Laura grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with an insatiable wanderlust and the influence of the ocean, boats and waterways of her hometown. Her father’s career as a Port Everglades Pilot gave her early exposure to working on the water and a love for the culture of the sea. Her first boat job was on a tourist boat at age 17 when she started to realize that working on boats could be her ticket to see the world.

After earning a science degree, Laura followed her dream and the call of the sea. Achieving her 100-ton USCG master's license at age 23, she logged 20,000 nautical miles over several years working as crew, watch officer, or captain on a variety of vessels: traditional sailing schooners, small tourist boats, racing yachts, megayachts, and expedition ships. Laura lived in Newport, RI for multiple seasons where she began racing on J24s, worked on 12-meter sloops, and spent a spring season racing throughout the Caribbean. Landing a position with Lindblad Expeditions, Laura worked for three years on National Geographic small-ship expeditions where she served as a Deck Officer standing watch and driving zodiacs in Southeast Alaska and Baja’s Sea of Cortez. Deciding to take a break from the merchant mariner’s life, she dropped anchor in the San Francisco Bay Area and began working in sales and operations for an international adventure travel company.

At the start of the pandemic, Laura left the travel industry and returned to working on the water in and around San Francisco Bay. She is a freelance captain-for-hire, an ASA sailing instructor, and an avid racer on SF Bay.

She was childhood friends with Samantha Wall, Pam Wall’s late daughter; and the first time she slept on a sailboat was sailing with the Wall family on KANDARIK in the Florida Keys during high school spring break.

Sailing around the world is still on her bucket list!