they traveled to Gibraltar, Tenerife, Antigua,
Cage had long dreamed of cruising the
world, but to make it happen, there were
obstacles to hurdle, both personally and
professionally. “Before we left, I was at the
height of my career, but I knew the time
was right to go,” he says. “So I requested a
leave of absence and prepared myself for the
possibility that I could lose my job. It took
courage, but courage is necessary to get the
ence’s adrenaline flowing. “If you can fire
people up, there’s no limit to their personal
growth. That’s always been my MO. Sailing
is a metaphor for so many things,” says
Cage, now 47, “but from my perspective,
the cruise emphasized my belief that many
people never achieve the things they want
to because they dream vaguely, and dread
specifically. Some want to retire early or have
a happy marriage or travel the globe, but
they’re vague about how to get there, and
they allow dread to distract them from doing
the work and the planning required. I’ve
learned you need to be highly intentional
about your dreams.”
Panama, the Galapagos, the Marquesas, and
Tahiti, among other ports, and ended up in
Cairns, Australia.
Now back at his job and with a world
cruise under his belt, what’s next for Cage?
“We felt like we rushed through the South
Pacific, so we’d like to go back. Next time,
it will be just Pat and me. That’s the plan.”
— JEANNE CRAIG
PAT MUNDUS &
EARL VOORHEES
PAT MUNDUS is used to questions about her father. His exploits are said to have inspired the character of
Quint, the shark hunter in “Jaws,” although
they were not quite as portrayed in the book
and movie. Fishing for giant sharks with
barrels and a harpoon gun? Absurd. Frank
Mundus fished for giant sharks with barrels
and a hand-thrown harpoon.
The Cage family, then and now.
“I’ve been the daughter of the monster-
man pretty much my whole adult life,” she
laughs. In the fishing community of Montauk,
New York, it was a sort of rebellion when her
own boating interests led her to sailboats. “I
thought my father was going to run me out
of the house. He said that sailing was for
seagoing tourists,” she says. “So I went to the
Caribbean. I pretty much ran away to sea.”
One of the perks of her job was earning
a day of paid vacation for every day worked.
She spent those vacation days sailing with her
PHOTO: THE CAGE FAMILY
beginning. You had to land on the beach and
schlep all your stuff up the hill,” he says.
“It’s about a quarter-of-a-mile across the
harbor to get to the mainland, so if you want
to go anywhere, you’ve got to get in a boat.”
To that end, Thomas keeps several boats,
including a 23-foot center-console sportfisher he calls the cocktail cruise boat; his
wife Evy’s 18-foot lobster skiff; and a 16-foot
Novi flat-bottomed workboat. “I put Honda
four-strokes on everything. They have to
be in perfect condition because we rely on
them like cars.” — A.D.
“Every new
generation
refreshes the
world”
THE CAGE FAMILY
“THE TRIP WAS BRILLIANT, and I was literally in tears when it ended,” says Jeremy Cage of the 16 months he
spent sailing around the world on a 43-foot
catamaran with his wife Pat and two young
children. It’s not necessarily the sort of thing
you’d expect to hear from a senior executive
at PepsiCo in Purchase, New York, but then
Cage isn’t your average senior vice president.
In June 2007, he and Pat cast off lines from
the south of France with their son and daugh-
ter (ages 12 and 10 at the time) as crew. They
spent four months in the Mediterranean
sharpening their seamanship skills before a
series of long, open-water passages. Then
things you really want.”
Cage’s request was approved and he
was able to leave at a time when he felt his
children — Bradley and Elena — were ripe
for the adventure. “They were old enough to
help out onboard and enjoy the experience,
but not so old that they didn’t want to spend
time with their parents.”
Since he and the family returned home
in the fall of 2008, he relishes the opportu-
nity to share his blue-water experiences with
others. He speaks at yacht clubs up and
down the East Coast, at Mystic Seaport, and
other venues that attract those who dream
of spending more time at sea. A natural
motivator, Cage knows how to get an audi-
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