It all comes out in the wash

We’re back in the UK, enjoying the reunions with family and friends that our brief sojourns from our ‘proper’ life at sea allow us. And there is one acquaintance that I must admit I am incredibly glad to see again – a washing machine. Not a bucket,…

We’d get nowhere without fuel

Remember the fuel page on our old format website? Well this season's sailing that took us from New Zealand to Lombok, via all the islands of Vanuatu, the Solomons, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, saw some major sea miles and some long, lingering…

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…

Risky business

When embarking out on cruising life you will inevitably come across a certain amount of nervous questioning about your plans. Stepping from the safety of the land and onto the wildness of the sea tends to be perceived, quite rightly, as waving…

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 [...]

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 [...]

Yum yum yum

When your family onboard includes a Londoner with a rare and supreme talent in the kitchen, another Londoner with a great appreciation of good food and a Californian who likes to experiment with new flavours you know that the average mealtime is not…

Expect the unexpected

The first lesson of parenting is really to expect the unexpected. Funnily enough, the exact same can be said of liveaboard sailing. One of the great challenges of sailing out from a country like New Zealand and on to remote islands like those of…

Portrait of a cruiser

Our community of boat folk has certain 'go-to' resources for sailing knowledge and advice. One of these is the website called Noonsite, the 'global site for cruising sailors'. It's a [...]

Cabin fever

I know that one of the things it’s hard to get your head around if you don’t live on a boat is how a couple or even a family could be comfortable in so little space. The living area equates to far less than a tiny studio flat and yet we all seem to…

Rub-a-dub-dub

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…

Change is in the air

Autumn is here. For three years in the tropics we missed the changing colours that the turn of season brings. It wasn't until our camping trip all around New Zealand that we were able to re-familiarise ourselves with that shift of light, and time…

Back to reality

I wake to find that we are the only boat at anchor in this spot. Our yacht hangs in a mere 3 metres of clear turquoise water, nicely enclosed by an island to either side of us. There’s sand, pebble and shell, which appear [...]

I can see clearly now

“Did we actually just miss the Pacific altogether?” I ask James in disbelief. The reason for the question is that we’ve made a little change on board with a big result. We’ve changed the acrylic on some [...]

Hard tack and ship’s biscuits

This weekend has been all about feasting on good food with great colours. Super fresh and gorgeous, and all without a weevil in sight! Perhaps not what [...]

In between jobs

Occasionally we get a proper weekend, free from boat jobs. This last one was all about making. Making food, making dens, making pictures [...]

Water babies again

James teaching Rocket how to balance and hold the paddle. Indigo clinging on to the bow on a [...]

Busy boat life

Some days are all about staying in and playing Duplo [...]

Boat-themed-boat

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…

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 [...]