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Between Sand and Sea

  • Writer: Dan Feltham
    Dan Feltham
  • 17 hours ago
  • 2 min read


In the spring of 1976 I was working for IBM in Honolulu — a surfboard strapped to the roof of my light-blue Mustang most mornings, fins and trunks in the back seat for after work — when my manager called me into his office with an opportunity. Three weeks later, after a stop at the US Olympic Sailing Qualifying Trials on Lake Ontario and a sleepless night in Manhattan, I stepped off a plane at Dhahran International and the July desert heat hit me like a blowtorch.


Between Sand and Sea is my midlife memoir of the two years that followed: working as IBM's Eastern Province Marketing Manager and Country Systems Engineering Manager in Saudi Arabia, principally on the giant Aramco account, while living in the Juffahli expat compound in Al Khobar. It is also, unavoidably, a sailor's book. The 1976 Olympic Trials open it. The Royal Saudi Yacht Club on the Persian Gulf threads through it. The long flights and longer Pacific passages back to Hawaii close it out. Along the way you'll travel with me to Kashmir, India, central Iran, France, and Northern Europe, with detours into Middle Eastern history and a working understanding of Islam and the Qur'an. A few wishful love affairs are mentioned, without too many details.



I have come to think of life as a jigsaw puzzle of considerable complexity — far more than the typical thousand pieces, and rarely with the box-top picture in plain view. The years 1976 to 1978 were a particularly strange and rewarding stretch of mine: Vietnam not long behind me, IBM's mainframe business settling into the Middle East, and the Kingdom on the threshold of an oil-money transformation that would help remake the modern world. I have squeezed what is here from the hidden pockets of a ninety-year-old grey matter. Everything written is true, or as best as I can remember.


 
 
 

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Author Dan Feltham

DanFeltham77@Gmail.com

© 2025 Dan & Kerry Feltham, KFMorrison

 

BIO

Dan Feltham has had an extensive and diverse career. Born in Long Beach, California, and raised in Southern California, he began sailing at the age of sixteen. He received a B.S. in Geology from Stanford University and then attended UCLA. Feltham joined Fairchild Aerial Surveys, where he worked on exploration geology assignments in various international locations such as Sicily, Morocco, Libya, and Iran. In 1962, he joined the IBM Corporation in Los Angeles. His career at IBM spanned twenty-five years, during which he held various systems, marketing, and management positions, including assignments in Hawaii, Kwajalein, Guam, Southeast Asia, Saudi Arabia, and Los Angeles. After retiring from IBM, Feltham transitioned to a career in real estate with Coldwell Banker. Eventually, he retired again to focus on writing. His love for sailing continued throughout his life, and he often cruised, raced, and owned sailboats. He currently lives in North County San Diego, happily focusing on his writing career.

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