MoonriverIII.com - The Story

THE STORY OF MOON RIVER III

Jo Ann and Toby met in 1962 at the tender ages of 13 and 15, respectively, at a school bus stop in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Everyone said it was puppy love that wouldn’t last, but they were married in 1969 and have been happily married ever since.

Shortly after they met and started “going steady,” Andy Williams came out with Henry Mancini’s and Johnny Mercer’s block buster song, Moon River. These incredible lyrics became their song, but more importantly provided a road map for an adventurous life together that lay ahead:

Moon River wider than a mile
I’m crossing you in style someday

Old dream maker, you heart breaker
Wherever you’re going I’m going your way

Two drifters off to see the world
There’s such a lot of world to see

We’re after the same rainbow’s end
Waiting around the bend
My huckleberry friend, Moon River
And me

The “two drifters” moved to Washington, DC after college and, in 1972, relocated to Honolulu, Hawaii where they had their two children, Jason and Michael. With Honolulu as a home base, they traveled extensively for five years throughout the Far East and South Pacific.

After two domestic assignments in San Francisco and Washington, DC, the desire to see more far off lands grew stronger until Toby joined the Foreign Service in 1984. Two years later they were assigned to Nairobi, Kenya where they lived for six years and traveled to numerous East African and Middle Eastern countries.

The Jarman clan went around the world together three times (by plane), and collectively traveled to over 140 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, South Pacific, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. In 1992, they returned to Washington, DC where Toby had more job responsibilities but less travel—Toby and Jo Ann needed a different passion.

That new passion manifested itself in boating and a whole host of new friends with the common denominator of their love of the water. Two power boats, named Moor River and Moon River II, carried the Jarmans up and down the Occoquan River, the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay for the next four years.

With retirement drawing near, and their two children moving out on their own, the empty nesters decided to purchase Moon River III, a beautiful new 46-foot Ocean Alexander trawler. In 2000, Toby and Jo Ann sold their house and moved aboard their new floating home. They lived in the Gang Plank Marina in Washington, DC where they walked to work every morning and returned in the afternoons to the beauty of the Washington Channel and the friendships of the residents of the other 110 “live-aboard” boats.

Two years later, Toby and Jo Ann retired and became “snow birds,” traveling on Moon River III up and down the Eastern Seaboard, the Florida Keys, the Gulf Coast and the Bahamas without a permanent home base. They have now merged their three passions—their love of travel, the water and each other—into a unique nomadic lifestyle.

With the aid of this website, designed and launched by son Jason, you are welcome to share in the adventures of these “two drifters off to see the world” and “… the same rainbow’s end”.