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 [...]

In search of the big fish

There are certain experiences that are really best managed if you live on a boat. A snatched 2 week holiday gives you a set and finite deadline to fit everything in and, particularly when it comes to matters of wildlife spotting, you need everything…

Beneath the keel

The very fact that our sailboat enables us to live on the water never ceases to amaze me. This may sounds obvious but, like the landlubber homeowner who always wants to spend more time entertaining in their dining room, taking a luxurious soak in…

The family car

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…

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…

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 [...]

Aotearoa – land of the long white cloud

Our arrival in New Zealand saw us making landfall at Opua, the port of entry in the Bay of Islands. This was a great jumping off point for exploring these spectacular waters en route to Whangarei, where we planned to be based for a little while. The…

Underwater with sharks in Huahine

Another video post, this time in Huahine with the beautiful reef sharks [...]

Swimming with sharks and rays in Moorea

Click on the link to see a video of us snorkelling with sharks and rays in Moorea. Enjoy! [...]

On Phosphorescence

The Americans we’ve met call it bio-luminescence. When we crossed the Atlantic we talked about it as nightly green fireworks. Without doubt, one of the biggest changes we’ve felt since going from one ocean to the next is that the Pacific is brim…

The Pleasures of Passage Making

A frigate bird wheels overhead as the hazy dawn light is mirrored back by the water. The sea is absolutely still, more like a lake than an ocean, blurring the horizon so that the sky bleeds into the water. Slowly, gently, a large, old leatherback…

Read the signs

Wow, Panama City really doesn't like you to feed anything [...]

Red tide at Taboga

Ahhhhh, Taboga. Only 7 little miles from the hustle and bustle of Panama City but it might as well be another world. We like it here immensely, in fact, it wins our prize for the place we’ve liked most in all of Panama. Why? Well, for starters it’s…

Sun, sand and Santa – a month in San Blás

The San Blás islands, also known as the Kuna Yala, is home to the Kuna Indians who are in charge of the entire archipelago of over 350 islands and retain autonomy without interference from the national Panamanian government. The archipelago is…

On crazy monkeys, hungry bats and lost camels…

Isla Linton is a sweet little island with a huge anchorage almost entirely occupied by French or German boats. Strange, first we found Bocas to be full of Americans, now Linton is full of the French – are there any Panamanians in Panama??? This huge…

Me, James and mister raccoon

What are the consequences of staying in Bocas so long? Well, it means you need to do a visa run. In typical Panamanian style the rules for how to renew your visa changed in the week we were set to do it. It used to be that you had to leave the…

The kinkajou, the geckos, the jellyfish, the shark, the ferret, the kitten, the ray and Bex and Toby

You know what they say about London buses? That you wait for ages and then suddenly three come at once. Well, Panama's Bocas del Toro has been a bit like that for us and visitors. We've just had our third set of boat guest here and are about to…

Any pets, guns or jetskis?…

…Is the first thing I am asked when we arrive in Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. The question is asked in a dead pan, humourless voice, by an official at a tiny ferry dock. I am too tired to really register what is being said, so my “No…no,…