September 26, 2020
Happy new year!
Wait, what? Let me explain...There is the calendar year, January to December. There is the financial or tax year, April to March. And then there is the boat year [...]
August 1, 2020
Another Imray live event
Following on from the success of my talk on "juggling pilotage, parenting and [...]
June 7, 2020
Hooray for dolphins
It doesn’t matter how many years I have lived at sea, what oceans I’ve sailed or the lands I’ve visited, I will never, ever tire of seeing dolphins. I’ve encountered them in flat calms, when the very [...]
May 10, 2020
It looks like rain
Sometimes the life of a liveaboard sailor seems completely at odds with that of a landlubber: things that may seem simple in our boat lives may be infinitely more complex in a house. Likewise, there are subjects that appear trivial when you live on…
April 30, 2020
The scenic route
You’re going sailing? Fantastic! Where to? I hear Hawaii might be nice, or how about the Azores? Will you simply follow the [...]
March 29, 2020
Treading water
I don't tend to write blog entries in the style of "we're here and we're doing this". I prefer to [...]
March 19, 2020
Out of control
There is nothing quite so daunting as suddenly being at the helm of your own boat for the first time. When it came to the 44 footers that I had first sailed on I was comfortable that my steering was effective, that my understanding of wind…
January 20, 2020
Exactly this
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,…
December 9, 2019
On bravery
I suppose it must be true that sometimes it takes seeing yourself and your life through another person’s eyes to admit and accept certain facts. I don’t consider myself to be a particularly [...]
November 25, 2019
Peek-a-boat
We all imagine that we are alone on our boats. Gently swaying at anchor, with the sun shining down, lulls us into a false sense of [...]
September 30, 2019
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 [...]
September 3, 2019
New money for old rope
I simply adore swap meets. The traditional car boot sale or antiques market in land-lubber life has always had a certain appeal but they are always plagued with the business of having to root through all the junk to uncover something useful. By…
August 5, 2019
Uncommon courtesy
We sailors love our special bits of rules and etiquette don’t we? From COLREGs to radio speak, the yachting world is littered with hints and tips of best practice that help the novice adjust to this whole new language of sailing. But whilst [...]
July 1, 2019
Climate change
Cruising full-time has moments where you seem to go from one extreme to the other. It’s a feeling that I tend to associate with the weather; acclimatising to one set of conditions only to be [...]
June 4, 2019
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines
After the ghoulish curiosity for questions about storms and pirates abates, people are always interested in our engine. And it’s often with a tone of [...]
May 2, 2019
The storm before the calm
Ahhh, the sailing life. The imagined carefree bliss of cruising through gin-clear waters, of sunsets in secluded Caribbean anchorages, of whitesand beaches in the South Pacific, dolphins dancing at your bow wave whilst the steady tradewinds carry…
April 4, 2019
Trash soup
Sailing gives you the opportunity to have your eyes opened to different cultures, exotic new flavours and languages, enabling you to learn new ways of thinking and being. This constant education is the single most fulfilling thing about our cruising…
March 1, 2019
Row, row, row your boat
To row or not to row? That is the question. Getting your dinghy from A to B, from boat to shore, is an everyday occurrence for any liveaboard. But, although seemingly [...]