged from the Navy, I bought my first sail boat, Quinta, a 34-foot Alden and sailed her up and down the New England coast for ten years. Then  came a series of larger boats, Fair-Thee-Well, Afaran, and finally Searcher, a Bowman 57 foot ketch. With these boats I ventured offshore making dozens of voyages between Maine and the Caribbean.  Over the years, I became a professional Captain in the Merchant Marine delivering yachts for others.  Now, I could call myself a real sailor (as opposed to an enlisted Navy sailor).

     I continue to photograph, ski, sail, and explore. These days, I’m looking back at a long career as an entrepreneur, sailor,  storyteller, and writing a series of memoirs.  

     I eventually married and have a son and a daughter, both heading off on careers-- my daughter off to sea as a captain  and my son off to the UK as a soccer player .

     If you were with me in Seabee71, or if we ran into each other on some wild adventure, please send me an email, and tell me what you've been up to.

Lyman, 2017, at 77 on assignment in Scotland. (Photo by Renaisance Lyman, daughter)