Maritime Love Affair Cut Brutally Short

The Yacht Was 'Well Deserved'

The Hawkses had advertised their boat for sale in 2004 and planned to move to Arizona to spend more time with their new grandchild. They had spent the previous three years sailing up and down the coast between southern California and northern Mexico, living a life family members and friends have said was their own American dream.

Thomas Hawks, 57, grew up in San Diego County with an abiding love for the sea. His father took him on boat trips to nearby Catalina Island, according to a series of reports in the Orange County Register newspaper, which said Hawks built a 14-foot boat at age 17 and sailed it solo on an 18-hour trip to the island, 20 miles off the coast of southern California.

He met Jackie, his second wife, at a chili cook-off in Arizona, the newspaper reported. She had been in a motorcycle accident eight months before, and was in a wheelchair.

The couple fell in love and shared their mutual love for seafaring -- buying, sailing and selling a series of boats through the years.

Then they found their dream vessel, a 55-foot trawler with a "hand-carved teak interior, two rooms and a large cockpit,'' according to the Register.

Dubbing the boat Well-Deserved, the couple set out for three years of life on the high seas.

A remarkable series of photographs compiled on a memorial Web site, TomandJackieHawks.com, illustrate friends and family's memories of a tanned couple thrilled with the good fortune of their late-in-life love affair -- his rugged features and salt-and-pepper beard reminiscent of a young Ernest Hemingway; her big brown eyes and bright smile illuminating every picture.

Thomas Hawks was so excited to set out to sea on Well-Deserved that he couldn't sleep for days, according to the Register.

But after years of living on the open sea, they felt the tug of family drawing them to land.

James Hawks, a retired police chief, had recently helped his brother and Jackie sail their yacht from Mexico to Newport Beach, according to court testimony. Hawks said his brother planned on moving back to Arizona because "they had a grandson and were very anxious to spend more time with family."