Multi-tasking

As I mentioned a little while back I'm currently working on [...]

Return to the South Pacific

No, you didn't read that wrong but it doesn't quite mean that we're setting a course back eastwards either. A number of [...]

Extra extra, read all about it

We are gracing another magazine cover this month. The July issue of Australia's "Cruising Helmsman" magazine has a 6 page spread of my article on "The coconut milk run" about crossing the Pacific ocean and a photo of our boat taken from the top of…

Food glorious food

Since moving on board, choosing to live and sail full-time, we both agree that we have never eaten better in our lives, despite being two foodies from London. The test of a gourmet galley is how to cope with the challenge of a long sea crossing and…

Smoothly does it

So, in typical sailor fashion, after meticulous planning of our Fiji to New Zealand passage, making sure we had extra crew on board and timing our departure just right in terms of weather, it ended up being really very straightforward and simply…

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…

A hop, a skipper and a jump

A while back a friend of mine wrote a post on her blog that was called “Love letter to my captain”. It was an acknowledgement of her appreciation of just how much work she realised her husband did on board when he needed to fly home to the States…

Safe and sound

Yes, we made it! We are safely at anchor in Baie Tahauku, Atuona, Hiva Oa. Our passage across from Punta de Mita, at the northern tip of Banderas Bay in Mexico, took 26 days in total, covering a distance of 2,850 nautical miles. It wasn’t quite the…

No trade

So now we wait. We have got ourselves into the happy position that both the boat and her crew are ready for the crossing from Mexico to the Marquesas. It’s just that the wind isn’t. The right forecast will be one that gives us Northerlies or even…

Ready to launch

Any day now there will be a big move. And I don’t just mean us finally setting off for the South Pacific. Rocket is officially starting to crawl. She’s yet to be caught in the act of the classic all fours crawling, hence no photograph. But she’s so…

All about Gill

Two new parents crossing an ocean with a baby and a Hydrovane? Well, not quite. Having not actually done any sailing with little Rocket we thought it wise to have a bit of extra help for the first 2,700 miles in the long stretch from Banderas Bay to…

Haul or nothing

Just when you’re getting ready to cross the largest ocean in the world the last thing you want to deal with is an unexpected costly and crucial repair. Now, I don’t think you need to know as much as we do about boats in order to be aware that a…

Where, Pacifically, are you going?

As you may be aware we're hoping to head across the Pacific starting this March. But, one thing that we've been asked on a number of occasions is how these exotic places all relate to one another and when we'll get to each one. A sailor's plans are…

You can’t go home again…

...except for the holidays. We've decided that, as we've been away from merry old England for over two years now, it was time for family and friends to see our tanned, smiling faces and meet our baby girl. All the more important as [...]