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 [...]

Farewell to the boy next door

Being quite new to cruising has meant that we've welcomed the opportunities to make new friends whenever we can. We made friends for life in Laurie and Damon of s/v Mother Jones in Panama, and ended up buddy-boating with them for a few months 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…

It still rains in paradise

It’s raining today in Fiji. Or perhaps I should say it’s raining again in Fiji. In the last few weeks we’ve been making passages through the reef systems of this beautiful island group but progress has been slow as we’ve been weather dodging, trying…

The Waiting Game

First it was the strong, gusty westerlies, then there was a huge southerly swell and now all we can see is squally showers with no wind whatsoever. We’ve been sitting in the same spot, pausing until the current nasty weather system travels through,…

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…

Don’t let it break you

Our windlass has broken. There are certain things on your boat that it’s relatively easy to do without and there are others that, when they suddenly stop working, can stall your plans, your mind and ultimately your spirit. Sometimes you tackle a…

To Motor or not to Motor, that is the question

You are off the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. The moon is setting. It’s five in the morning the wind is 9 knots from the North West and you have plotted your latest position on the paper chart on the nav-table. You have travelled only seven miles…

Reputation is everything

2013 began for me by considering the two big milestones we would need to get past in order to get up to Banderas Bay for hurricane season: the Panama Canal and the Gulf of Tehuantepec. With the first of those being easily achieved, drama-free in…

Beggars can be choosers

Since leaving the UK in October 2011 we’ve spent very few nights away from the boat. In fact, in 18 months, we’d only had 5 nights that we didn’t spend on board. Our plan to sail up the Pacific coast of Central America was very much influenced by my…

On Phosphorescence

The Americans we’ve met call it bio-luminescence. When we crossed the Atlantic we talked about it as nightly green fireworks. Without doubt, one of the biggest changes we’ve felt since going from one ocean to the next is that the Pacific is brim…

Reflections on a year in the Caribbean

From our first landfall in St Lucia on January 6th 2012 to our Panama Canal transit on January 26th 2013 we have had an incredibly varied sailing experience in the Caribbean Sea. Our twelve month tour of this area took us to 15 different countries…