Jane Russell trained as a research biologist and taught science before undertaking a 5-year circumnavigation, via Panama and Suez. More recently she and her husband took their two children on a 15-month return voyage down the Atlantic coast and around the Western Mediterranean. She has worked for the RCC Pilotage Foundation since 2007 and is their current Editor-in-Chief. She was the author of the 6th edition of The Atlantic Crossing Guide.

The Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation was founded in 1976 with the objective of advancing "the education of the public in the science and practice of navigation." Its members write--and keep continually updated--pilot books covering many different parts of the world.