Hello Peppin

A warm welcome to our latest sponsor, Peppin Boutique, who have provided us with some lovely clothing goodies for Rocket and Indigo [...]

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…

Dolphin Watching

While our boat is out of the water, prepping for leaving New Zealand shortly, we're heading south to visit some friends. First stop is Auckland and the lovely folks from s/v Dolphin of Leith, who we first met in the San Blas islands of Panama more…

Saltwater family

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,…

Birds of paradise

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…

Cover girl

Just a little post to show that one of our images is gracing the front cover of Ocean Navigator magazine this month, along with an article on anchoring inside [...]

You can take the girl off the boat…

...but you can't take the boat out of the girl. It may come as a surprise to learn that that are long stretches of time when we are not sailing. World cruising comes with what I refer to as ‘go times and slow times’, which are largely [...]

Ship shape and Bristol fashion

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 [...]

Flying the flag

Jess is in this month's Yachting Monthly magazine as the only female member of the panel contributing to an ensemble article called "How to anchor like an expert". 8 sailing pros were consulted on their techniques and [...]

They say you can never go home again…

...and they're probably right. For us a 'quick' trip back to renovate our London flat while living in it with our two teeny ones has turned into a somewhat epic battle of [...]

Sick of the sea

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…

The impromptu bank holiday

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…

Alright me old mucker…

With various parts of our boat strewn across Whangarei and a new arrival in the family we thought that it was time to check in with the folks back in England. Flying for over 30 hours with a 2 year old and 6 week old infant in tow is no easy move,…

Haul or nothing: boat in bits

The New Zealand winter and having a new baby crew member meant that we weren't going to be sailing on the boat for a little while. This makes for a perfect time to haul out and do some routine maintenance as well as address any [...]

Un-capturing the magic

Sailing is no longer an isolated venture. Every cruiser seems to have a blog, a Facebook page or an Instagram account that can broadcast their breath-taking images of picturesque settings, sending them worldwide in a second. And why do we [...]

Good things come to those who wait…

For those of you who have been eagerly awaiting some news on this page, we just wanted to let you know about the safe and sound arrival of [...]

A model baby

A few months back, before our epic roadtrip, we did a series of photoshoots for our good friends at gDiapers. Neither of us is new to photography, however it was our first experience in professional product shoots, producing images that were [...]

Gearing up to it

Some ruefully call cruising “mending your boat in exotic locations” or say B.O.A.T. stands for “bring out another thousand”. However, despite an element of maintenance to sailing life, it needn’t be a discouraging amount of [...]

Putting faces to the names

While in Wellington on our recent travels we were able to pop into the Phil & Ted offices and finally meet our supporters there face to face. They provided us with both a highchair and playpen to experiment with on our journey as a sailing family.…

4,000 miles later…

10 weeks. Our 'little' roadtrip all over NZ became an epic 10 week exploration - and we didn't even see much of the North Island! We had our first autumn for 4 years, had snow down in Fiordland, slept in the [...]

The best bit of travelling

While on the road I had an article published in 'The Natural Parent' Magazine. One of the other contributors to this magazine was lovely enough to reach out and get in touch with us, offering us any help she could as we are new to New Zealand. We…

A warm welcome to Wishbone

James, Rocket and I had the great pleasure of meeting Jenny and Rich of Wishbone Design Studio during our recent visit to Wellington. These like-mided designers have let their parenting experiences and ethos lead their product development resulting…

Sailing Today

We're thrilled to announce that as of July 2015 Jess will have a regular monthly column in UK publication "Sailing Today" Magazine. This is in addition to the 10 other sailing, parenting and lifestyle magazines that articles of [...]

Bump in the road…

So why a roadtrip? And why now? You may well ask. Well, it's important to us to see as much as possible of New Zealand in honour of our second boat baby being born here. Plus, it's lovely to spend some quality family time together, just the three of…

Life on the open road

There are go times and there are slow times. This time last year we were prepping for crossing the South Pacific ocean, which dominated our 2014. Having safely reached New Zealand in late November we decided that to do justice to this beautiful…

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…

Out with the old, in with the new

Three and a half years at sea hasn't actually been particularly hard on us so far, I think we're looking ok. However, the same can't be said of our galley. All our pots and pans were old, second, third and fourth hand when we left and, by the time…

Life upriver

Whangarei is just a little way north of Auckland and the town basin dock lies 15 miles upriver from Whangarei Harbour mouth. This means it's a perfect spot to have your boat for a while if you're planning on any big boat projects or other work as…

In praise of domesticity

New Year has found life on board becoming all about 'boat sweet boat'. It's a natural progression after being on the go for 9 months across the Pacific that we're using cyclone season and our arrival into New Zealand to have a little down time.…