Leigh Dorsey and Dameon Colbry are co-owners of Rowing to Wild and consider themselves lucky to be part of the vibrant rowing community of Belfast, Maine. They met while rowing in a 32-foot Cornish Pilot Gig owned by ComeBoating!. Together, they rowed the 750-mile Race to Alaska in 2019 as Team Backwards AF, and have each completed the race a second time since then: Leigh on Team Don’t Tell Mom in 2022, and Dameon on Team of One in 2023. They share a passion for open-water rowing, especially when it involves camping on wild islands off rugged coastlines.
Both are Registered Maine Sea Kayaking Guides, which is the guide classification that covers all paddle sports that take place on saltwater in Maine.
Fueling up before our thru-row of the Maine Island Trail in 2018.
Leigh graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and developed multiple skillsets during her five years of active duty service, first as a deck watch officer on a sea-going buoy tender, and later as a passenger vessel inspector and marine casualty investigator. Her Coast Guard training has proven handy for navigating the hazards of currents, wind, waves, and vessel traffic that small human-powered boats must negotiate with particular care. Leigh has been rowing for more than 20 years, and since 2015 has enjoyed providing rowing instruction to beginning and experienced rowers alike (in both sliding seat and fixed seat rowboats). She is Wilderness First Aid and CPR certified. She has completed the 750-mile Race to Alaska twice in a sliding-seat rowboat, most recently in 2022 with her sister Clare as her partner. When she is not rowing or coaching rowing, she enjoys cooking, reading, gardening, writing, hiking, and doing just about anything (or nothing at all) with her daughters Rose and Della.
A native Mainer, Dameon graduated from the University of Maine and has been a registered nurse for 18 years, serving 16 of those years in critical care units. He is currently employed by Life Flight of Maine as a flight nurse. Dameon began rowing in 2016 and took to it like a seal to water. He has completed the 750-mile Race to Alaska twice, most recently in 2023 as a solo competitor in a sliding seat Savo 575 rowboat he built himself. Conveniently (given our rowboat addiction), Dameon is a boat builder and has built two Savo 575 singles, one custom Savo expedition quad, and also made the expedition modifications on our custom Savo 650 double. When he is not rowing, building boats, or saving lives, Dameon likes to cook, split wood, stack wood, and burn wood in our woodstove. He also enjoys biking, hiking, and unwinding in his homemade sauna.
Starting in 2017, we began going on longer and longer rows in our home waters of Penobscot Bay on Maine’s midcoast. Our first “long row” involved a 30-mile circumnavigation of Islesboro. Next we started dabbling in overnight rows, camping on islands made accessible to the public by the Maine Island Trail Association (MITA) and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
- In 2018 we completed a 260-mile thru-row of the Maine Island Trail from Kittery to Lubec. (Read more about that here.)
- In 2019, we completed the 750-mile Race to Alaska from Port Townsend, WA to Ketchikan, AK. More about that here.
- In 2022, Dameon competed in the Seventy48 with our friend Andrew Carpenter finishing 9th, and Leigh and her younger sister Clare were the first all-woman rowing team to complete Race to Alaska!
- In 2023, Dameon finished the 750-mile R2AK solo!
- In 2024, we officially launched our business to share our passion by taking you out on a row. Book your row with us today!
We offer our story on this website partly to keep friends and family updated on our goings-on, but also with a nod to the many stories shared by others who inspired us to row longer and go farther. Whether its rowing or biking or hiking or any other mode of human-powered exploration, we hope everyone can find a way to get out there and find a bit of wild.