They frequently sail their Tartan 37 sloop, Night Music, from Fairfield Harbour. N.C., on local waters, to the Outer Banks, Chesapeake Bay and Maine.

          Twenty years ago the petite woman now 75, skippered their 41-foot Island Trader ketch to Europe.

          "All our friends were taking trips to Europe. When Bernie said, 'Let's go in our own boat.’ " says Ruth, a retired remedial reading teacher. "I was thrilled.  I'd been dreaming of such a voyage for 15 years, taking Power Squadron classes and reading everything I could about voyaging." Bernie, mindful of the two weeks he spent in a lifeboat after being torpedoed during World War II, upgraded the sloop and replaced whatever might fail.

            When he couldn't leave [his Detroit-area podiatry practice], Ruth and an all female crew sailed the boat from Michigan to New York.  There her male crew boarded for the crossing.  “We sailed into unbelievably bad weather: two fronts crashed together,”  Ruth recalls.  “The wind was so strong you couldn’t stand up on the deck,  so I turned the boat around and run with three warps and a 45-pound Danforth [anchor} astern.  That slowed us from 9 to 4.5 knots.”

            Ruth communicated with Bernie by ham radio during the voyage. When she reached the Mediterranean, the crew flew home and Bemie flew over to join her.

            "For me that was a very meaningful trip," Ruth says. "I'm a strong woman, and this was a chance to prove myself."

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    The Levins sailed the Med all summer, hauled their boat for the winter, and returned the next summer to sail another four months. Ruth and a crew then sailed the ketch back to Detroit (Bemie had flown back earlier because of a medical problem). 

          Ruth was 30 before she learned to sail.  It was a long, hard process, because of a depth perception impairment and severe arthritis.  "My love of sailing came naturally, but I just couldn't learn to tell where the wind was coming from," she says.  I persevered because I loved being on the water." 

          The "Admiral" was a successful teacher.  Ruth took to sailing like a duck to water, though she can't swin.  Over the years they sailed, raced and cruised a series of boats— an 18-foot Alacrity sloop,   a 24-foot Shark, 25-foot Red-line, 30-foot Morgan 30/2, the Island Trader and their current Tartan 37.

   "We were the first married couple to sail in the Mackinaw Island Race," Ruth says, recalling one race aboard Calamity (their Morgan 30/2]. "That year the wind was up, so we were flying our flower-decorated spinnaker, we four wives were sunbathing on deck in bikinis, one husband was barbecuing steaks on the stem and the other three were sailing the boat when we passed a 600-foot tanker. Ten guys lined up on the rail with binoculars. One hollered down, 'You guys are sailing some race!"

       "We had a lot of fun. Bernie took a lot of time off in the summers. We sailed on the Great Lakes, and our kids became outdoor people. One daughter earned her captain's license."
 
       When Bernie retired in 1985, Ruth wanted to sell everything and live on their boat. They'd set it up simply — when the mainsail drops it folds up like a Venetian blind. All 12 color-coded lines lead to the cockpit. Ruth steers perched on two fenders so she can see over the dodger.

        "I defer to Ruth, [who navigates with a sextant, though the boat has GPS]," says Bemie.  She adds, "If I feel firmly, he'll go along with me. He knows so much more than 1 — I learned to sail from him. We trust each other. We fight only over who gets to steer."

       "The boat has a swing keel, very little weather helm and goes well to weather — 35 to 40 degrees with the board up," Bemie says. Night Music draws 4 feet, 2 inches with the board up, 9 feet when it's down for beating or racing.

         "It sails marvelously," says Ruth, "though I wish it had a larger interior."

         Perhaps that's why they built a house in Fairfield Harbor. Bernie fulfilled his dream of keeping his boat in his front yard.  They have easy ocean access and can sail almost all year."  After you've sailed in Europe, you're not content to sail in a dammed-up reservoir," he says.

       Their architect daughter designed their three-bedroom, 2.5-bath brick home at the head of a protected cove, directly across the harbor from the Fairfield Harbor Yacht Club.
 

Bemie built the boardwalk that leads to their dock, Night Music, their Zodiac and the10-foot sailing dingily the couple built together in a community college woodworking class.

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        Before they discovered cruising, the Levins planned to retire to New Mexico where they had skied for 40 winters.  So their home’s white interior walls, the tile floors they laid and their collection of Native American art creates a Southwestern ambience.  Bernie’s finely crafted furniture, worthy of inclusion in Fine Woodworking magazine, contrasts with his primitive-style wooden animal sculptures that decorate the house and grounds. 

        The central dining and living rooms overlook the water.  Both the kitchen/den wing and the master bedroom suite open to a wraparound waterfront deck.   "I added benches all around the deck so there’d be plenty of places for people to sit,” says Bernie.  “Who has 50 chairs for a party?”
 

They enjoy breakfast in the sunny nook off the kitchen.  Sliders in the breakfast room open to the deck.            A photograph lined staircase leads from the entry hall to the loft above the dining room.—Bernie’s “men-only” retreat.  “I’ve never been up, not even to clean it,” says Ruth.   “He’s  responsible for that.”   She thinks his loft contains his desk, hundreds of books and gym equipment.  Bernie only smiles.

Photos and the cigar store indian, Herman, decorate the stairway to the loft, Bernie Levin's "men-only" space.

           Ruth has taught sailing and navigation at the yacht club for 10 years.  “For the first eight years I didn’t take men in my classes,” she says.  “Men intimidate women.  If men yell, women end up doing nothing.  If women don’t do anything, they don’t learn.”  "I want my students to be self-sufficient, not to depend upon modern conveniences, because something always breaks down. Then you 're upset or stuck," she says. 

           Bernie adds, “You don’t know how relieving it is to know my wife is competient.  I can read a book, take a nap, whatever.”

           Her pet peeve is people who cruise with only money, not sense or training.  “I want my students to be self-sufficient, not depend upon modern conveniences, because something always breaks down.  Then you’re upset or stuck.”  She says.
 

         The Levins usually sail alone, in order to meet the locals at whatever port they visit.  As a result, they have friends all over the East Coast and Europe.

         “It was an adventure moving to Fairfield Harbour,”  says Ruth, who spent 37 of their 54 married years living on the same block.  “I cried for 10 days, then we began meeting people.  Many [residents] are retired corporate executives who’ve moved 30 times and have lived all over the world.  They’re wonderful, warm, caring  people , the neighbors who stop to chat and who bring food when you’re sick.”

The front door opens into the entry hall and waterfront great room;  a carport and two-car garage (right rear) flank the living room.

          Bernie enjoys the gated community’s two golf courses, as he’s taken up golf again.  (Also on-site are two marinas, swimming pools, tennis courts, mini-golf, restaurants, yacht club and time-share condos.)

           I love this community,” says Ruth.  “We’ve been here 17 years, and I’d like to stay here forever.”

Sliding glass doors in the waterfront den lead to the wrap-around deck that Bernie buiilt.  The Levins display some of their Native American artifacts around the great room's fireplace.

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