Becalmed
Where has the wind gone? There’s an eerie feeling to losing even the merest scrap of breeze. We know the familiar adage “calm before a storm” so it’s wise to be on the alert when the air goes so quiet. Sometimes, a stillness in the immediate……
Water, water everywhere
One of the most basic and fundamental needs of living on a true bluewater boat is carrying enough fresh water. You can have large tanks, you can store extra containers, you can install a water-maker or even harvest rainwater but the crucial and main…
The beach
Summer has begun. For us Brits the snatched breaks of bank holidays and family vacations send us flocking to the beach. Whether it’s the English seaside - complete with donkey rides, rockpools, and someone selling jellied eels - or jetting off to…
Worse things happen at sea
A boat is really a house combined with a car and put into an environment that constantly attacks it. Saltwater and sun destroy whatever they can without mercy. It’s a matter of constant maintenance as things will always break. Some items you can…
Fly by
Drones are a pretty amazing new piece of technology. Here's a very short glimpse of [...]
The trading post
When you come from a world of shops, fixed prices and hard currency it’s hard to imagine how you’d go about trading goods or swapping skills in exchange for your family’s food. Yet, in the last year, sailing in Vanuatu, the Solomon islands, Papua…
Thunderbolts, lightning, very very frightening…
I remember when we sailed across the Atlantic ocean and had to get comfortable with seeing lightning out at sea. It’s a rather spooky feeling, seeing those dramatic forks and flashes and remaining calm, knowing that when the sky is clear you can…
Making friends
A smile can do a lot of things. In Nissan island, our first PNG stop, we have a canoe full of kids paddling up to the boat on our first morning there. They are grinning, gleaming white smiles from ear to ear but they have little to no words of…
S-l-o-w time
The nature of the experience of travel is hugely dependent on the speed at which you move. When we first told people that we had grand plans to sail around the world, those that didn’t simply blink back at us in disbelief would nod slowly, as if the…
The outer islands
The country of Papua New Guinea is a place that’s always conjured up images of the exotic for me. From the treehouse-building Korowai tribe, to the unusual Vogelkop bower bird and birds of paradise native to this land, PNG is a place that most of us…
Maiden voyage
One thing that I’ve learned is that sailors are suckers for ritual celebrations. Crossing the Equator, cutting over the International Date Line, transiting the Panama canal and “closing the circle” upon circumnavigation are all [...]
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…
How do you know weather to go?
Our route this season takes us along some rather untouched and remote places, more so than in years before. This sometimes makes getting a good weather forecast a bit tricky. Previously we’d consult marina offices, go online where possible and…
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 [...]
The perfect wind
Sailors, true sailors, know how to grab their moments. A mere ten knots of wind guarantees them swiftly casting off the lines or, for the truly skilled, stylishly sailing off the anchor, to go out and play in the light breeze. Strengthening winds…
More Vanuatu voyages
We’ve been continuing our passages northwards through the islands, sailing from Port Vila to Mele Bay and then Havannah Harbour on Efate island, then onwards to Emae, Epi, the Maskelynes and Malekula, with a little side trip to Ambrym. We're now…
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…
V-berth vacations
The in-laws are coming to visit. Having friends or relatives coming to stay is always an interesting exercise. Visitors to a boat, however, have a completely different set of challenges to meet [...]
Turtle vid
I love turtles. One of the things that I most enjoy about our sailing travels is the ability to swim with animals in their natural environment. Snorkelling on reefs is one of my favourite things to do and it’s an added bit of magic when a turtle…
Going Bamboo
While we were in New Zealand we forged a new relationship with Go Bamboo, a company that's serious about keeping plastic out of our coastlines, oceans and landfills. Their first major product breakthrough was in designing a [...]
Missed us in New Zealand?
Didn't manage to come out to see us during all that time we spent in Aotearoa? Don't despair, our cruising in this beautiful country was bookended by [...]