John Neal was born on the banks of Sudan's Blue Nile River, but sailed away from Seattle on a 27' sloop to the South Pacific in 1974 at age 22, wrote Log of Mahina, a best seller, and has since sailed 257,000 miles. Since 1976, John's passion has been sharing his knowledge of ocean cruising to exotic locations. John has conducted 128 sail-training expeditions since 1990 in the South Pacific, Patagonia, Antarctica, Atlantic, Scandinavia and the Arctic aboard Mahina Tiare II & III.

A business venture begun as “Mahina Cruising Services” quickly moved into the arena of selling boats and yachts. “Mahina Yacht Sales” evolved from this early effort and the business is now owned and managed by Dave Carleson, who works both offices; Bainbridge Island and Port Townsend, Washington with a staff of enthusiastic brokers.

John and his kiwi wife Amanda now lead sail-training expeditions worldwide aboard their Hallberg-Rassy 46, details at www.mahina.com.