log

Living aboard full-time means that sometimes even the simplest of tasks isn’t straightforward. Like having a shower. Unlike many other boats, we don’t have a water-maker on board so the fresh water that we carry is a precious, finite amount stored…

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…

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…

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…

The stereotypical view of a sailor usually implies a fairly solitary, perhaps lonely existence. One man on his boat gives the impression of being a hermit, quite private, choosing a quiet life away from others. Even we, sailing as a family of four,…

A life on board presents you with many chance encounters with animals. Stumbling across a pod of dolphins or catching sight of a whale are magical moments, which we find ourselves recounting to friends at the next port. But the more constant visitor…

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 [...]

It’s often surprising to me how many people say that they’d love to do what we’re doing and go out sailing long-term to far-off exotic lands but are unable to because they suffer from seasickness. Yet, what’s more unexpected perhaps is that I reply…

Getting out on the water and sailing is a pursuit that most people have to save for their time off. It represents a respite from their other life of being defined by their weekday job and makes every weekend, every summer break and each public…

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,…

I have long been aware that there is a fine art to anchoring well. It’s something that varies with each boat, each anchorage and the conditions that you’re presented with and it’s only on the rare occasions that someone gets it wrong that you truly…

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 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…