December 24, 2019
The hospital ship
The first lesson of parenting is really to expect the unexpected. Funnily enough, the same can be said of liveaboard sailing. Often our travels see us going from one extreme to the other in terms of available supplies as we’ve sailed both to big,…
January 1, 2018
Risky business
When embarking out on cruising life you will inevitably come across a certain amount of nervous questioning about your plans. Stepping from the safety of the land and onto the wildness of the sea tends to be perceived, quite rightly, as waving…
October 1, 2017
Like a fish to water
Living on a boat with kids means that you’re in and out of the water a lot. It’s a welcome way of cooling off from the heat of the day in the tropics or calming down if the children have got a bit wild. It’s our backyard, our swimming pool, our…
September 20, 2017
The sun has got his hat on
“Oooh, aren’t you lovely and brown!” our families cooed in awe soon after we started our sailing adventures. Funnily enough, their admiration actually made us turn rather pink with embarrassment as, in our books, that meant that [...]
August 7, 2017
The den gets a makeover
When your boat is 27 years old and you're the fourth owners it's understandable that you'd make some changes. When your time onboard has seen you transform from a carefree cruising couple to growing your crew en route and now sailing as a family…
June 20, 2017
Going overboard
“Bagpuss is floating away!!!” Comes the fervent cry from our daughter. Every sailor has a plan for a man overboard situation. You consider how you’d manoeuvre the boat to recover someone from the water and the process for getting them safely back…
May 30, 2017
Expect the unexpected
The first lesson of parenting is really to expect the unexpected. Funnily enough, the exact same can be said of liveaboard sailing. One of the great challenges of sailing out from a country like New Zealand and on to remote islands like those of…
August 30, 2016
Our littlest crew…
...Has finally had his first passage. We made the trip up from Whangarei to Opua over a few days via Urquharts Bay, Tutukaka Harbour and Urupukapuka Bay in the Bay of Islands. The kiddos are adjusting to [...]
July 21, 2016
The family car
We once left a taxi driver in St. Kitts dumbfounded when we explained that after getting out of his cab we’d be hopping into our dinghy to get to our yacht, lying at anchor. “You got TWO boats?” was his astonished response, “You even got a boat to…
July 6, 2016
Boat-themed-boat
I’ll never forget stepping on board our boat for the first time. Sure, I’d seen countless photos. It was me who found it online, added it to our list and urged my husband to visit it even though, at the time, it was out of our budget. The images of…
June 26, 2016
Hello Peppin
A warm welcome to our latest sponsor, Peppin Boutique, who have provided us with some lovely clothing goodies for Rocket and Indigo [...]
June 3, 2016
Dolphin Watching
While our boat is out of the water, prepping for leaving New Zealand shortly, we're heading south to visit some friends. First stop is Auckland and the lovely folks from s/v Dolphin of Leith, who we first met in the San Blas islands of Panama more…
February 10, 2016
Ship shape and Bristol fashion
I have never been a neat freak, nor was I very messy in my land-lubber life. However, living on board a boat does teach you the advantages to being that bit tidier. But it’s a lesson that you only learn by getting it spectacularly wrong to [...]
April 7, 2015
Bump in the road…
So why a roadtrip? And why now? You may well ask. Well, it's important to us to see as much as possible of New Zealand in honour of our second boat baby being born here. Plus, it's lovely to spend some quality family time together, just the three of…
March 9, 2015
A family at sea
Here's the 'mum profile' interview I did for our friends at Nature Baby. The full piece can be found on our 'Mothership' page, in the Nature Baby entry or you can go to the site [...]
January 7, 2015
In praise of domesticity
New Year has found life on board becoming all about 'boat sweet boat'. It's a natural progression after being on the go for 9 months across the Pacific that we're using cyclone season and our arrival into New Zealand to have a little down time.…
June 16, 2014
The unpredictable child
Sometimes having a baby feels like damage control. You can easily spend a whole day consoling your howling infant from their latest fall, pre-emptively snatching away all the tempting unsuitable objects that they manage to get their sticky hands on…
May 11, 2014
Water babies
When our families in the UK mentioned to others in conversation that we were expecting our first baby in Mexico, while sailing around the world on our boat, the news was met with shock, awe and interest. Yet, while adapting to our new roles as…
November 20, 2013
Role play
A few years ago James and I were walking along the cliffs of a Cornish seaside town and I glanced out to sea at a sailboat on the horizon. “We could just buy a boat and sail round the world”. That sentence changed everything. He quite rightly…
September 28, 2013
Here, there and everywhere
When our little daughter, Rocket, was only four weeks old we had to unexpectedly fly to Mexico City and I found myself in the rather bizarre position of breastfeeding her whilst walking to join James in a queue at the airport. Yes, we have a baby on…
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