September 29, 2017
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…
September 20, 2017
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 [...]
September 1, 2017
Sailing the Solomons
There is always a squeeze point in our sailing plans. Although we try to avoid sailing to deadlines there are larger forces such as cyclone season, monsoon season or the turn of the prevailing winds or currents that force our hand. That’s one of the…
August 20, 2017
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…
August 9, 2017
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…
August 7, 2017
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…
July 20, 2017
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 [...]
July 20, 2017
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…
July 10, 2017
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 [...]
July 1, 2017
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 [...]
June 30, 2017
Number 33
We arrived in Aneityum, the most southerly island in Vanuatu, after an 8 day passage from New Zealand. Instantly the layers of stress and worry that so acutely mark the preparation stage for leaving a country were shed as quickly as the layers of…
June 20, 2017
Going overboard
“Bagpuss is floating away!!!” Comes the fervent cry from our daughter. Every sailor has a plan for a man overboard situation. You consider how you’d manoeuvre the boat to recover someone from the water and the process for getting them safely back…
June 10, 2017
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…
June 5, 2017
It takes a village
Our lovely friends at gDiapers asked us to take part in their podcast series called "It takes a village to raise a parent". They interviewed us, asking questions about [...]
June 3, 2017
What it’s all about
May 30, 2017
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…
May 24, 2017
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 [...]
May 20, 2017
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…
May 11, 2017
Dot dot dot…
We've had our heads down for quite some time, prepping for departure. Leaving New Zealand after so much time is a big deal for us for a number of reasons. It'll be the first sailing outside of NZ waters that we've done as a [...]
April 24, 2017
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…